It takes more than just a hard winter to explain why children are getting weaker and life expectancy has ‘Stopped'.

Party conference season is, to borrow a phrase, a good time to bury bad news. The focus of the media is on the soap opera struggles amongst the respective party elites and what kind of a fist the leaders make of their keynote speech.

While we’ve all been wondering how you mix an ‘exotic sprizm' two stories limped out into the world that deserve more attention than they've received. They shed light on the troubles we face now and suggest a worrying future ahead.

Children in the UK are physically weaker than they were sixteen years ago and life expectancy has stopped improving for the first time since 1982.

A report published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport by academics from the University of Essex examined the strength and fitness levels of 1200 children from Chelmsford in Essex over twenty years, finding that today’s children are taller and heavier than they were sixteen years ago, they also scored lower in strength tests.

The researchers also found that the decline in strength is accelerating, from 0.6% over the decade between 1998 and 2008, between then and 2014 strength levels declined by 1.6%.

Over the period covered levels of obesity have barely changed, 80% of the children tested had a normal BMI yet were found to be unfit, in contrast 70% of the children deemed to be obese were physically fit.

Dr Gavin Sandercock who led the programme told the BBC that the idea of a ‘healthy weight' was misleading and that the findings suggested children were less active now, he said ‘inactive lifestyles are a health risk,’ adding that physical fitness is ‘the single best measure of health in childhood and into adulthood'.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that life expectancy has stopped rising and in some parts of the country it is going into reverse, currently men can expect to live for 79 years and women for 82.
A spokes person for the ONS told the BBC that a higher than expected number of deaths between 2015/17 was down to a bad flu season and that there was an ‘ongoing debate’ over other potential causes.

Some academics have linked the stalling of life expectancy to government austerity policies, Dr Kingsley Purdem of Manchester University told the BBC that ‘poverty, austerity and cuts to public services are impacting on how long people live'.

Others have suggests a wider range of causes, also speaking to the BBC Professor Stephen Evans of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said ‘ we still do not know how much of this is a result of direct health effects such as flu epidemics, how much is a result of social and economic factors and how much is a failure to go on improving smoking cessation and other preventive measures’.

What is clear is that the UK lags behind other developed nations including France, the Netherlands and Japan when it comes to life expectancy.

The story here isn’t, mostly, about bad parents feeding their children burgers and using the TV as a childminder whilst they smoke and drink themselves into an early grave; however much health campaigners might wish that to be the case. There is something else happening that goes to the troubled roots of our society.

At the heart of our bright, busy world is a black knot of feat. If children are less active now than they were just sixteen years ago it is because their parents are fearful about letting them play outside. The schools they go to are run by adults who because fear falling down the Ofstead league tables squeeze any activity that can’t be quantified through testing out of the curriculum.

Life expectancy is stalling because our lives are becoming a toxic cycle of work, stress and worry. Poverty is exhausting, the endless effort needed to get through the day grinds people down, fear is here too, in the shape of a growing dread amongst the working and middle classes that one bit of bad luck could see them joining the line outside the food bank.

For years, maybe decades, we have been able to ignore the elephant in our national drawing room, we can do so no longer. The rising numbers of people sinking like stones because they can no longer swim in the choppy waters of modern life show how badly things have gone wrong.

If we are going to stop the decline in life expectancy and give the next generation any chance of living healthy lives. We have to stop chasing the impossible goal of endless growth and look again at our priorities, swapping those tied to brutal individualism and the demands of business for ones that respond to our needs as human beings instead.

Today’s children may never get the chance to see a local badger or marvel at their complex and amazing setts

This month Environment Secretary Michael Gove authorised a further 11 licences to cull badgers, taking the total across the UK to 31.

Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust said that by doing so he had ‘given the green light to the largest destruction of badgers in living memory’.

The Trust estimate that 40,000 badgers have been culled so far this year, taking the total since 2013 to 75,000, by 2020 the number of badgers culled is predicted to have reached 150,000 at a cost of £50million to the taxpayer.

The cull was instigated, following lobbying by the NFU the League Against Cruel Sports claim on their website, as a measure to combat the spread of bovine TB.

One of the areas where a licence has been granted is Staffordshire, the company charged with implementing the cull has been authorised to kill between 3184 and 4311 badgers.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust have refused to allow the cull to take place on their land, chief executive Julian Woolford told the Sentinel that it was ‘unacceptable’, adding that it was a ‘dangerous distraction from addressing the main route of TB transmission in cattle'.

Vaccination of cattle against TB is currently banned under EU law, despite the main route of transmission being between cattle.

The League Against Cruel Sports and the Badger Trust both advocate the vaccination of badgers as an alternative to a cull. This approach has also been backed by the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee, which called on the government to produce a clear strategy for doing so in 2013.

The League also oppose the cull on grounds that it is inhumane. They claim that 18% of badgers shot die after a protracted period of suffering.

