I AM fascinated by a European Court's ruling that obesity is a disability.
It is difficult to know whether to condemn it as an excellent example of the law being an ass, or as an evolution of our culture where we must now accept that obesity is an unpreventable facet of the Western world, which a civilised society must cater for.
The concept of a disability is different from an illness or a disease. An illness is managed, usually privately. With a disability, we use our ingenuity to construct visible mechanisms and environments to assist those who are disabled.
Since we cannot regrow limbs, or cure blindness, or repair spinal cords, we find increasingly clever ways to provide disabled persons with the means to participate and contribute.
By that principle, this European ruling potentially means, in politically correct societies, that we must construct environments and adapt work practices to ensure obese people can still participate in their jobs and their lives.