Social Murder in the Department of Health
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21602524 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gerry Mccartney (0000-0001-6341-3521, Gerry McCartney is Professor of Wellbeing Economy at the University of Glasgow.), Wendy Hearty (0009-0003-8396-6897, Wendy Hearty is an independent researcher.) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 390-401 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scottish Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-0356 • E-ISSN: 2053-888X |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/scot.2026.0599 |
| OpenAlex | W7167833320 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
In this article, we discuss the evidence of what has caused life expectancy trends across the UK to stop improving after 2012. This evidence has already been extensively reviewed in a report published by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) and subsequently as a book ( McCartney, et al, 2022b ; Walsh & McCartney, 2025 ). In order to bring the evidence to life, and to other audiences, we present the evidence through an imagined conversation that might have taken place in the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care in the autumn of 2024
Conversation · Health care · Life expectancy · Occupational safety and health · Population · Social care · Suicide prevention · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Healthcare Systems and Challenges
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The reemergence of Engels’ concept of social murder in response to growing social and health inequalities
Austerity, not influenza, caused the UK’s health to deteriorate. Let’s not make the same mistake again
Scaling Covid-19 against inequalities
The contribution of changes to tax and social security to stalled life expectancy trends in Scotland
First, do no harm’
Trends in healthy life expectancy in the age of austerity
Social security cuts and life expectancy
Trends in psychological distress in Great Britain, 1991–2019
Public opinion on welfare state recalibration in times of austerity
Is austerity a cause of slower improvements in mortality in high-income countries? A panel analysis
| Highly cited | No |
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