Wed 23 Nov 2005

Top stories: NHS restrictions, lies and statistics, a joke too far

Oona King is joined by Jeremy O'Grady, Michael Holden and Christina Odone.

NHS RESTRICTIONS

Should people be penalised for their lifestyle? Christina Odone argues for a 'fat tax'...

Primary Care Trusts in East Suffolk have decided to withhold hip and knee replacement operations for patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. A BMI this high constitutes clinical obesity, and treatment will be withheld until the patient loses weight.

We ask: if economics demand healthcare must be rationed, is this a fair way to do it? Are smokers and alcoholics the architects of their own demise, and do we judge them less harshly when we consider the amount they actually contribute to the NHS through taxes on tobacco and alcohol?

DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS

A report released by MORI today revealed that we don't believe government statistics. ICM tells us that 8 out of 10 of us don't trust politicians, and a 2003 MORI poll revealed that whereas 71% of us trust television news, only 24% of us trust newspapers.

We ask: who's responsible for this atmosphere of mistrust? Is it the politicians' fault, or the media? Is it in our best interests for politicians to be transparently honest, or are statistics always open to interpretation?

A JOKE TOO FAR?

A Little Britain sketch showing a woman urinating uncontrollably in a shop was criticised today by an incontinence charity for being in bad taste, on the same day that a report showed the extent to which we don't take the debilitating problem of incontinence seriously.

We ask: if something is funny, does it matter if it offends a minority? Is the context of a joke more important than how funny it is?

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