Mind the Gap

Merlene Emerson - Your First Choice for London <info@merlene.org.uk>

Mind the Gap

September 3, 2008 12:00 AM
By Merlene Emerson

After weeks of news reports of our successes at the Beijing Olympics, we are now forced to return to a new staple of gloom and doom. Not only has last month been the dullest August since records at the Met office began, but Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling has now warned us of the worst economic downturn in 60 years!

Moreover, a recent UN World Health Organisation report by an English professor, Sir Michael Marmot, has claimed that a "toxic combination" of poor government policies around the world has led to widening health gaps. In the UK, shorter life expectancy and ill health of the more disadvantaged have brought down the average life expectancy to 79 years, trailing behind many other countries including Australia, Canada and Italy. Put bluntly, the report claims that "social injustice kills".

This is not entirely surprising news to us. Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg has long stressed that the status quo cannot continue. He had decried the fact that we live in a country in which the poorest people die 13 years sooner than the richest. In fact the report showed the discrepancy could be as much as 28 years, giving as an example the life expectancy of a boy born in the suburb of Calton in Glasgow with one born in Lenzie only a few miles away.

What we must not forget in this discussion is that many ethnic minority communities in the UK are often found in the poorer wards. In fact a study on poverty by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2007 concluded that people from ethnic minorities are on average more likely to suffer income poverty than white British people. And that almost half of all children from ethnic minority backgrounds are living in poverty.

Regrettably, after 10 years under Labour (as admitted by Alan Johnson, their health secretary) we have not managed to close the wealth gap. In fact the gap has widened. In response to the WHO report, Norman Lamb MP Lib Dem spokesperson for health proclaimed that the "widening health inequalities will be Labour's most shameful NHS legacy."

As for the Tories, we can hardly expect any real solutions from them. Their panacea for healing a 'broken' society include tax breaks for married couples (presumably with single people footing the bill) and a return to Victorian-style welfare provision with greater reliance on the voluntary sector. The latest proposal from their shadow chancellor, George Osborne is to double the inheritance tax threshold for married couples to £2m(!), a clear indication of where his priorities lie.

There is of course no silver bullet and we will need to have a whole range of policies to tackle the growing wealth and health gap, ranging from fairer taxation and better state education to more affordable housing and improved transport systems.

The UN Report did however say that the UK has been doing some things right. The most important of these seems to be in measuring and monitoring the problem to begin with. But what the Commission has also called for is that every government policy and programme should in addition be assessed for its impact on health.

Now, that to me is a great recommendation for all of us to continue to "mind this gap!"