An article in todays Telegraph concerning a BBC Panorama programme looking at childhood health problems seems to have been written by either Andy Burnham or Liam Donaldson rather than an objective journalist.

It starts off with the usual health epidemic warnings :

Preventable diseases such as obesity and tooth decay among children are reaching epidemic levels, doctors at one of the UK’s leading hospitals warned today.

…

Medical staff from Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said the huge growth in the number of avoidable health complaints could lead to a generation dying before their parents.

Staff said there has been a considerable increase in the amount of time spent dealing with avoidable conditions.

Ok, so we have got the statutory mention of obesity in there as you would expect but then we have this :

BBC’s Panorama programme claimed around £1m and hundreds of hours of treatment time were being spent treating obesity, tooth decay, alcohol abuse and health complaints associated with passive smoking.

Dr Ryan told the BBC: “That’s money that we could be using to do more heart surgery, to improve the care of patients with cancer and to deal with the things that are not preventable.

I know this is Liverpool but are they really spending millions treating children for alcohol abuse or is it just a BBC staffers attempt to tick all the boxes on their government propaganda grant aid form?

Time to shoot some puritans I think before we end up as Europes only dry country.