THE POOR DIE SOONER

This follows my post the other day on the Public health England (PHE) study of premature death in England.

The Office for national statistics (ONS) publishes life expectancy data for the UK and you can read them in the excel file at Trends in life expectancy by National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC ),1982-2006. The tables there show that men and women from different socioeconomic classes have different average life expectancies at birth and at age sixty five.

The evidence is clear. Now what? Well, the PHE and ONS data raise questions about how we tackle inequalities in health and income and whether we look afresh at age-related support (such as the state pension) which in current form benefits richer, longer-living pensioners more those who are poorer and die sooner. Labour has made a tentative start on this latter politically problematic issue.

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HOW WELL IS CORNWALL ?

Public health England (PHE), an executive agency of the Department of Health concerned with health inequalities, has published some comparisons of health and mortality between local authorities in England. The data is called Longer lives and you can access it here. Begin by putting Cornwall in the search box on the home page. From there you can explore the data. Note the dates of the data.

In terms of overall premature mortality Cornwall is 47th out of 150 local authorities (where 1st is best); Cornwall is on the 69th percentile, that is, has better outcomes than 69 percent of the authorities. Cornwall is in the 6th socioeconomic decile (where 1st is most deprived) based on the index of multiple deprivation.

Cornwall is concerningly among the worse-than-England-average in the suicide statistics: see item 4.10 here or here (put Cornwall in the top box).

ADDENDUM 12 June 2013 Sky has published a map of the variation in premature deaths which this PHE report reveals: here.

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WHERE IS CORNWALL ?

This is a map of the world around 300 million years ago. The world landmass is one, Pangaea, and has modern states mapped onto it.

The landmass reflects Alfred Wegener’s continental drift theory.

The map was created by Massimo Pietroban. See here and here. The texts are in Italian.

Here’s an article and the Pietroban map and others to show Pangaea at different times. These texts are in English.

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HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE THERE IN CORNWALL

… and other questions

This is a summary of population and related statistics for Cornwall from the 2011 census.

The ONS divides the country into several areas of differing sizes. The ones I look at here are output areas (OA), lower layer super output areas (LSOA), wards, and constituencies. In blogposts have called the LSOAs subwards.

In Cornwall (excluding Scilly) there are 1792 OAs, 326 LSOAs, 123 unitary council wards, and (including Scilly) 6 parliamentary constituencies. The LSOAs and their census code numbers can be found by the interactive map here.

The average population of an OA is around 300 and of an LSOA 1500. Each has a distinctive 2011 census code number.

The census population of Cornwall was 532 273. There were 230 389 households each with an average of 2.3 people. Cornwall comprised 354 619 hectares with an average population density of about 1.5 per hectare.

The PHP01 tables, giving the details of the census population statistics for the OAs, LSOAs, and wards, released 23 November 2012, are here. The constituency figures are mid-2011 estimates (released 30 May 2013) and are here.

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FOOD POVERTY WORSENS

I wrote about food poverty in Cornwall this post at the end March. Now there is a report for the whole country, Britain, our country, in 2013: Food banks now a lifeline for half a million people in Britain (Guardian 30 May 2013).

Walking the breadline
Yes, Labour to its shame saw food banks increase but this is now on a different scale. Look, too, at the role that the Tory Libdem benefit changes play.

Here is the very recent report from Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam on the rise in food banks. Read and weep: Walking the breadline. You can also access the report here.

From the executive summary, Walking the breadline
“Some of the increase in the number of people using food banks is caused by unemployment, increasing levels of underemployment, low and falling income, and rising food and fuel prices. The national minimum wage and benefits levels need to rise in line with inflation, in order to ensure that families retain the ability to live with dignity and can afford to feed and clothe themselves and stay warm.

More alarmingly, up to half of all people turning to food banks are doing so as a direct result of having benefit payments delayed, reduced, or withdrawn altogether. Figures gathered by the Trussell Trust (see page 13 of this report) show that changes to the benefit system are the most common reasons for people using food banks; these include changes to crisis loan eligibility rules, delays in payments, jobseekers allowance sanctions and sickness benefit reassessments.

There is clear evidence that the benefit sanctions regime has gone too far, and is leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale.”

Cornwall MPs
I should like to hear the response of the six Cornwall MPs to Walking the breadline and how they see misery and food poverty being ended.

In Cornwall
There appear to be eighteen food banks in Cornwall: Bodmin, Bude, Callington, Camborne, Camelford, Hayle, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard, Penryn, Penzance, Redruth, Saltash, St Austell, St Columb Minor/Newquay, St Ives, Truro, Wadebridge.

Water
Not only food, also water. Read this report fromn the House of Commons Library about the rising cost of water bills: Water bills – are they affordable by all? (24 May 2013).

UPDATE 4 June 2013
See this story in the Western Morning News: Soaring demand for food banks as emergency hand-outs become ‘a way of life’

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CORNISH GRASS

I have often drawn attention to our wide and varied family, explaining that you – and, yes, me – come from stardust and are related to the pipid frog and that the differences between the Cornish and English are trivial.

Now Brian Cox has reminded us that we are related to grass. He says we and grass “share the same common ancestor. You are all related. You were once the same”. More, “the fundamental similarities between all living things outweigh the differences” (Brian COX Wonders of life BBC 2013. Hat tip Maria Popova where you can read more).

Earlier posts on this theme
The origins of the Cornish 8 March 2013
Monkeys and me 24 October 2012
English and Cornish share a part neandertal ancestry 23 October 2012
A common source for the English and Cornish 14 May 2012
A walrus, a mouse, and a man went into a bar 18 July 2010
Puny boundaries 19 May 2010
To see oursels as ithers see us 17 May 2010
A wondrous mixture 8 May 2010
The Cornishman, the Englishman, and the frog 2 May 2010
The first Cornishman 1 May 2010
Cornwall 5460 years ago (The Balaresque study) 31 January 2010
Atomising people 12 September 2008
Blue-eyed Cornish and English are brothers 31 January 2008
English and Cornish are sisters under the skin 20 July 2007
English and Cornish have same milk gene 10 March 2007

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SAME SEX MARRIAGE

“This bill will make a lot of people’s lives much better” Diane Abbott Hansard 21 May 2013 column 1167

The Commons passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill yesterday by 366 votes to 161 on third reading (Hansard 21 May 2013 column 1169). It now goes to the Lords. Details of the bill are here.

An injustice is on the way to being righted.

This is a summary of Hansard’s record of how Cornwall MP votes at second and third readings of the bill.

Second reading 5 February 2013 (Hansard division 151 column 231)
Voted for: Andrew George, Stephen Gilbert, Sarah Newton, Dan Rogerson
No vote recorded: George Eustice, Sheryll Murray

Third reading 21 May 2013 (Hansard division 11 column 1169)
Voted for: Andrew George, Stephen Gilbert, Dan Rogerson
No vote recorded: George Eustice, Sheryll Murray, Sarah Newton

Sarah Newton has confirmed she abstained at third reading: read here.

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