They also point to the ineffectiveness of a cull in protecting cattle from TB, a point supported by tests conducted in Wales earlier this year.

In July The Independent reported that out of 37 badgers trapped and blood tested 5 were found to be infected with TB and killed. When the tests were repeated under laboratory conditions the tests proved negative, suggesting that no conclusive evidence for badgers transmitting TB is available, a finding the government refutes.

Quoted in the Sentinel Farming Minister George Eustice cites official figures showing that after a cull in Gloucester the incidence of TB in cattle fell from 10.4% to 5.6%, saying that it is ‘evidence that our strategy for dealing with this slow moving and insidious disease is delivering results'.

He added that the government was ‘committed to pursuing a wide range of interventions to protect the future of our dairy and beef industries’.

The issue of badgers culling is hugely emotive and taps into deep concerns about the government’s stewardship of the environment.

In a joint statement quoted in the Sentinel Staffordshire Badger Conservation Group and Staffordshire Against the Cull said they were ‘highly concerned' that a cull will lead to ‘the extinction of badgers in Staffordshire’.

They add that ‘today’s children may never get the chance to see a local badger or marvel at their complex and amazing setts'.

MIND survey finds that people with mental health problems living in social housing are dissatisfied with conditions.

A survey conducted by mental health charity MIND has found a significant proportion of people with mental health problems living in social housing (33%) are dissatisfied with the quality of their accommodation.

The charity spoke to 2009 people in January this year, 1762 of whom had a diagnosed mental health problem and of these 668 were living in social housing.

Respondents described experiencing prejudice and stigma from neighbours and housing officials, as a result 43% of the people questioned said their mental health had declined as a result.

Poor housing conditions have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, figures produced by homelessness charity Shelter show that a greater proportion of people living in social housing (45%) have a diagnosed mental health problem compared to the general population.

They are also more likely to have issues with addiction, behaviours that are often coping mechanisms associated with mental distress. More people living in social housing (36%) report having poor or very bad physical health, this rises sharply as individuals reach pension age (58%).

Sophie Corlett, Director of External Relations for MIND said, ‘social housing is meant to be safe, secure and low cost, making it a good option for people with mental health problems who need it, she went on to say that currently they are ‘being let down at every stage- the current system just isn’t working'.

Among the problems identified by the MIND survey was stigma and intimidation experienced by people with mental health problems living in social housing from their neighbours.

Kathy from Merseyside and her husband experienced abuse from a noisy neighbour and Nadia a single mother from Hackney suffered a deterioration in her own mental health and that of her son due to living in poor quality social housing.

Nadia told MIND about the impact this had had on her life saying, ‘my son has been set back a year in his studies and I have been hospitalised from the stress of being placed in poor quality housing’.

Both women struggled getting support from either their local council or housing authority, despite both having statutory responsibilities towards tenants in social housing.

Kathy told the MIND survey, ‘everyone deserves a safe place to call home and we are desperate to move. The housing authority said we just have to put up with it’.

The survey found that some respondents (43%) found navigating their way through the social housing system difficult, with 27% saying they had had difficulty claiming either housing benefit or Universal Credit and 15% experienced prejudice from housing officials.

In April a report from the charity Money and Mental Health showed that more than a million adults in the UK with mental health conditions are struggling to meet high housing costs.

MIND is calling on the government to use the launch of its green paper on social housing to place a greater focus on the needs of people living with mental health problems when making policy.

If this does not happen then, as Sophie Corlett put it a social housing system that should be supporting people living difficult lives will continue to let them down.

Voter ID is an expensive solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

The government has launched a call for councils to join a second round of trials of its costly and controversial voter ID scheme.

Campaign group the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has described the first round of pilots as a ‘dangerous distraction’ from more serious problems. Government sources though have described them as a ‘success' and now want to expand the next round to cover a wider range of communities.

At the local elections this year 350 people were denied the opportunity to vote because they could not produce photo ID. Ellie Reeves, MP for Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich, one of the five areas selected taking part in the trial tweeted ‘just been to vote, was informed that two people had already turned up without ID this morning so had been unable to vote', adding that this was ‘very worrying and backs up all the evidence that voter ID pilot in Bromley is plain wrong' (source: News Shopper, May 2018).

Writing in an article published in the ERS website Darren Hughes says it is ‘welcome' that the government has decided to expand its trials to cover a more economically and socially diverse test group, however he questioned the level of insight this will provide into the likely impact of voter ID on marginalised groups.

The ERS have highlighted concerns that providing photo ID at the polling station might be a barrier to participation for people in low income communities, many of whom do not possess passports or driving licences.

There is also a possibility that following the Windrush scandal members of BAME and immigrant communities might be reluctant to vote for fear that producing ID could put their residency status at risk.

LGBT campaigners have also expressed reservations, earlier this year Ruth Hunt, Stonewall, told the Pink News that ‘for trans and non-binary people in particular this has the potential to cause significant problems, as some may not have photo-ID that reflects their identity'.

