Jeremy Hunt: New chancellor is the man who ruined the NHS
As the former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt is appointed to the Exchequer, his ministerial past puts paid to his ‘sensible’ image Jeremy Hunt has been named the UK’s fourth chancellor in as many months, following the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng...
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Universal credit changes: increasing pressure on part-time workers is the wrong move at the worst time
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has laid out the government’s “mini budget”, a package of tax cuts that will mostly benefit the wealthiest in Britain. But people on the other end of the income scale are facing changes too. Kwarteng announced that...
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Whose side are we on? Reflections on the FHSI book prize shortlist
Four excellent recent books, all shortlisted for the FHSI Book Prize shortlist, illustrate different approaches to the question of who we write for. Howard Becker’s 1967 call for sociologists to be on the ‘side of the underdog’ was not advocating...
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Saving lives from the picket line – the limits of declaring a Cost of Living Emergency
The latest figures around cost of living are, of course, obscene. Inflation is due to peak at 13% in October 2022, the highest annual rate since 1982. From June 2021 to June 2022 domestic gas prices increased by 95% and...
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Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – new study
For three decades, people have been deluged with information suggesting that depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain – namely an imbalance of a brain chemical called serotonin. However, our latest research review shows that the evidence...
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A Fortunate Woman. A country doctor’s story
While clearing out her mother’s books in 2020, Polly Morland finds a battered copy of John Berger’s A Fortunate Man stuck at the back of a bookshelf, untouched for some decades. The book offers a poetic description of six weeks...
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Heatwaves are social murder
Heat kills. We have known this for some time. Whenever a heatwave occurs, an increase in excess deaths occurs. The European heatwaves of 2003 witnessed an excess of 75,000 deaths, with 15,000 of those occurring in France alone. The World...
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The Launch of the Integrated Care Boards and the dismantling of universal healthcare
On 1st July 2022 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) took over commissioning responsibility for the NHS. This followed the Health and Social Care Act receiving Royal Assent at the end of April and passing in to law. Integrated Care Boards are...
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How blue are you feeling? The social life of questionnaires in measuring depression
Without tape measures and weighing scales, obesity research might look quite different. We need tape measures and scales to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is an essential variable in epidemiology research concerned with body weight and enables certain statistical...
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The flailing PM is rewriting history to claim ‘COVID success’.
Boris Johnson looks set to cling to ‘the vaccine rollout’ in an effort to stay afloat. In truth, he failed on COVID. Boris Johnson survived his no-confidence vote – just. But with over 40% of his MPs wanting him out...
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The unaffordable cost of living
Rishi-eat-out-to-help-out Sunak has been busy recently trying to address the snowballing cost of living crisis faced by millions of UK citizens. He announced new policies to help those who will find the ‘struggle is too hard and the risks too...
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Where has all the health gone?