Are more people dying because the rich are getting richer at the expense of the rest?

Are more people dying because the rich are getting richer at the expense of the rest?

Annual Public Health Lecture, University of Southampton, January 14th 2016

This evidence is often hidden, or at the very least hard to find, but it will soon emerge more fully into public debate: there has been a stalling in one of the key official indicators of health improvement in the UK in recent years. One key indicator concerns Potential Years Lost of Life or early mortality, among men. Professor Danny Dorling’s talk will examine evidence, such as the fact that, during late 2015 it emerged that there had been a rapid rise in mortality due to drug poisoning in England. Earlier deaths of elderly women had risen in absolute terms and life expectancy fell for that group in the UK. However overall life expectancy in the UK rose as immigration rose and more healthy migrants arrived. How can we begin to try to understand all this in a context of high inequalities of income and rising inequality in wealth? And where are we heading in terms of future economic precarity and likely health outcomes, including for our mental health?