Why we must tell overweight kids that they're fat.

This scheme is called The National Child Measurement Plan.

It involves weighing kids in school and then writing to their parents with the results. But the Department of Health has ruled that the letters may not contain words like "obese".

Instead, children will be identified as "overweight" or "very overweight".

The idea, apparently, is to avoid upsetting the parents and putting them off acting to improve the health of their youngsters.

This nonsense is not the only problem with the NCMP.

The other slight failing is that parents have to give their permission for their children to be weighed. Clearly, those with the most obese children will simply refuse to take part.

Not only does this mean that kids in most need of help will not get it, but it also ensures that estimates of the size of the obesity problem are being under-estimated.

Figures returned so far show that one in four children in reception class is overweight or obese, and that rises to one in three by Year Six.

As we all know, this is a major health issue - and pussyfooting around with pleasant terminology is not the way to deal with it.

Not only should parents of the dangerously obese be told the blunt facts but hey should be informed that allowing their children's weight to balloon is a form of neglect.

And unless they act, or get help, then action will be taken against them.

This can't happen, of course, until every child is involved in the scheme. And that cannot happen because insisting that they step onto the scales would be an infringement of their Human Rights.

So we have a half-baked scheme that does not include the children most in need, cannot bring itself to tell the truth to those who already know it, and distorts the true extent of the obesity problem.

Lightweight is not the word.