Activity

The Black Report (1980), a report of a research working group on Inequalities in Health, makes fascinating reading – not least because health inequalities persist to this day in the UK – well over 30 years later. A copy of the original report can be accessed on the website of the Socialist Health Association, along with other commentary reflecting a socialist perspective: www.sochealth.co.uk/public-health-and-wellbeing/poverty-and-inequality/the-black-report-1980/  An edited version of the report was also published by Penguin in 1988 along with a subsequent report The Health Divide. You may be able to access this from your University or Public library – Inequalities in Health (1988) London: Penguin Books, containing The Black Report – Sir Douglas Black, Professor J.N. Morris, Dr Cyril Smith, Professor Peter Townsend, edited by P. Townsend and N. Davidson – and The Health Divide by Margaret Whitehead.

Spend some time finding out about health inequalities and consider what it is about UK society, politics and policy that has resulted in these matters not being resolved to any real extent.