Childless Jo Swinson tells parents that they shouldn't praise their children's looks. You're missing the point Ms Swinson, it's fat bodies that is destroying self esteem.
She says that the media is responsible for promoting thinness which perpetuates others' feelings of bad body image. So, when the Ministers haven't got a clue they use public money to invent a campaign. And Ms Swinson is no different. She has launched the government's Body Confidence campaign, which is designed to "address problems of wellbeing and self esteem brought about by popular culture's obsession with appearance."
But, the nation is growing fatter and you need to ask why, Ms Swinson, not berate parents for telling their little princesses that they are beautiful.
You can't lay the blame on the media as magazines and newspapers are fit to bursting with diets, healthy lifestyles, and fitness regimes, yet we grow fatter. If I sit at my computer for two days and carry on eating and drinking as normal then I put on a couple of pounds. If I go for a walk, do some gardening, walk in London rather than getting on the tube but consume the same amount of calories then I lose or maintain my weight.
If we are a nation obsessed with celebs as Ms Swinson claims and yearn to look like stick thin insects then we are not managing very well. Yes, we can stick on false eyelashes that look like crazy caterpillars, spray tan ourselves to a Tangoed orange, pump in the Botox and lift our boobs and bums but that doesn't make us thin. A walk down the high streets of Britain will show you women waddling along with their thighs and stomachs pushed into leggings that are two sizes too small, bras where fat escapes below and above the 34C that they once were when they should be wearing a 40DD. They squeeze themselves into size 12s when they are a size 16 and think that it is attractive to show bare midriff that falls in folds over the top of waistbands. It's horrid, put it away and look in full size mirrors before venturing out.
Do ask yourselves, "does my bum look big in this?". If it does, cover it up. If your children are growing obese then look at the calorific value of the food your're giving them, stop them consuming gallons of sugary drinks and get them outside, away from the computer, TV and games console. But never stop praising them.
British women are the fattest in Europe. If we are so shallow to want to look like Angelina, Victoria B and others then we need to address why we stuff our faces with rubbish. Why are we buying more processed and take-away food than ever before?
She should be addressing why since 1980 the weight of the average female has increased by more than a stone (6.35kg) - outfatting countries including Spain, Italy, and Germany. These countries eat a lot of pasta, sausage and rice and consume lots of beer and wine. That's a lot of carbs and calories.
At the start of the 1980s, the average 5ft 3in British woman weighed 10 stone (63.5kg), but by 2008 that had grown to 11st 2lb (70.6kg).
According to the World Cancer Research Fund they estimate that almost 80,000 cancers could be prevented in Britain every year if everybody followed a healthy lifestyle, such as walking for half an hour a day, maintaining a healthy weight and eating a healthy diet.
The answer is quite simple Ms Swinson. Instead of wasting taxpayers' money on campaigns that no one is going to listen to, you should be directing your campaigns to not feeding children junk food in school, selling off playing fields, and failing to tackle the food industry.
You could also enlist some celebs in a campaign to say that in order to look like them they need to move more, eat less and stop pouring alcohol down the necks. Simple really.