Recent research from the Health Foundation has revealed that people in the UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago. Britain is actually ‘going backwards’ on healthy life expectancy compared with most other rich countries according to the foundation’s study. The findings are nothing less than a sad and damning indictment on the sick society we live in and the craven behaviour of politicians of all stripes who have been in thrall to the activities of big business, especially Big Food and Big Alcohol, for years.
Of course, the unaccountable multi-million-pound lobbing industry is part of the problem too. Their actions in stalling legislation to ban advertising and reduce the harmful effects of junk food and binge drinking have enabled fast food companies and the drinks industry to peddle their unhealthy products almost free of restrictions while avoiding any responsibility for the harms that they cause.
More than a decade ago, I used to work for a health inequalities campaign organisation in the north west of England, Our Life, which was set up by the NHS in the region and supported by many local authorities. Our work on alcohol harm highlighted the real harms being caused to communities across the region and the country as a result of booze being sold at rock bottom prices.. Many of the findings in the Health Foundation study therefore come as no surprise to me, given the campaigning work that I was involved in back in the day – campaigns which, incidentally, saw the organisation I was working for come under sustained attack by the vested interests of the drinks industry and their big business backers.
Those campaigns included efforts to introduce a minimum price for alcohol – a policy measure proven to reduce alcohol harm and save thousands of lives – and also sustained efforts to address ‘food deserts’ by improving access to fresh, healthy and affordable food in local communities.
This latest analysis of healthy life expectancy in 21 countries by the Health Foundation shows that the UK population’s health is poor, getting worse and not seeing the same steady improvement enjoyed by countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain, where healthy life expectancy went up by an average of four-tenths of a year across 20 other comparable countries. Deep health inequalities between rich and poor are also key factors in the increasing numbers of Britons dying earlier than they need to.
The Health Foundation study would seem to indicate that nothing has changed in this area in the UK for more than a decade. Actually, this is not strictly true. Things have got worse. The politicians who have enabled this sad state of affairs should hang their heads in shame.
