Does something about the MacDonalds Hamburgler look a bit different today? Who is that under that mask? Hang on, could that be Sue Kedgely?

You guessed it!

Stuff and Rodney both report on The Health Select Committee's deliberations next month, of which Green MP Kedgely is a part. Their particular concern will be regulating the marketing of food to children. Hamburgler Kedgley is trying to steal all the MacDonalds Happy Meals!

Kedgley and the Fat Police (ie the 'Fight the Obesity Epidemic' group) seem not to be met by any resistance. Jackie Blue of the Nats, also on the committee, says she has an open mind on regulation and banning toys. If this is so then what hope is there for stopping Kedgley?

How long is Sue's so-called obesity epidemic supposed to have been going on for? My earliest memories of going out to Kentucky Fried Chicken involve getting Buck Rodgers gear, and of Pizza Hut and getting little rubber poseable Mars aliens with stickers. There used to be great puzzles at Pizza Hut too, and nice little Pizza Hut pencils to complete them with. It's not new, so was the obesity epidemic upon us in 1982 or could we just handle "pester power" better back then?

Is "pester power new" too? Haven't advertisers long found their way to a parent's wallet via a child's wide eyes? Are parents so unable to parent these days that they need government to protect them from the pestering power of their own children?

Banning Happy Meals, and the like, represents a major governmental intervention. They hurt parents and the institution of parenting. They hurt kids. They hurt industry. They take food and health choice away from us all. But this is nothing, "Getting rid of toys is a little step in the right direction," Kedgely said.

Call me a radical extremist libertarian for worrying about this "little step" of the demise of Happy Meals. But perhaps after Kedgely's next step, and the one after that, you'll start to wake up New Zealand.