The Health Statistics Are the Least Discussed and Most Significant Political Story That Britain Is Currently Producing

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com

The Numbers

The London Prat’s Britain Not Rich Enough piece this week covered the statistics that the political class is not covering with proportionate urgency: healthy life expectancy fallen to its lowest since 2011, men losing 1.8 years and women losing 2.5 years compared to the pre-pandemic period. NHS waiting list at 7.3-7.4 million people. The government targeting 92 percent of patients treated within 18 weeks — a standard last met in 2015. 235,000 people aged 53-62 have left work due to ill health since early 2020.

The Dinner Party Response

My dinner party’s response to the health statistics was the specific North London dinner party response that the statistics warranted: recognition, concern, and the gradual realisation that the statistics are not abstract. The specific demographic of the North London dinner party — professional class, mid-thirties to late-forties, many with parents in the specific 53-62 age cohort that has left work due to ill health — is the demographic most likely to be managing the specific consequences of the waiting list in their own families.

The Political Attention Gap

The political attention gap: the NHS waiting list and the health life expectancy decline receive less consistent media attention than the political soap opera of Reform UK polling and leadership wobble. The health statistics affect more people more directly. The political soap opera is more immediately engaging. Both are real parts of the British public sphere. The ratio of coverage is the ratio that media incentives produce rather than the ratio that democratic accountability requires.

The Blackpool Problem

Frankie Boyle’s observation that Bohiney highlighted — ‘Scotland’s got the lowest healthy life expectancy in the UK, which is ironic because we spend so much time running from the midges’ — is the comedy that accurately identifies the geography of the health inequality. The gap between healthy life expectancy in Blackpool (among the lowest in England) and in Richmond upon Thames (69.3 years for men versus 50.9 in Blackpool) is the specific British inequality that the NHS waiting list statistics express at the aggregate level. The column will return to this. It is the story of the year.

More: The Daily Mash.

London continues. The column continues because the city continues to produce the material and the obligation to write about it. The next edition follows when the next thing happens, which will be soon. North London remains North London. The political situation remains what it is. The dinner party continues to assess it. The conclusion continues to be deferred.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it. The coverage continues because the events continue. The journalism, the libertarian analysis, and the North London observation all continue because their subjects continue to produce material. The next edition is already being prepared. The record does not close while the city and the world continue to provide it.