FYI some correspondence from the Social Policy Mailing List
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From: Social-Policy is run by SPA for all social policy specialists
Subject: Re: Fw: UK health inequalities - Guardian report
Critics of New Labour's record on tackling inequality need to come up
with specific policies that the government has not to date entertained
that, if implemented, would make the difference and that are politically
and practically feasible. To note the intransigence of existing
inequalities is the easy part; this is a commonplace of sociological
observation that keeps many colleagues - and the Guardian - happily in
employment.
But let us note that under the current government there has been, in
contrast to the previous administration, a dramatic decline in
unemployment, a significant reduction in child poverty, and a slow, but
steady and cumulatively marked, redistribution of income. So, this has
not translated into corresponding reductions in health inequality. Why
not? The obligation is now surely on the critics - and the rest of us -
to identify how this relatively beneficent picture of macro social and
economic policy success might be translated into an equally striking
improvement in health outcomes.
Peter Davis
Professor and HoD, Department of Sociology
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
NEW ZEALAND
Ph.: +64-9-3737-599, x 85109(City), 89740(Tamaki)
Fx.: +64-9-3737-439
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