The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – one year on, what has changed?
Just over a year ago, at lunchtime on the 20th October 2022, UK news was dominated by the breaking story that Prime Minister Liz Truss had resigned with immediate effect. At the same time and only 2 miles away from...
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Criminalising nitrous oxide users is no laughing matter if it distracts from more serious drug problems
In England and Wales, it is not illegal to possess nitrous oxide – but that could soon change. The UK’s home secretary, Priti Patel, has asked her scientific advisers to review the evidence on the harm associated with its use....
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Pile the bodies high
The UK government always claimed their response to COVID-19 was “led by science”. As both government and the science community descend into a quagmire of public spats, what can we learn about the dangers of coupling politics with science? The...
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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...
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Beyond the academy: democratising user involvement in health & social care
This is a post about user involvement in the context of UK university research. All UK universities are currently finalising and submitting their impact case studies for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The REF is “the UK’s system for...
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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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Doctors as border police: what happened to ‘first, do no harm’?
Building trust and acting in the patient’s best interests are guiding principles of medical practice. This is especially true when caring for vulnerable and marginalised people, such as undocumented migrants. They often delay going to the doctor and find it...
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"Let them eat resilience"
The genealogy of the vocabulary of resilience and why it matters for public health Nothing about the title of this post is original. The main title imitates that of an essay by historical sociologist Margaret Somers called ‘Let them eat social capital’,...
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Trouble in Arcadia: Citizen-led planning in the English countryside
The Localism Act (2011)identified local communities as best placed to determine the nature of development in their areas. Apparently, by empowering and responsibilising local communities, the rhetoric of localism in neighbourhood planning, marks an attempt to square democratic engagement with...
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Frankie Boyle’s hamster & the NHS long-term plan
Back in what now seems like a curiously quaint era for UK civil democracy, the Scottish Independence referendum was the once-in-a-generation opportunity for a group of people to take back control™ of their own political destiny. Despite what must have...
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Matt Hancock- another victim of Perpetual NHS Shock Syndrome (PNSS)
This week, Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, called for radical change in the NHS workforce in order to support doctors and nurses who experience trauma in their daily work. Indeed Mr Hancock went so...
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Around a million children in the UK are living in destitution