“HEY DID YOU HEAR THE GREAT NEWS?”

(Yes, that sounds strange! But take two minutes to hear three good news stories from this week and why they matter, and let me know what you think.)

Why Object to Inequalities in Health and Well-Being? A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Inequality Aversion With Members of the General Public To examine whether: (1) reasoning for distributional preferences depends on the domain of inequality; (2) reasoning for distributional preferences is …

New co-authored paper confirms people in UK are inequality averse 👇
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mqwy3vkP0...
Health inequality was regarded as less visible than financial inequality & more unacceptable if caused by it. Some preferred equality even when nobody was better off, citing fairness & cohesion.

Too often, we assume people don’t get social determinants of health. New @scothealtheq.bsky.social Scottish Social Attitudes data suggest otherwise: strong support for action on health inequals & high awareness of economic factors (eg ⬇️poverty = most popular option for cutting alcohol & drug deaths)

@publichealthscot.bsky.social are also marking this milestone & have produced an overview of evidence on the cumulative impacts of smoke-free policy over the past 20 years: publichealthscotland.scot/media/37920/... This shows wide ranging health impacts, while noting concerns around stigma.

Two decades later, the lesson is clear: good policy intentions are not enough. Success came from clear purpose, political will, public engagement & meticulous planning for implementation and enforcement. Policymakers didn’t just design the policy; they drove its delivery. We need that focus again.

Tomorrow marks 20 yrs since public places in Scotland became smokefree. Scotland was the first of the 4 UK nations to make this change & it remains one of Scotland's major public health successes. So i's important to reflect on how this policy success was achieved: www.strath.ac.uk/research/ast...

Are you interested in how the 4 UK nations are approaching health policy? Join our webinar in association with @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social to hear from Will Hutton, @profellenstu.bsky.social, Prof Ann Marie Gray, Prof Katherine Checkland & Dr Lorelei Jones on this. acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

The anti-Muslim hostility definition is a step forward — but it's not enough For years, Britain has argued not only about how to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, but whether it could even be defined in terms that public institutio...

From me on @politicshome.bsky.social re the new definition: a step forward because official recognition is better than official silence, but weakest when confronting structural racism: 👇🏽
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

This article is bouncing around police social media to a 'round of applause.

It's almost as if the kinds of over-simplified ideas within it are not being played out and tested in a public inquiry where people died, isn't it?

Such attitudes and such outcomes are related -

1/

Really honoured to speak with friends at Black Histories, and reflect on shared experiences. Full link below www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This Herald piece summarises latest @scothealtheq.bsky.social analysis - there's a big issue with young men in Scotland experiencing poverty and they are often falling between policy support: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2584912...

Poverty among young adult men in Scotland - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit Our findings

New SHERU analysis highlights a concerning rise in poverty among young men in Scotland – a key group of interest from a health inequality perspective.

scothealthequity.org/poverty-amon...

🎉 Free research support for third sector & community orgs!

Launching the Centre for Health Policy's new Community Research Cafes!

First cafe: Wed 25 Feb, 2-4pm at Townhead Village Hall, 60 St Mungo Ave, G4 0PL.

Drop in for tea, cake & expert advice on your research & evaluation ideas ☕ 🍰

New @centrehealthpolicy.bsky.social blog by @lisagarnham.bsky.social @profellenstu.bsky.social & @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social & me summarises what lived experience insights show us that traditional research evidence misses about housing and health: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/c...

The incarceration of people for months and years without trial for offences that are in essence political has no place in a democracy like ours.

And in case it needed saying Greens oppose BOTH the increasing criminalisation of protest AND the removal of jury trials!

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

the Epstein files are revealing a lot about interest group influence and regulatory capture

because academics typically would never have access to this informal politics, it’s likely scholars working on business power have underestimated the extent to which public interests are being undermined

New @centrehealthpolicy.bsky.social blog by Jackie Stewart reflects on how global health research has been shaped and skewed by historical funding power dynamics, and how new work on Health Research Prioritisation seeks to change this: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/c...

Scotland’s public services are still “living within the lie” - Enlighten Mark Carney’s recent speech in Davos was framed as a geopolitical intervention. But its real power lay elsewhere. It was a warning about how systems persist not because they are effective, but because...

This blog captures so well the public sector challenge in Scotland - worth a read: "The language is impressive. The frameworks are sophisticated. The documents are polished. The conferences are busy. But beneath the rhetoric, the incentives tell a different story." www.enlighten.scot/scotlands-pu...

The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction: Stories, Movements, and Hope Abstract. In recent years, the UK has seen the emergence of a new approach to violence reduction—the public health approach. This method prioritizes early

Looking forward to reading this new (open access) book on public health approaches to violence reduction by my lovely colleagues @crmnlgy.bsky.social Fern Gillon and others: academic.oup.com/book/61855

Global health burdens of plastics: a lifecycle assessment model from 2016 to 2040 Adverse health effects are associated with emissions throughout plastics lifecycles, particularly from production, though the non-disclosure of plastics chemical composition is severely limiting LCA c...

new paper in @thelancet.com estimating the global health burdens of plastics

I think this is one of the first analyses that quantifies the impacts of plastics across its entire lifecycle (from extraction to waste) and highlights the pretty staggering health effects of our current economic system

Prevention Watch January 2026 - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit Prevention Watch is a regular Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU) briefing that looks at prevention as a means of public service delivery to reduce health inequalities in Scotland.

Our January edition of Prevention Watch is out today.

In this edition, we look at prevention in the Scottish and UK budgets, a report on health and employment, links between wealth inequality and suicide, and England’s new youth strategy.

Check it out here: scothealthequity.org/prevention-w...

Creating Hope Together: Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-2029 The second three year action plan of Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy (2022-2032)

The Scottish Government’s new suicide prevention plan, "Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026–2029", is now out: www.gov.scot/publications...

Great to be part of this. Michael Lambert and I contributed a paper called “Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health” on renewed interest in ‘place’ as a ‘common sense’ policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing. Read for free here: miniurl.com/k85lq8iu

Now out! Special Issue 'Competing Narratives in Decentred Health Systems', guest edited by @profkatsmith.bsky.social, Justin Waring & Mark Bevir, and PACKED with great papers from leading authors applying decentred theory to key issues in #publichealth
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

I have a paper on the post-politics of multistakeholder partnerships in a new special issue of @cphjournal.bsky.social on 'narratives, agency and resistance in critical public health'

great to be involved in an SI with so many brilliant colleagues and all papers are open access

Understanding the Problems of Medical Student Exposure to Pharmaceutical Marketing The chapter raises an important question regarding the motivation of the pharmaceutical industry to engage in the socialization process of future doctors during their academic education, even though t...

Understanding the Problems of Medical Student Exposure to Pharmaceutical Marketing

Marta Makowska

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

#COI #CDoH #Pharma #MedEd

& @lisagarnham.bsky.social for working with us to develop a housing-health system map that layers lived experience perspectives on top of other evidence (we had to develop new mapping tool to enable this so it was no small feat): sipher_housingandhealth.layeredsystemsmaps.com/view/housing... 3/3

For me, this paper really underlines the value of good public engagement. Without this, there's so much researchers & policymakers can miss or (mis)assume. Huge thanks to @profellenstu.bsky.social for leading SIPHER's community engagement so well www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/... 2/3

More on SI paper with @lisagarnham.bsky.social @profellenstu.bsky.social @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social: creating housing-health maps, we found alignment btwn policy & research but different views frm those with lived experience of housing struggles: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc... 1/3