Child custody, racism, conspiracies and Swedish Social Services
Demonstrations against Swedish Social Services’ treatment of children from immigrant families outside parliament buildings in Stockholm are the visible aspect of a battle that is largely taking place on social media. Some of the demonstrators are parents campaigning to have...
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Finding the publics to involve in public health research
Public involvement in research is essential. However, when that research addresses public health issues, how best to do this is not straightforward. Naïve processes of engagement risk tokenism, erosion of good faith, and frustration for all collaborators. The aims of...
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10 years of NHS legislation reform
The year 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of this blog. I know it does not seem like 10 years since the Liberal Democrats (remember them?) were reneging on their election pledge on university fees in David Cameron’s coalition government. We...
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Should We All Have The Right To Die On Our Own Terms?
As the Assisted Dying Bill is scrutinised in parliament, the debate over whether terminally ill people should have the right to die is heating up again. So, what could a right to die look like in the UK? Campaigners have sought to...
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The fleeting solidarities of the pandemic?
Click the play button on the sound file below. It is the sound of the street in Aberdeen where I live recorded on April 2nd2020. I recorded the soundfile during the weekly Clap for Carers event, where the dedication of...
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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...
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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...
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The Richer, The Poorer
Lansley, S. (2021) The Richer, The Poorer – How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor A 200 Year History, Bristol, Policy Press. You might think that someone who starts a book with a quote from singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen like,...
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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...
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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...
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The Social Causes of Health and Disease
Cockerham, W. C. (2021) Social Causes of Health and Disease (3rd Ed). Cambridge, Polity Press. It’s never a bad idea to return to a disciplinary handbook that offers up the fundamentals of a subject. Regarding this blog, that core discipline...
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Cancer during COVID