Personation, the type of fraud introducing the requirement for voters to produce ID was intended to combat, is scarcely a feature at UK elections. At the 2017 general election just 28 claims of personation were made resulting in a single conviction.

If introduced nationally voter ID would cost, according to cabinet office figures reported by the ERS, between £4.3 and £20 million, with investigating possible cases of personation, were rates to match 2017, costing £700,000 per case.

Writing on the ERS website Willie Sullivan says the government has ‘its priorities all wrong, forking out millions of pounds of taxpayers money on this sledgehammer of a policy', adding that doing so is ‘not just unwise, but irresponsible too'.

Despite the concerns expressed the government is committed to pushing ahead with further trials, minister for the constitution Chloe Smith described the policy as a ‘reasonable and proportionate measure’ and said the trials had been a ‘success’.

A position challenged by UK fact checking organisation FullFact, who are quoted on the ERS website saying that ‘in a single day across five councils twice as many people didn’t vote due to having incorrect ID as have been accused of personation in eight years in the whole of the UK'.

Requiring voters to prove their identity in order to exercise their democratic rights seems like a clumsy, expensive and possibly counterproductive way to address a problem that barely exists.

As Darren Hughes writes ‘to lose one honest voter is an error. To lose thousands is a tragedy and one we can avert. For all minister’s efforts to rope councils into this policy, we can’t help feeling they’d be better promoting improved engagement, not creating additional barriers'.

Holiday hunger is on the rise as life expectancy stalls.

The number of children experiencing ‘holiday hunger', not having access to enough food during the long summer holiday is getting worse according to the findings of a survey reported in the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

The survey was carried out by the National Education Union (NEU) and polled 657 members, 59% of whom said they had seen children coming back to school after the long break ‘looking visibly less well nourished'. A direct consequence of their families not being able to afford to buy enough food.

The members questioned said the problem had got worse in the past couple of years (51%) and more than half said (59%) said support in and out of school for struggling families was not enough to meet demand.

NEU chief executive Ros McNeil told the TES that ‘such extensive poverty simply should not exist in a county with the world’s fifth largest economy', adding that charities and faith groups were ‘left to pick up the pieces where the government has failed'.

Also speaking to the TES children and families minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government wanted ‘every child to have the best chances in life and since 2010 there are 300,000 fewer children living in absolute poverty'.

He drew attention to the £2million the government had made available to be spent providing free meals for struggling families during the school holidays.

Ms McNeil said the extra money was ‘welcome’ but ‘nowhere near enough to tackle the desperate plight of families and children'.

The NEU survey comes hard on the heels of data from the Office for National Statistics showing that the rate at which life expectancy in the UK is slowing down for the first time in decades.

It has fallen from 12.9 weeks a year for women in 2006/11 to 1.2 weeks in 2011/12, and for men from 17.3 weeks to 4.2 weeks over the same period.

Sir Steve Webb, former Liberal Democrat pensions minister and director of policy at insurer Royal London, told the BBC that the UK had ‘slumped from being one of the strongest performers when it comes to improving life expectancy to bottom of the league'.

Adding that ‘there is a real human cost behind these statistics and we urgently need to understand more about why this is happening'.

Figures from the Citizens Advice Bureau published in The Independent recently show household debt ballooning to £19billion with council tax and utilities costs making up the lion’s share of the burden. The Chartered Institute of Housing have also reported that the poorest families living in private rented accommodation face a shortfall of £140 per month thanks to the four-year freeze on housing benefits (source: The Guardian).

There is no question that families on low and increasingly what used to be thought of a modest but adequate income, are caught at the centre of a perfect storm. Debt, poverty and destitution go together to make a grim progress matching anything created by Hogarth. Only they are driven down this route by circumstances outside their control rather than bad choices or moral weakness.

The idea of children going hungry during the holidays or at any other time in a rich country with pretentions to be a world power seems like something belonging to the world of my parent’s childhood in the thirties; not the Britain of the twenty first century. Yet that and worse is the awful reality faced by over a million people.

No wonder life expectancy is stalling, it may soon start to decline, and the fault can be laid nowhere else other than at the door of the government. Since 2010 they have pursued austerity policies that have done huge damage to the most vulnerable members of society.

There is a scene in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, a book often read as a twee fantasy rather than an alarming social allegory, where Scrooge is shown two starving children, the Ghost of Christmas Present thunders at him that ‘written on their foreheads is that which is doom!’

Cut out the Victorian bombast and you can’t help wondering what the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come might show Mrs May and her government, if she stopped dancing long enough to listen. My guess is it would be a riff on the same theme, only played in a darker tone.

When a country’s life expectancy starts to go into reverse and its children go hungry it is a symptom of deep-seated social problems. The sort that no amount of pomp and circumstance, or nostalgia for a misremembered past can hide.

When that same country is on the brink of taking a political and economic leap into the dark; it has that makings of a recipe for disaster.