Silly guidelines or stupid people . . . or both?

There is a wonderful story in the Telegraph this morning about a mother getting a letter warning that her five year old was overweight and in danger of all manner of dread diseases because he was outside the ideal weight range by one pound. Yes, one pound. He was 3st 5lb, when, ideally, he should, apparently, have been between 2st 7lb and 3st 4lb.

The good bit, though, was this:

“The [Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust] apologised for any distress caused to Mrs Forder, and said it was following Department of Health guidelines on the format and content of the letter.”

That's modern Britain for you. Someone draws up silly guidelines, and people are stupid enough to follow them, even though they should be able to see that they are daft.

Personally, I’m surprised that the Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust are not in big trouble for using imperial units.