‘Narcos’ and the ‘War on Drugs’
“Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe. There is a reason magical realism was born in Colombia” When we think about the devastation and harm that...
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The Politics of Evidence
Last year, my colleague Clare Bambra and I described the consequences of recent economic and social policy in the United States and the United Kingdom as ‘neoliberal epidemics’. In doing so, we actually combined three categories: a health outcome of...
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Adventures in Human Being
Francis, Gavin (2015) Adventures in Human Being, London: Profile Books. Much praise has been lavished on ‘Adventures in Human Being’ by Gavin Francis, a multi-prize-winning best-seller admired by Hilary Mantel (who calls the book ‘sober and beautiful’), John Berger and Robin McKie....
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An NHS gone rogue?
Much of the post-Brexit fall out has been explained by way of an asserted democratic deficit at the European level, where people feel faceless European bureaucrats have too much power and influence over what happens at a UK level. This...
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Sisters Uncut
On the evening of August 22nd in Gosforth there was a sold out screening of Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45, with Q and A with the legendary lefty director afterward. It was also the setting of the first public...
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Antisocial crimes in Gottsunda; A vicious circle?
In Gottsunda, an outlying suburb of Uppsala, a University town in Sweden, unrest marked the end of July. About 30-40 youths, all men, burned bins, tyres and more than 70 cars. The main street was blockaded with boulders and burning...
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NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans
Local NHS areas have til June to try and submit convincing plans to dramatically improve healthcare whilst saving large sums of cash. But the decision making is secretive and dysfunctional. Predictions that the NHS is facing disaster have been issued...
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Festival drug checking is here
A step towards safer drug use came about recently with the UK’s first drug-checking service at the Secret Garden Party festival. Operated by The Loop charity, the service provided hi-tech analyses of drugs submitted by festival-goers. In addition to the...
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Meanings of Recovery – Exploring the Long Shadow of Illness
A symposium on ‘The Meanings of Recovery’ was recently held at the University of Surrey. Speakers from a range of disciplines and professional backgrounds came together to discuss the ways that recovery has been conceptualised by different groups across various...
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Nasty Bugs and Foreign Threats
It’s the time of the year when we get away. The schools have broken up and between starting this blog and finishing it, I packed numerous bags and backpacks, got everyone to the airport, checked in and made it to...
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Where has all the kindness gone?
In October 2015 I wrote about the implications of the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour leader standing on the pledge of a new “kinder politics and a more caring society”. I talked about the glimmer of hope offered...
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Introducing the new Easyjet NHS