ISLINGTON
INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS ASSOCIATION
Trendy Islington? Life expectancy like Gaza Strip
28th June 2008
Life expectancy in Finsbury is barely better than in the Gaza Strip, and 14 years worse than some of London’s wealthier areas. Overall, life expectancy for men in Islington is the worst in London.
And inequalities have actually increased since New Labour took power, research by the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) has discovered. For the Gaza Strip, (a poverty-stricken, decades-old war zone, and one of the most densely populated places on the planet), life expectancy is 71 years, according to current US government figures.
The most recent figures from the London Health Observatory show that male life expectancy in the Bunhill ward is just eighteen months longer! By way of further contrast, life expectancy for the privileged Courtfield ward in Kensington & Chelsea is 86.5 years - a staggering fourteen-year gap between it and Bunhill.1 A Department of Health report published in 2007 found that inequalities had actually got worse under New Labour.
It says, “The latest data for 2004–06 show that the relative gap in life expectancy between England as a whole and the fifth of areas with the worst health and deprivation indicators was wider than at the baseline (1995–97) for both males and females. For males, the relative gap is 2% wider than at the baseline (the same as 2003–05) and for females it is 11% wider than at the baseline (compared with 8% wider in 2003–05)”2.
Other statistics released in December 2007 show that life expectancy in Islington is the worst in London for men, and the third worst for women. On average, a boy born today in Islington can expect to die 8.2 years sooner than a boy born in Kensington & Chelsea; for girls, the figure is 7.2 years.3
The real issue is not geography, but class. Health inequalities by social class have been on the rise in this country for thirty years. During the period 1972-6, the gap in life expectancy between social classes I and V was 5.4 years for men and 4.8 years for women. By 1992-6, under the Tories, these gaps had risen to 9.4 years and 6.3 years respectively4.
IWCA representative Gary O’Shea said: “Health inequalities have continued to rise, whether or not Labour or the Tories have been running the country, and whether or not Labour or the Lib Dems have been running Islington. The lesson for working class voters is stark. Voting for these parties is akin to signing your death warrant.”
References:
- London Health Observatory, 'Life expectancy at birth by ward 2001-5' and CIA World Factbook.
- Department of Health, ‘Tackling Health Inequalities: 2007 Status Report on the Programme for Action’, p7. See also the Guardian, 13 March 2008.
- Health Statistics Quarterly 36, Winter 2007.
- Office of National Statstics, ‘Trends in life expectancy by social class 1972-2005’, tables 1 and 3.
17 July 2008 05:49