CASES of type Two diabetes have doubled since 2005. They result from a non-active lifestyle plus choosing the easiest options – so not enough exercise and too much of the wrong food and drink can lead to an early death, and even amputation.

However it’s not just people who suffer from this self interest as expanding Heathrow airport demonstrates. Nations also become obese, with CO2, adding to the climate instability that will make life difficult in the future.

Again it’s living for the moment and greed rather than taking the longer view. It’s like only eating sugary foods, and our national amputation has already occurred as we leave Europe with its stronger environmental regulation

It’s that old dilemma again. Our descendants interests don’t fit the five year terms of our political system, which only ensure success for a political party if it’s popular and panders to self interest.

The business world, profit seeking, wants Heathrow despite the harm. They aren’t interested in the CO2 from the quarried rock, and the concrete that requires cement made from limestone heated to 1.000 degrees. And then after the CO2 producing heavy machinery has built the two mile plus runway, new car parks and access roads, they’ll start using it for the most intensive CO2 production there is – flying.

Already aviation contributes six percent of the UK CO2 output, and it’s increasing annually, five percent up last year at Yeadon It’s expanding even faster in South America and Asia, and they are larger and unlikely to cut back..

Because profit seeking private companies won’t take the long view the answer is state intervention. Government money (yours and mine) should launch renewable energy manufacturing, including solar panels, develop factories for energy efficient fabricated housing to replace job losses in the north’s old coal areas and increase public transport..

That’s the slim, future thinking UK we need.