"I have a problem but it's not my fault"

Remember Leigh Sturgiss? She used to spend her days worrying us to death of the dangers of smoking. Now she has re-invented herself as the guardian of your diet. Sometimes it is just best to ignore these pests. But the following assertion is hard to;

She questioned where responsibility for nutrition, physical activity and obesity fell if not with DHBs. "It's too big for the individual person to cope with. You need a supportive environment."

There it is in plain language. The individual is powerless and weak.

Now it is true that some of the individuals I have come across are weak and powerless but they have been made that way by the thinking and practices that surround them. Their lives lurch from one crisis to another against a backdrop of self pity and external indulgence. People like Sturgiss feed their self-justification for failure, "I have a problem but it's not my fault."

The nutrition, physical activity and obesity target for DHBs had included goals for increasing the proportion of people who ate their recommended servings of fruit and vegetables. "How can you hold a DHB accountable for that?"

A big tick for Mr Ryall on this one. I must say watching the anti-obesity campaigners put firmly on the back foot by National has been quite satisfying.