The 2017 Labour manifesto for health, like the road to hell, is paved with good intentions.
Its pledges include improving children’s and mental health services, more funding for NHS and social care, tackling obesity and other public health prevention initiatives. However, unlike the Beveridge report of 1942, which considered the social determinants of health in the round, with its plan to slay the five giants of want, disease, ignorance, idleness and squalor, this manifesto for health has no public health framework. It is puzzling to see the issues of tackling unhealthy foods, obesity, physical activity, smoking and alcohol tucked under public health and the NHS, when what is required is an appreciation of the wider health political economy and the roles of industry and poverty. Redistributive policies are absent as are legislative actions, apart from on food labelling, advertising and a sugar tax.
