Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- one Introduction
- two Progress in tackling health inequalities: a policy maker’s reflections
- three Inequalities in mortality rates under New Labour
- four Explaining inequalities in health: theoretical, conceptual and methodological agendas
- five Inequalities in pregnancy and early years and the impact across the life course: progress and future challenges
- six Inequalities and ethnicity: evidence and intervention
- seven Housing conditions and health
- eight Inequalities in food and nutrition: challenging ‘lifestyles’
- nine Behaving badly? Smoking and the role of behaviour change in tackling health inequalities
- ten Health inequalities and user involvement
- eleven Gilding the ghetto again? Community development approaches to tackling health inequalities
- twelve A new agenda for social work: tackling inequalities in physical health
- thirteen Challenging health inequalities: themes and issues
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
three - Inequalities in mortality rates under New Labour
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- one Introduction
- two Progress in tackling health inequalities: a policy maker’s reflections
- three Inequalities in mortality rates under New Labour
- four Explaining inequalities in health: theoretical, conceptual and methodological agendas
- five Inequalities in pregnancy and early years and the impact across the life course: progress and future challenges
- six Inequalities and ethnicity: evidence and intervention
- seven Housing conditions and health
- eight Inequalities in food and nutrition: challenging ‘lifestyles’
- nine Behaving badly? Smoking and the role of behaviour change in tackling health inequalities
- ten Health inequalities and user involvement
- eleven Gilding the ghetto again? Community development approaches to tackling health inequalities
- twelve A new agenda for social work: tackling inequalities in physical health
- thirteen Challenging health inequalities: themes and issues
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Introduction: learn to talk like me and be an angel too
Things can only get better
they can only get better, now I found you
Things can only get better, they can only get better,
now I found you
and you and you
You have shown me prejudice and greed
And you’ve shown me how I must learn to deal with this disease
I look at things now in a different light than I did before
And I’ve found the cause
and I think you can be my cure
So teach me to …
Walk your path, wear your shoes, talk like that, I’ll be an angel and
Things can only get better …
(www.lyricsdownload.com/d-ream-things-can-onlyget-better-lyrics.html)
New Labour came to power in 1997 to the theme of D:Ream's ‘Things can only get better’. As the lyrics to its campaign tune said, it thought that it had found the cause of all that was wrong in Britain and that it was the party that would be the cure to the disease of prejudice and greed. It was going to be an angel – and things could only get better.
Prior to 1997, throughout the long 18 years of Conservative government, Labour had referred to the issue of increasing social inequalities in health as an area of particular concern. Thus it was surely a good sign that before the May 1997 election it had announced that it would launch an independent inquiry into inequalities in health. The inquiry was launched in July 1997, with Tessa Jowell, the new Minister for Public Health, criticising the health strategy of the previous administration for ‘its excessive emphasis on lifestyle issues’, which ‘cast the responsibility back on to the individual’ (DH, 1997). She gave a commitment regarding the inquiry's findings that these ‘conclusions, based on evidence, will contribute to the development of a new strategy for health’ (DH, 1997).
The independent inquiry report duly appeared (Acheson, 1998). It presented a wealth of evidence on the extent and trends of inequalities in health. This, together with a large body of other evidence drawn together in the report, demonstrated clearly that the previous two decades had seen large and growing inequalities in income in Britain, and that these had been accompanied by equally stark increases in health inequalities and in life chances more generally defined.
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- Information
- Challenging Health InequalitiesFrom Acheson to 'Choosing Health', pp. 31 - 46Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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