A Blog About Health In Times Of Austerity

Comment
Uncertainty, Polarisation and COVID

Uncertainty, Polarisation and COVID

Uncertainty has become a staple of day to day life across the world in the past two years.  The COVID pandemic has introduced uncertainty into all aspects of life, affecting our interactions with others, our work and home lives and... More…
Blinded by the Christmas lights: NICE depression guidelines

Blinded by the Christmas lights: NICE depression guidelines

Reflections on the latest draft of the NICE depression guidelines There is an episode in The Good Fight, (an American legal drama), where in the background to several scenes, a steady flow of evidence boxes are wheeled into the offices... More…
An unpatriotic agitation? Public health versus the right to health

An unpatriotic agitation? Public health versus the right to health

Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, medical ethics has incorporated a duty to protect human rights, while the right to health and access to health care have been successively articulated and elaborated. One recent elaboration of the... More…
Why the hell is the Tory Party still so popular?

Why the hell is the Tory Party still so popular?

When I woke up on Friday 13 December 2019 to a Tory Party majority of 80, I, like many people, knew it would be dire. However, I don’t think anyone envisioned quite how bad things would get.  Johnson’s promise of... More…
Why Public Health Initiatives & Legislation Need to Engage with Fat Food Justice

Why Public Health Initiatives & Legislation Need to Engage with Fat Food Justice

Food justice is a movement which confronts the various problems around food (in)access and hunger, along with oppression in different stages of food systems. Attention to structural barriers like poverty, racialization, and environmental degradation are foundations of the movement’s work.... More…
Gallery

Gallery

What we have seen Is this a metaphor? Local Sainsbury’s. Most aisles with empty shelves – another BREXIT win!   These two Tweets are right next to each other A small study of comparative pub-messaging War Inna Babylon – exhibition... More…
Criminalising nitrous oxide users is no laughing matter if it distracts from more serious drug problems

Criminalising nitrous oxide users is no laughing matter if it distracts from more serious drug problems

In England and Wales, it is not illegal to possess nitrous oxide – but that could soon change. The UK’s home secretary, Priti Patel, has asked her scientific advisers to review the evidence on the harm associated with its use.... More…
Learning to Live With the COVID Virus and Extreme Inequality

Learning to Live With the COVID Virus and Extreme Inequality

Used over a year ago by right-wing commentator John Redwood to denote a new modus vivendi for global capitalism, ‘learning to live with the virus’ has been an idée fixe of the Johnson government for the last few months. Its... More…
Forget the spin – new English NHS bill is all about cutting our right to healthcare

Forget the spin – new English NHS bill is all about cutting our right to healthcare

Far from reversing the disastrous 2012 reforms, this new NHS bill makes it even easier to axe and privatise services – that’s the real COVID ‘recovery plan’ We all know the NHS has a huge backlog. As things stand, it... More…
Gallery

Gallery

What we have seen (‘freedom day’* special) Optimistic? Perranporth Beach – quiet evening  For some ‘freedom day’ was freedom to get pinged (like half the UK) Freedom to drink beer Or not ‘Freedom day’ Jaws meme via Twitter What we... More…
Quarantine diary

Quarantine diary

Ahead of the annual pilgrimage to our country of birth, my family and I have to undertake a new set of rituals.  The country formerly known as Great Britain has (belatedly) introduced a set of requirements to keep the COVID-19... More…
Gallery

Gallery

  Anti-COVID propaganda sticker on sign outside primary school. Text reads “According to the government, the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus, but vaccine passports will. Ever get the feeling you’re being played?” We’re confused – hands free hand sanitiser that... More…