They keep inventing new, so-called ‘phobias’, don’t they? The latest is ‘fatphobia’. A new book has been published called Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia. The author, Kate Manne, denies that obesity is a health issue, and insists that overeating for personal satisfaction is just fine and no one should be allowed to criticise. This is the latest move in the crazy ‘diversity and inclusion’ push. ‘Fatphobia’ would celebrate ‘Mr Creosote’, the enormously fat man in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life who goes into a restaurant alternately stuffing himself full of food and then vomiting until he finally explodes. It’s gross, but also very funny. For some time now we have been told it is wrong to ‘fat shame’ anyone, and ‘fatphobia’ just ratchets up the dial on that. Meanwhile, the obese suffer from coronaries, strokes, joint failure and shortened life expectancy. But, hey, don’t tell them – that would just be your ‘fatphobia’ speaking!

In a recent column in the Daily Telegraph Professor Gary Martin complained about the cheapening and abuse of the word ‘expert’. He writes: ‘Too many people are in a rush to claim their expertise, making it increasingly difficult to discern genuine or real experts from those who are still learning the ropes.’ He’s right! The word is abused and overused. Think of the number of climate ‘experts’ who make confident predictions about what the weather will be, only to be proven wrong. That doesn’t stop them still calling themselves ‘experts’ and making further (equally wrong) predictions. I remember with great delight the definition of  an ‘expert’ that I learned many years ago in school. We should pay little attention (or no) attention to ‘experts’ because ‘X’ is an unknown quantity, and a ‘spurt’ is a drip under pressure.