The real issues of the day: obesity, the NHS, and toilets

THE FRIDAY THING: NO politics today — I can hear the huge sigh of relief.

Ed Miliband has his fans thanks to his apparently big doe eyes, much admired by the ladies on the Mumsnet website. The real world doesn’t embrace politicians and do we really care who has the best kitchen, Ed Miliband or David Cameron?

What we should be focusing on are the real stories that turn on Britain. Did you know, for instance that we have some of the best lavatories in the world? On the other side of the spend-a-penny coin is the fact that we have more obesity than many other countries. Maybe because the folk who live in some foreign parts don’t get enough to eat (curries, chips and pasta for instance).

But as a nation we are a dismal 111th for combating obesity. Obesity is a problem here because, rather than not getting enough to eat like millions of poor souls in disadvantaged countries, we get far too much.

On the credit side (and no thanks to the politicians) we are told the UK is one of the safest countries in the world thanks to relatively low murder rates. We are also said (though I don’t know by whom) to have the safest roads.

There can be little doubt that the NHS is one of the jewels in our national crown but it is the cause of some raised eyebrows in certain quarters. For instance, GPs reject plans for seven-day opening at their own surgery. Fifteen thousand doctors have turned down the plan and we poorly folk will have to wait until 2020 for seven days a week access to a doctor. And only then if we are very, very lucky.

On the other side of the NHS, there are some quite serious anomalies.

For instance, an NHS hospital has been under fire for paying an agency nurse £2,200 to work one 12-hour shift. There are also reports of trusts paying £1,700 for a shift and locum doctors doing even better, taking home £3,200 a shift.

Presumably many NHS hospitals have to pay these huge sums of money to get the staff that enable them to keep up with the work involved in treating the sick. But can paying temporary staff a staggering £2.5 billion really be fair, just and in the general interests of the NHS and its patients?