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“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

About Stephen Watkins

Stephen Watkins is Director of Public Health for Stockport, and active in the BMA and Transport & Health Study Group. He writes here in a personal capacity.

Articles by Stephen Watkins

This week's editor

Rosemary Bechler is openDemocracy’s Editor.

Digital Liberties

How to fight for digital human rights?

Authoritarian governments hate Wikipedia, which is why you should get involved
John Lubbock
E-residency: the citizenship of the future?
Jaak Erik Laja
The backfire effect, bad objects, and changing our minds online
David Beer
"Surveillance is the business model of the internet"
Agne Pix and Bruce Schneier
Pushing together solutions to polarization and manipulation in social media
Ricardo Poppi
Internet equality is about to get Trumped – let’s build a wall to defend it
Matthew Linares

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

Constitutional conventions: best practice

Does an "ageing population" make it harder to afford our NHS? A look behind the rhetoric

Stephen Watkins 30 November 2016

Jeremy Hunt claims the "ageing population" poses a challenge "as serious as global warming". New UKIP leader Paul Nuttall says the "ageing population" will force us to see the NHS as merely a "monolithic hangover from days gone by". OurNHS thought it was time to examine such claims - and finds they distort a much more interesting reality...