Strange but true - and what next? Taking them to McDonalds and letting them eat French fries or using butter. I think it is probably a good point but made very badly. Will these healthy role models be good and kind human beings and be content ? Will they live to be 100 free of pain and pass peacefully in their sleep sound of mind and surrounded by loved ones.

No mention I see of the huge quantities of drugs doled out by them. I think GP's need to have some sense of perspective, but this is what happens when they're salaries are bankrolled by the state. Don't they understand we are paying their wages. A car mechanic doesn't ask how you drive he just fixes the thing because we pay him to and lets face it there are some pretty unhealthy GP's around - some one should check their BMI. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a Y in the Hippocratic oath.

Professor Steve Field a leading British GP has said "Parents who smoke in cars in front of small children are committing a form of child abuse", The chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has condemned society's attitudes to food, alcohol and cigarettes.

In a letter to the Observer newspaper, he said parents had to take more responsibility for their children's health - and set a good example.He said irresponsible behaviour led to high levels of disease and early death. He called on parents, mothers-to-be, the obese, smokers and drinkers to turn into healthy role models for their children.

You need to face facts and take responsibility”- Professor Steve Field, Royal College of GPs who represents 42,000 GPs across the UK, added: "I suppose the same people also smoke at home in front of their children. Evidence from the US indicates that more young children are killed by parental smoking than by all other unintentional injuries combined."

Other health experts have previously called for smoking to be banned in cars when children are present, but the government's recent decision not to review existing smoking legislation means that move is unlikely.

In his letter, Professor Field says adults need to take responsibility for their own health too. He added: "The truth, which may be unpalatable to some, is that too many of us, too often, neglect too many aspects of our own personal health behaviour, and this is leading to increasing levels of ill-health and early death.

"Public health is a sensitive subject.It's not easy to strike the right balance between protecting people's sensibilities and delivering the hard facts about their personal behaviours that are ultimately shortening their lives. Too many people do not face up to the hard facts, as they perceive them to be an attack aimed, in particular, at the poorer members of our society, when it is impossible to argue on medical or ethical grounds, that such behaviour is acceptable."

And he said they should ensure they were "healthy role models" so that children learnt to eat well, exercise and look after their own health. He said GPs based the advice they gave on hard evidence."We genuinely want people to be able to live healthy, fulfilling and productive lives for as long as possible. But every day we are confronted with the sharp end of harm caused by smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and the tsunami of obesity."

The government is due to set out its view of how to tackle public health in a white paper this autumn - cant wait!