The Long COVID Report
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report into Long COVID was released about a month ago. One important detail is that of the 14 members of the Group, from many different parties, and from both the House of Commons and Lords,... More…
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... More…
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... More…
Why Public Health Initiatives & Legislation Need to Engage with Fat Food Justice
Food justice is a movement which confronts the various problems around food (in)access and hunger, along with oppression in different stages of food systems. Attention to structural barriers like poverty, racialization, and environmental degradation are foundations of the movement’s work.... More…
Learning to Live With the COVID Virus and Extreme Inequality
Used over a year ago by right-wing commentator John Redwood to denote a new modus vivendi for global capitalism, ‘learning to live with the virus’ has been an idée fixe of the Johnson government for the last few months. Its... More…
Forget the spin – new English NHS bill is all about cutting our right to healthcare
Far from reversing the disastrous 2012 reforms, this new NHS bill makes it even easier to axe and privatise services – that’s the real COVID ‘recovery plan’ We all know the NHS has a huge backlog. As things stand, it... More…
Time and again? Temporality & public health
One thing that has struck me during the days and months since 23rd March 2020 has been how time has simultaneously slowed down and sped up. Or, more specifically, the passage of time has both sped up and slowed down.... More…
Food first – a new approach to food trauma
We help to run a Food Support charity on the South Coast of England. When we were applying for funding, our fundraiser asked us to give him an estimate of local food insecurity in our town, Worthing. Estimations of food... More…
How to manage structural racism and inequality
Lessons in Political Manoeuvring and How to Avoid Taking Action The highly anticipated report of the Commission on race and ethnic disparities (CRED) has concluded, to much furore, that modern Britain does not have a problem with structural racism. Indeed... More…
Participatory Ideology: From exclusion to involvement
This is not a trick question. What is the link between recruiting a photographer at significant taxpayers’ expense to take cuddly, self-glorifying photos of a pet dog and a high level of successful appeals without precedent by disabled people against... More…
The Lockdown Anniversary Edition…
Anniversaries are dangerous moments. A year after the start of the first UK lockdown on March 23rd , many have noted an escalation of anxiety, as we reflect on the impact of individual griefs and ruptures to the social body.... More…
The unaffordable cost of living