Government moving goalposts?

The British Heart foundation have accused the government of moving the goalposts on childhood obesity.

The claim comes following Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo's pledge to make children the starting point for a new strategy to tackle obesity.

She said that by 2020, the Government intended to reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels. 

Peter Hollins, chief executive of the charity, said: "We don't want to just aim to make inroads by 2020, as the Government suggests, but to see changes by 2010 as they originally promised."  He went on to add, "Combating childhood obesity was part of New Labour's election manifesto in 1997."

In response, the Department of Health later said: "When we set the original 2004 target we knew this would be a challenge. Obesity levels are growing throughout the developed and developing world, and there is very limited evidence of international success at halting or reversing this trend. "