At the moment it seems like the world's longest detention he said

"At the moment, it seems like the world's longest detention," he said."I am not yet clear in my own mind where the poem is going to take me. It is to be an epic work, 1,000 lines in all, and he has promised to deliver it by October. Yesterday, the man regarded as one of Britain's most gifted young poets confessed that it was a daunting assignment. Mr Armitage has been commissioned to write an ode to the Millennium Dome, a building whose beauty has escaped the eye of some beholders. All the same, Simon Armitage has a Herculean task on his hands. THEY SAY that poets draw inspiration from the most unlikely of sources. "Patients on meal replacements seem to have found it easier to adhere to the energy-reduced diet," he said.. The results showed that, over two years, obese patients who were put on meal replacements lost more than 10 per cent of their initial body weight compared with less than 4 per cent for a group who were put on low-calorie diets.

Dr Herwig Ditschuneit, from the University of Ulm, presented his findings at the meeting. Investigators also measured the girls' fat by testing skin-fold thickness at four points on their bodies.Further new research has shown that meal replacements are more effective for long-term weight loss than low-calorie diets. Every six months the girls filled out confidential questionnaires about dieting, weight concerns, dating and sexual activity. Our data indicates they are right," said Dr Carolyn Halpern, assistant professor of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the author of the study.The researchers followed 200 girls, aged 13 and 14, from a county in central North Carolina, for two years.

A girl of average height and weight, who was 5ft 3in tall and weighed 9st (57kg), was half as likely to get dates as a girl of the same height and age who weighed a below- average 7st 12lb (50kg)."One reason adolescent girls are concerned about their weight is that they believe that being slim increases their chances of dating. In America one child in five is obese and many are showing ill health and social problems that experts say are due to excess weight.A study published in the journal Developmental Psychology shows that, despite the politically correct movement against "fattism", skinny girls are the most likely to go out with boys. It is estimated that the direct health costs in Britain are pounds 3.5bn a year.Obesity in children is one of the greatest concerns for health experts. It increases the risk of a whole range of life-threatening conditions," she told a meeting on obesity of the Royal Society of Medicine Obesity causes premature death and considerable ill health. "While this is true in absolute terms, the rate of increase in the two countries is similar We are simply 10 to 15 years behind them It is not a safe condition. "In the UK there is a tendency for us to be complacent and say we are not as fat as the Americans," said Dr Susan Jebb, of the MRC Human Nutrition Research centre, Cambridge. Over half the population is overweight and nearly one person in five is now classed as obese.

The latest figures show that obesity has more than doubled in the past 10 years. BRITAIN IS growing fatter at the same alarming rate as the United States, according to a nutritionist. West Berkshire Council voted by 25 votes to 18 to give the mobile phone giant the go-ahead to build on a site at Shaw, outside Newbury, Berkshire. The decision has been criticised by campaigners, who said the offices would lead to the development of land between the town and the recently completed and controversial bypass.They also accused Vodafone of having held the town to ransom by threatening to pull out its 3,500 workforce unless it received permission to relocate from the town centre.Vodafone had earlier amended its proposals to provide pounds 10m for a green transport plan, including buses, for people to reach the site.The decision coincides with a report by the Council for the Protection of Rural England, saying traffic jams and concrete-covered fields were eroding the beauty of the countryside.Leading article,Review, page 3. ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners were demanding a public inquiry yesterday after a council gave Vodafone planning permission to build its new global headquarters on green-belt land. John Peel is the star of the show because of his very self- deprecating manner."He gives of himself and this unlocks a superb response from the audience, who immerse themselves in the thrust of the programme."Home Truths divided critics when it first appeared and attracted claims that "it wasn't about anything", but this is the fourth award the show has won in the past two months.Accepting his award, the veteran DJ stuck to his self- deprecating style and said: "I'm just the front man for a very hard-working and by-and-large underpaid team of people.". The judges said that the show: "Takes what could be a banal programme brief and turns it into highly memorable and compelling radio.

Evans' Virgin Radio was conspicuous by its absence from this year's nominations.Peel's Home Truths won the Gold Award for the best weekend programme as well as the best magazine programme award and the best short form prize. The Gold Award was particularly sweet because the same prize was won by her rival, Chris Evans, last year. Ball's award is a major achievement for a broadcaster who has been hosting her own show on radio for six months. The judges were impressed with its "broad and distinctive programming." The comedian Mark Lamarr won an award for his Radio 2 programme about Fifties music, Shake, Rattle and Roll,which, the judges said, illustrated the way in which the network has updated itself.In a further success for the BBC, which had a very good evening, Radio 1's Breakfast Show host Zoe Ball won the special Gold Award for her services to radio. Home Truths, John Peel's gentle Saturday morning stroll through the highways and byways of domestic life, picked up an unprecedented three awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London to the joy of a packed industry audience. The radio station of the year award was won by Radio 2 for the way in which the network has reinvented itself as a younger, baby-boomer station without alienating its older audience. CRITICS OF Radio 4's controversial new schedule were silenced last night when one of its key programmes crowned a year of awards by sweeping the board at the prestigious Sony Radio Awards.