>Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 08:53:28 +1200
>From: "Peter Davis (ARTS SOC)" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Fw: UK health inequalities - Guardian report
>...But let us note that under the current government there has been, in
>contrast to the previous administration, a dramatic decline in
>unemployment..
Just for the record, the drop in unemployment during the five years of the
last Conservative government's period of office (1992 -1997) was greater than
in the first 5 years of Labour's, both in absolute numbers (750,000 against
525,000) and in the percentage drop (down by 27pc against 26pc). Figures from
the LFS.
On the broader point , why should we expect falls in unemployment ('dramatic'
or otherwise), reductions in child poverty, and redistribution of income to
the poor to lead to 'corresponding reductions in health inequality'? What we
should expect, and what ministers no doubt believe has happened, is that the
least well-off should experience an improvement in their health, relative not
particularly to the better-off but to what their health was before the said
changes. Inequalities matter more to academic social scientists than they do
to the poor, who care more about absolute improvements rather than relative ones.
Paul Ashton
[log in to unmask]
2005-09-14
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