POLITICS has been very much in the news recently, with elections and a great deal of focus on individuals and their character traits on both sides of the Atlantic.

Yet every day, away from the headlines, the crude Punch and Judy politics, people from all parties get on with doing the bread and butter everyday work for constituents, working on behalf of individuals trying to get things done, campaigning on issues close to our hearts and trying to get change and right wrongs.

One of the issues that I have been concerned about for years has been increasing obesity, modern diets and basic mortality rates in the East End of London. I have been involved in a number of projects where we have sought ways of encouraging people to eat more healthily and exercise more.

And yet, like many people, I fail to do what I know is right - eat healthily, drink less and exercise more. Just like most people long hours, family commitments and everyday life seem to get in the way.

This problem is most acute among our children. Gone are the days I remember when I had two good home-cooked nutritious meals a day and spent holidays and weekends out and about with my family and groups of friends. It does seem to me that today's children are becoming increasingly home-centred and inactive.

Be it texting, computer messaging services or TV, children's sense of adventure, sporting activity and even their sense of themselves is something which is driven by entrepreneurs and advertising, and it is big business.

The current situation is already bad enough with studies showing that one quarter of five-year-olds and one in three 11-year-olds are obese. A recent report estimates that by the year 2050, 70 per cent of girls and 55 per cent of boys will be overweight or obese.

That is why I backed an attempt to ban advertising junk food and drinks to children - although it has been blocked by opposition MPs who employed an oft-used Parliamentary tactic on Private Members Bills and "talked it out". The Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill aimed to make it an offence to promote "less healthy" foodstuffs to children also called for a 9pm watershed for these ads and restrictions on non-broadcast advertising.

Critics of the new Bill said parents were responsible for their children's diets, and dismissed the link between advertising and children's behaviour. But if that's the case why does big business, with its sophisticated market research set-up, spend £800m each year promoting junk food? And why did the Bill have the backing of health charities like the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK?

According to Diabetes UK, rising numbers of children with Type 2 diabetes increase the risk of complications such as heart disease, kidney failure and blindness.

As I explained in Parliament when debating this bill, parents have been telling me for years that their children are strongly affected by advertising. They say that they only eat food they recognise, and that, unfortunately, comes largely from TV advertising.

For the worst off the problem is greater, as without cars they find it more and more difficult to access the large supermarkets with the bigger choice of cheaper produce.

Many have to shop at corner shops, which rely on sales of highly-advertised frozen or processed foods rather than fresh and affordable ones.

This year Ofcom introduced a ban on TV adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar during shows aimed at under-16s. This is a step in the right direction, but does anyone really think that the younger generation sits down and only watches children's TV channels every day?

In the fight against cartoon superheroes and sleek images we need to go even further. I think the time is right for a law which tightens regulations on giant food corporation advertising in an effort to fight childhood obesity. It must be part of a raft of measures which also encompass exercise and aspirations, but we need to start somewhere.

Now I need your input as parents, carers or concerned citizens. Are the current regulations enough, or do we need laws to back it up - and what should they focus on in the fight against childhood obesity? Let me know what you think by writing to Lyn Brown MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, email me at brownl@parliament.uk or call my office on (020) 7219 6999.