Here we go again, blame the media

HAVING just discovered from my daily tabloid that research has shown that in
the last year alone 892 people went to accident and emergency departments with
injuries caused by Blue Tack, with a further 1,000 reporting damage caused by
tissue paper - how?, why?, what? - I confess that I no longer believe
everything I read in the newspapers. (Clearly, as this principle could also mean
that you shouldn't believe everything I write in this newspaper, I wouldn't want
it taken to extremes). This scepticism informs my response to research by the
British Medical Association into "Eating disorders, body image and the media"
which made the headlines this week.

Eating disorders? What about the Gorbals 50 years ago? Even to raise the
question is to know the answer. Of course not. These are disorders of western
affluence and are of recent origin. A serious pandemic such as that of the
influenza outbreak of the early Fifties - in which thousands in Britain died -
would probably r...