Please respond to Alex Scott-Samuel <[log in to unmask]>

What this announcement strangely fails to mention is that
despite the UK government's widely acclaimed policies on
reducing healthinequalities in England, they are actually increasing.

This comes as no surprise to many of us, despite the
government’s fulsome rhetoric and its wide-ranging
inequalities policies within the health sector in England.
Abundant evidence demonstrates that what is required is an
'upstream' focus – policy action at the level of
the fundamental causes rather than at the level of their
‘downstream’ impacts. The government’s macroeconomic, trade,
international development and foreign policies depend on the
creation of inequality: not only have they thus no hope of
reducing it, they cannot avoid working in the opposite
direction to the domestic ‘tackling inequalities’ policies.

Furthermore, the patriarchal attitudes which underpin these
policies (aggression, risk taking, over-competitiveness,
emotional illiteracy, and contempt for those who disagree)
are on the increase. The sad thing is that all the causes of
inequality listed above are amenable to government action -
on the one hand, through movement towards a  demilitarised,
egalitarian, publicly provided welfare society; on the
other, through the promotion of parenting and socialisation
which don't emphasise excessive masculine gender roles.

Alex Scott-Samuel
Politics of Health Group
www.pohg.org.uk