Drop the Tormented Pigeon

“Woman Saves Pigeon From Gull”

That was the headline on a newspaper hoarding outside my local newsagent on Sunday morning.

The thought that instantly crossed my mind was that we have climate change, plastic pollution, Covid, Russians destroying Ukraine, avian flu and the physical inactivity crisis, yet some news editor seems to think that a story about someone interfering in a battle between two birds is going to sell newspapers.

I felt disappointed and frustrated that serious issues like the dangers associated with sedentary lifestyles and physical inactivity seem unable rise above the kind of non-stories that make it into our headlines.

I was, therefore, somewhat heartened this morning when the headline “Half of British women do no regular exercise” was trending on Twitter. I’m not heartened by that statistic but am pleased that the findings of research by the healthcare charity Nuffield Health is being reported and rising above the fluff.

Posts on Twitter were pointing to an article in The Guardian and another, behind a paywall, in The Times. The figures in these articles are alarming, but sadly believable. We need to take them seriously and ensure that action follows. Find Time for Exercise is my call to action for those individuals who want to increase their activity levels as well as another voice making the case for more strategic support to help and encourage people to become more physically active.

This particular blog article isn’t aimed at discussing the ways of achieving that, it’s just raising the issue of priorities in the news that we get to see and hear. Local newspapers will always carry stories about pigeons, but let’s keep them in perspective, as in page 15, and save the headlines and hoardings outside shops for the stories that really do matter to people.

Now that the Nuffield Health research has been made public and uncovered some findings that should make people think about their own exercise levels, and hopefully cause politicians to pause and consider what they should be doing, then it would be a welcome outcome if this story made it onto some front pages and maybe even some hoardings outside newsagents.

“Inactivity Leading To Human Decay”