Inequality and Oxford
(1) In every university city in which I have lived a colleague has always pointed out how remarkably socially divided that city is.
Heavy price paid for war in Afghanistan (letter)
The 17-year war has been a costly disaster, deepening the country’s crisis and helping to spread violence across the region and beyond, say actors including Mark Rylance, MPs including Imran Hussain, and other campaigners
So, when was this series of “periodic bad winters”?
The author of a recent BMJ editorial claims that: “In summary, the general deceleration in mortality improvements in many high income countries since 2010 has been compounded by periodic bad winters.“
Dying quietly: English suburbs and the stiff upper lip
The English suburbs are dying. Years of austerity have slowly changed the landscape. Poverty is now common in the suburbs. Since 2014 life expectancy has been falling across most of England, especially in the suburbs.
You may see now (and the UK) as normal – but that badly colours how you think
I came home this evening to hear the local BBC news begin with the headline ‘Oxford hospitals NHS trust suspended midwife services‘
Linking mortality to the past – solving the geographical problems
Audio recording of the Keynote Lecture given by Danny Dorling at the annual British Society for Population Studies conference, Winchester, September 12th 2018
After the Fall [in Life Expectancy]
‘And you, my father, there on that sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light’ (Dylan Thomas, 1947)
Public Inquiry into rising mortality in England announced
In June 2018 the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) released data for England that revealed mortality rates to be rising across the country. This rise in mortality rates had occurred even after having taken out the likely impact of population ageing.
London’s highly inflated housing market is entering a period of equalisation
Britain in 2025 will be very different from today. London and the UK reached peak inequality in 2018.
A Talk on Peak Inequality at the Book Fringe, Edinburgh, August 22nd 2018
In early 2018, Britain reached a peak of income inequality. The last peak was in 1913, and so much goes so wrong when inequality peaks.
Improving life expectancy used to be the UK’s forte – now it’s falling behind
Despite the evidence DHSC claims “..generally people are living longer.” The government’s response is not sufficient. Persistent concerns from academics, doctors, professional bodies, and public health experts have been consistently disregarded by the DHSC
Tip-toeing to the right in the UK (1979-2014)
In hindsight we should have seen it coming. But none of us did, or at least no one who looks for the best in others.
The contraction of the financial sector takes place very quietly
Hidden in the detail of these figures was the news that Britain’s finance and insurance industries had shrunk, albeit only by a tenth of one percent.
Which children in Britain will have no holiday this summer?
The majority of the poorest fifth of children living in the UK have no summer holiday – or any holiday at all each year – and this has been the case for at least a decade now. However people are now learning to lower their expectations.
The long hot summer before the war – peak inequality
The last time inequality peaked in the UK was around 1913/1914. It appears to be peaking again this summer.