When you've got a poor education, no cooking skills and think nutrition is a cream you slap on your face, the idea of counting calories, choosing fresh veg over frozen and cos lettuce over chips is a non-starter. Far from being unemployable, these chunky women were exactly the right shape to serve as models for goddesses, mythical heroines, royals and saints. Our minimum wage will buy a healthy diet, if you've got the knowledge to know what foods to buy - and the time to find them and prepare them.Why not take a stroll down to the National Gallery and worship the acres of dimpled pink flesh that fill room after room in the new Rubens exhibition. Although it is notorious for its low rates of pay, it had the cheek to ask Congress to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour, saying millions of its customers were "struggling" to make ends meet. It didn't mention the fact that many of its workforce faced exactly the same problem.But every political leader knows that to be seen as fat is a non-starter.
So Tony Blair plays tennis, and Bill Clinton is like an evangelist with his post-heart op low-fat diet and daily golf. The truth is that being able to choose whether to be fat or thin is not an option for those coping in Britain on our pitiful minimum wage. The company made £5bn profit last year, and is trying to rebuild its image with PR initiatives. As a survey shows, there are probably more people taking drugs in Britain today than there are smoking cigarettes.
Of course, if you're a man who owns a successful company, size doesn't matter; Philip Green isn't exactly a streamlined non-smoker, is he? In the US, the huge retailing chain Wal-Mart (which owns Asda in the UK) has come under intense criticism because a secret memo revealed the company's vice-president talked of ways to discourage overweight people and those over 40 from applying for jobs.Wal-Mart is known as a mean employer, and this memo discussed how the company could drive down its bill for staff healthcare and benefits by discouraging unhealthy people from working there. Although he has been spotted puffing on the odd ciggie or two, apparently he is "trying to give up". In fact, if you want to be completely unemployable today, you'd be an overweight smoker over 50, like Ken Clarke, or an overweight woman over 50; step forward Ann Widdecombe.Diddy Dave Cameron ticks all the right boxes: youthful, rides a bike, and most definitely isn't fat. If you are seeking an executive position, being female is often a disadvantage, too. Fatties are so bad for business that one in 10 of these bosses said they wouldn't want a large person to meet a client, and would even contemplate sacking a worker for being overweight. When 2,000 personnel officers were questioned, half of them thought the work of obese staff wouldn't be up to the standard of other employees of "normal size". Doesn't this confirm that, in spite of all the hot air and management-speak about objectives, targets, qualifications and people skills, many employers look only for people that are easy on the eye? Fatties are generally excluded from mainstream TV (none on Strictly Come Dancing, for example) apart from comedies such as The Vicar of Dibley and the early-morning sofa.Apart from being fat, the other big disqualification to getting a job today is being old (I mean over 40).