According to figures released on New Year’s Day our nation’s obesity crisis cost the NHS some £5 billion in 2012. That’s an astounding figure and one hardly welcome to our overstretched and overworked health service.

Obesity is undoubtedly one of the scourges of the modern age but why? It hasn’t always been like this and those of us over the age of 30 can clearly remember a time when obesity was a rarity rather than the norm. There may well have been one or two overweight kids in the classroom or a couple of fatties wobbling down the high street but now they seem to comprise the majority.

Obesity has no positive side and the NHS figures clearly illustrate the dreadful damage that the clinically obese are doing to themselves as well as the cost to the taxpayer. Obviously, there are those who cannot help their weight and they deserve our continuing sympathy and respect but those who owe their gross condition to a lack of willpower in the face of crisps, pasties, chips and an endless supply of Big Macs certainly do not.

The solution to the problem is relatively straightforward since much of it is clearly down to a lack of education as well as a lack of self discipline, willpower and personal pride. The state can play a big part in this and children, particularly in state schools, need to be taught, from a very early age, of the dangers of poor diet and a lack of exercise. They have to be taught, for example, that it is not a good thing to play on their computers all day and that fresh air and a run around the park is actually good fun as well as beneficial to their health.

Recent governments have much responsibility to shoulder in this crisis and the continuing disposal of sports fields by schools and local authorities is nothing short of scandalous. PE and Games should be compulsory for all schoolchildren, just as it used to be, and other than medical conditions there should be no excuses for non-compliance. Outside of school there should be exercise facilities available for the public at large and where necessary subsidized by the state so that even those reliant on state benefits, are able to participate. That’s all there is to it, education, opportunity and self-discipline. Simple really.