Obesity: Who are you calling diseased?
In Britain and elsewhere the so-called ‘obesity crisis’ is regularly headline news. Media coverage focuses on the health risks associated with higher BMIs and the financial implications of this for the National Health Service (NHS). People are encouraged to act...
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Why no talk of an inequality emergency?
We hear much talk now of a climate emergency. As I was revising a talk I frequently give on ‘global health in an unequal world’, I realised that there is no talk of an inequality emergency, either globally or close...
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Conservative plan for the NHS – but does it add up?
In his first 100 days as prime minister, Boris Johnson made several pledges and confirmed those of the former PM Theresa May to support the NHS. Many of these feature in the Conservative Party manifesto, even though they have been...
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Capitalist Creep on Campus
The largest, quietest privatisation in UK history – it’s why we’re striking For the next week and a half, many UK university lecturers will be on strike again, but who outside of academia really cares? After all, university academics have great jobs....
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The ‘Appliance of Science’?
The topsy-turvy world of the NHS’s relationship with minority groups and their non-standard care requirements When the NHS was last in expansion and a ‘transformation’ was underway, one of the guiding principles was called “World Class Commissioning“. It was the...
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Election 2019
“McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for....
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Are cities bad for our mental health?
Are cities bad for our mental health? The question of cities and mental health was once a key topic for sociologists and psychiatrists. In the 1930s, sociologists Faris and Dunham argued that the prevalence of schizophrenia in Chicago was caused,...
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Tech Companies are Shaping Health Knowledge for Profit
Healthcare and treatment have always been closely entwined with technological innovation and learning. Knowledge of the body, as well as treatments and procedures which medics perform, have been made possible by the development of stethoscopes, X-rays and MRIs amongst myriad...
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Ending the hostile environment in health: The responsibility of intellectuals
As usual I was running late. Walking away from patients or relatives at the end of the day working as a doctor in the NHS is never an easy task. But it is something that has become increasingly difficult since...
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Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Compassion and Solidarity
Is there more anger in the news than usual? Ala Sirriyeh, 2018. The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy. Bristol: Bristol University Press. xiv, 208 pp. Boris Johnson’s inflammatory language at the first session of the UK’s Westminster parliament after its...
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Veganuary: Meat Matters