Many lessons can be learned from drink driving and smoking laws to tackle obesity
Obesity has been a hot topic over the past week. The government announced it would delay its plan to implement restrictions on junk food marketing and volume-based price promotions. These had been presented as key elements in the strategy to reduce obesity. With a timing which was either impeccable or pure good luck, the Cancer […]
From Covid deaths to Usain Bolt: statistics are never black and white
Who is the greatest 100 metre male runner of all time? The answer seems obvious, even if you lack sporting common knowledge, it is only a quick Google search away. Usain Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds is unchallenged. Both Tyson Gaye and Yohan Blake are quite away behind with records of 9.69. This year’s Olympic […]
Boris Johnson’s political capital to extend Covid restrictions is waning as more Brits are vaccinated
Millions of Britons piled into social gatherings up and down the country to watch our boys notch up a notable triumph over the Croatian football team on Sunday. We will never know for sure how many of these were compliant with the current Covid regulations, but it is a fair bet that a sizeable minority […]
Calorie counting gimmicks and sugar taxes won’t solve obesity crisis
In the early days of the pandemic obesity was identified as a key factor behind hospitalisation rates and deaths from Covid. The Prime Minister knew this personally, from his own brush with mortality last April. This is on top of the already well-established links between obesity and other life-threatening conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, […]
Decentralising the NHS could be a game-changer for the UK’s future health
The NHS is a highly centralised organisation. During the Covid crisis, policy decisions have been made at the top and then passed down. There has been little scope for showing initiative at a local level. This dates back to when the NHS was set up in the late 1940s. Central planning was very fashionable at the time. […]
Coronavirus: NHS staff are let down by bureaucracy
The praise for health workers dealing with Covid-19 is universal. From cleaners and porters to the most distinguished consultant, all have played their part. But they are working in an administrative system almost Kafka-esque in its lunacy. An early example was when NHS workers turned up to be tested at the huge PHE complex at […]
A tip for Dominic Cummings: Don’t hire anyone who fails to grasp the power of incentives
The job advert issued by Dominic Cummings for people to work in government has attracted a wide range of comments. One particular focus has been on the sorts of skills he is looking for. Computer science, forecasting, artificial intelligence, causality theory — all these topics excite his interest. Cummings advocates a small selection of scientific […]
Tragedy awaits if we don’t bridge the gap between beliefs and reality in the NHS
A tragic story over the weekend revealed how a man who died of lung cancer was failed abysmally by the NHS. Two separate sets of doctors omitted to tell him for over a year that he had the disease. The added poignancy of the news item was that the victim was a relative of Nye […]
Global cyber-attack: not a new problem
Last month, the largest global cyber-attack in history recently infected Windows computers in a network. It utilised a security glitch in the Windows operating system that allowed it to jump from computer to computer on an internal network. Only this week, yet another ransom attack spread across the world. The WannaCry attack was in terms […]
The NHS will never have enough cash: the English religion needs reformation
We British like traditions. A well-established one which comes round every year is the “winter crisis” in the NHS. Health provision is a political hot potato not just for this government, or indeed for any particular UK government, but for governments across the developed world. One of the key assumptions made by economists about human […]
