Becoming a consumer: who’s got the energy?
Last week’s announcement that the state will force energy companies to provide customers with their cheapest gas and electricity tariffs is interesting for a number of reasons. It seems the policy will require energy companies to notify customers of cheaper...
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Cochlear Implants: Identity politics or the politics of identity?
We were told our son was deaf when he was 22 months old. Immediately after diagnosis we were propelled into the audiology, medical and sensory support systems. Confusing, scary places for parents of a young child, desperate to do the...
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Why a pro-life Northern Ireland depends on a pro-choice UK
Over the past couple of weeks or so the abortion debate has once again flared into life. Newly appointed Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt announced his support for halving the legal limit on abortions to 12 weeks. Then,...
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Exercise: how much is enough?
The last time I met a colleague, let’s call her M, she was sporting a limp and a walking stick. Her evidently painful injury had been sustained as a result of health-promoting exercise. Troubled by her injury M, with the...
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Cookery, Control and Contemporary Displays of Culinary one-up-person-ship…
One of the fascinating aspects of food technology is that the acts of cooking and eating have long been relatively easily readable socio-cultural markers in hierarchical societies. In contemporary British society an interesting facet of this is that the discourse...
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Badgers, TB and Culling Uncertainty?
I have never really been that bothered about badgers – I noticed: the wildlife programs; the cuddly toys; and even that they have a certain cuteness. But other than this I had no strong opinions about badgers. I was then...
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The cost of bleeping care
I recently read a fascinating and perplexing tale of the contingencies of work in healthcare, where ‘state of the art’ equipment sits alongside ‘stone age’ communication devices. The first time I saw a pager, in 1994, I thought it was...
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The Privatisation Paradox
Log into twitter and follow the #NHS hashtag and it doesn’t take long to conclude that the NHS is in the throes of a back-door privatisation programme, driven by an overzealous government with the ideological ‘bit’ between its teeth. This...
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Snog, eat, avoid?
Beloved companion or health risk? Or dinner? Start a debate about how we should relate to other species, and sparks soon fly – the ethics of hunting, bull fighting, laboratory tests on rabbits, eating some animals and not others, and...
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Public Outrage Saves Lives?
So is this ‘the most horrifying ad’ ever made? The new advert by St John ambulance is entitled Helpless. In just two minutes we witness various scenes from the life of a man diagnosed with cancer. The advert is shot beautifully...
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“We need to talk about Jeremy”
As far back as the ‘National Listening Exercise’ in April 2011 it was fairly obvious that the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, was a dead man walking. This became reality last week when Lansley was replaced by Jeremy Hunt as Secretary...
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Don’t Take My Baby! Social Care in the Soaps