On the morning it's announced officially that we can't have our crisps and eat them, too - because we are in fact the fattest nation in Europe – I wait for my turn to interview the Prime Minister on health issues and am told to help myself to a buffet piled high with bacon butties and biscuits.
The irony isn't lost just on me, as after breakfast the National Director for Older People jokes about the offending butties being served where health and fitness is meant to be promoted. He hopes we instead chose to eat the fruit and yoghurt also on offer, highlighting (maybe deliberately?) that the Government's new health and fitness initiative is not about shoving messages down the public's throat, but making sure that healthy options are easily within reach.
When the Prime Minister takes the stage, he explains that the purpose of the day is to get the local community of Tower Hamlets, in east London – represented in the form of people from local businesses, charities, social services and athletic clubs – to work out how they can help people in the area to take better care of their health. This includes finding out how to encourage people to eat better, exercise and making them aware of what help is on offer. The Prime Minister says that similar workshops will be rolled out across the country, with the new Health Profile of England being used to target which communities are affected most by certain health issues, such as obesity or smoking.
Acknowledging that many of our health problems stem from low income and lack of facilities, the Prime Minister is hoping this local approach, as opposed to 'one size fits all', will be effective in encouraging us to take better care of our heath, in much the same way as the anti-smoking campaigns featuring women with ugly teeth and impotent men helped many of us to give up.
As we settle in for our interview, I notice Tony Blair looks remarkably healthy and well (especially compared to not so long ago when protests about the Iraq war were at their height), much younger than his age, which I suppose is the perfect advertisement for the Government's new initiative. He chitchats easily and seems down to earth. No matter what your views are on the Prime Minister, the Labour government or the Iraq war you can't deny that Tony Blair has charisma. He does the annoying politician thing of talking around an issue instead of answering it directly, but otherwise readily answers all questions fired his way.
What exactly is the government doing to help people take better care of their health?
First of all we've got the major retailers to do a lot more on food nutrition and labelling and actually selling healthy products at reasonable prices. Secondly, what we're trying to do is encourage employers to provide healthy options in their canteen if they've got one, in the same way with what we've been doing with school dinners for kids. And there are now facilities for fitness that you can get tax relief with and so on, which is something else that can help.
The other thing is to make sure that people know about local community facilities and that they become more accessible. It's not that we don't have these in the communities, it's that people don't know how to access them. The other thing is to tell people, 'These are the clubs in your area at reasonable prices.' We're also putting 'health trainers' in local primary care trusts that can advise people on their health, diet, fitness and what changes they can make. It's all about trying to make people balance this with work and family issues. When they've got all these pressures with kids and they have to manage everything, it's very, very hard. But there is help available and that's what we're really trying to do.
Have you made any changes in your life?
Yeah, I have actually. Over the past few years I've taken more exercise than since I was at college. I do the gym, I do tennis and I do football but my legs are a bit crocked now - in the last two or three years the kids sort of speed by me now on the pitch - whereas I used to be able to hold my own! I've tried to make sure I eat more healthily.
Has it made a difference?
I personally think that with this type of job, if you're not physically fit you've got a problem. The actual physical pressure on you because of the hours you work, the travel and all of the rest of it - I wouldn't like to have do this without taking the exercise. If I miss it for a week for any reason, because maybe I'm away or everything is too busy, I actually really notice it.
In terms of stress levels as well?
Yes, I think it's a very good stress reliever.
