Recent European decision by the Advocate General suggests that morbid obesity could be akin to disability and so disability discrimination legislation could apply to fat people. The case concerned a 25 stone Danish nursery worker who claimed he was selected for redundancy on account of his size and that he could not bend down to tie the kids' shoelaces.

Case to go to ECJ, who normally uphold A-V's decisions.

Morbid obesity could be considered a disability where it impinges on the persons ability to carry out their professional duties and could therefore be subject to equality legislation.

So where does that leave us? Just suppose hypothetically speaking a RL club have a prop who is naturally a "big lad" and finishes the season with a man of the match performance in the grand final. To celebrate and relax in the off-season he binges for several weeks on pies and brown ale and when he returns to pre-season training he's 25 stone and cannot run. The coach has decided on some hard training on the sand dunes at Formby but "big lad" could not join in so the club need to make reasonable adjustment to allow him to join in. They decide the only reasonable adjustment is for the team to spend the week sitting on (reinforced) deck chairs as big lad can hardly walk let alone run. Come the first match he is dropped and claims disability discrimination. The club lose the case as objectively he was MOM last time out, has followed the same pre-season training as the rest and has apparently been dropped because of his fatness.

What would Billy Bunter make of this?

He would not be allowed to reach that weight.

He was on holiday.

Some holiday in that case !

Then he'd be out of a job as no RL Club would accept such poor self discipline from a player!

Interesting. I might get a parking badge. Always wanted one of those.

If you allow yourself to get so fat that you're morbidly obese (without being caused by some disease or other) you deserve all the discrimination you get.

I am not sure making yourself deliberately "disabled" will stand up in courts. Alos the rule of "reasonable adjustment" needs to be considered.

Let's put it another way: s/hebecomes a smoker and is sacked as her/his lungs will not allow her/him to compete with the non-smokers in running. Would that stand up in court?

Why? So you can get abuse while you park in a disabled bay at the supermarket? Thats the reality today.

Why was my first thought the episode of the Simpsons where Homer becomes deliberately obese so that he can work from home...

Because you watch too much TV and need to get out more?

It's tricky typing with a dialling wand you know.

Nothing hypothetical, you've just described Lee Crooks average off season.

Excellent!

Whenever I'm told, or feel that I'm overweight or obese, I usually arrange a fat loss vacation to the USA. Works wonders.
My plans are to visit Australia next. They're almost as big as those merkins.

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Some people will do anything to work from home