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Christopher Snowdon responds to Professor Dame Sally Davies's final report on childhood obesity

Commenting on Professor Davies’s final commissioned report focusing on childhood obesity, the IEA’s Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon said:

“The suggestion that it be a crime to eat a sandwich on a train brings Dame Sally’s tenure as Chief Medical Officer to a fittingly authoritarian conclusion. During the time she’s spent in the job, her policy ideas have become synonymous with the silliest extremes of the nanny state. Over the years, the thirst for taxing things has only exceeded by the thirst for banning things.

“We can only hope that her successor focuses on serious public health issues, such as tackling the growing measles epidemic, rather than regulating the size of pizzas and banning snacking in public.”

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The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.

Report:  Time to solve childhood obesity: an independent report by the Chief Medical Officer