2013 Glasgow helicopter crash remarks
Hopkins posted a tweet referring to Scottish life expectancy predictions based upon a 2011 NHS report, "Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland: Update of trends to 2010". This tweet was posted following a heated debate on Scottish Independence during an edition of The Wright Stuff on which Hopkins was a panellist. In the wake of the 2013 Glasgow helicopter crash, the tweet raised widespread condemnation among Twitter users. Hopkins retorted "Following Independence I will only be the Biggest Bitch in England", and described people's reactions as "PC tastic." Hopkins issued an apology the following Monday reinstating that her original remark was in reference to the NHS report and was simply bad timing.[40]
My Fat Story
In 2013, Hopkins made a number of statements criticising people who were obese, including that she wouldn't employ someone who was.[41] In an appearance on ITV's This Morning, she blamed fat parents for bringing up fat children and attacked fellow guest, journalist Sonia Poulton, for suggesting a more compassionate approach, calling Poulton "a zebra in a wig".[42] The following year, she purposefully put on half of her body weight and then lost it over the course of several months, in an attempt to show that obese people can lose weight. Her progress was carefully documented by a camera crew, and it was then played on TLC, being called "My Fat Story".[5]
Other controversies and feuds
In November 2014 a petition calling for Hopkins' arrest under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 was started after she sent a series of tweets calling on the Israeli government to restart its bombing campaign against the Palestinians after two Israelis were killed in knife attacks, and describing Palestinians as "filthy rodents".[43]
On 31 December 2014, police announced they were investigating complaints they had received concerning Hopkins' tweets about Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish aid worker who was diagnosed with Ebola virus disease after returning to the UK from Sierra Leone. Hopkins had tweeted: "Little sweaty jocks, sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn't cricket. Scottish NHS sucks."[4] In January 2015, she was voted the "dick of the year" by viewers of Channel 4 show The Last Leg.[44]