Hygiene for all?
The Guardian this week reported on new kinds of outreach work for homeless people, with mobile laundries and shower units, reported in Australia, New Zealand and Greece as well as my own city of Brighton, England. A Christian charity in...
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THE NHS: TO PROVIDE ALL PEOPLE
I offer a very contemporary comment this week, having come across this recent BBC programme for the 70thanniversary of the NHS, by Owen Sheers (poet) and Pip Broughton (director). The programme – ‘The NHS: to provide all people’ was a...
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With or without solidarity?
Like other aspects of academic life the Cost of Living blog has been disrupted by recent industrial action by the University and College Union. This was in some ways an odd call as it scarcely fits into contracted work for...
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When should we worry?
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is in the news as public health specialists around the world ask us to pay attention to Antibiotic Awareness Week. Posters have gone up across the UK warning that ‘taking antibiotics when you don’t need them puts...
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Governing in the heat
As I write it’s baking hot, and seems to have been for days. The usual risks apply to writing about it though. By the time this is published the thunder storms we have been promised may have brought cooler wetter...
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You can’t wear a bag on your head
Air pollution is often in the news as pollution episodes are reported in major cities in China and India. In London too, it is in the sights of the new(ish) mayor, who is calling for extra charges on polluting vehicles...
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‘It’s like being told repeatedly that Father Christmas doesn’t exist’
Sorry to layer disillusionment onto despair for those of us worrying about Trump’s election. This Guardian piece caught my eye a couple of weeks ago for its account of the Choosing Wisely campaign from the Academy of Medical Sciences –...
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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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Room for improvement?
A couple of weeks ago Sasha Scambler wrote on this blog about public health interest in digital devices and the launch of a free ‘sugar app’ in the UK in time for the season of new resolutions. The app uses...
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Social policy and austerity outcomes
It has been argued that sociologists should ‘catch up’ with behavioural scientists and get more involved in trials of social policy, engaging in a culture of ‘experimental government’. I would be the first to agree that we could develop a...
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Taking a break: a note on the sociology of snacking
I was at the dentist a couple of weeks ago and he managed to surprise me. For more than a decade now these encounters have been pretty predictable. Moralising about sugar, followed by mild disapproval about the state of my...
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Cancer during COVID