Page 6 - The Plain Truth Spring-Summer 2026

Gethin Russell-Jones

Suffer the little children

Christ’s sacrifice brings freedom from sin and shame

grew up in an era when it was taken for on record. This creates a staggering 20-year ‘health gap’
granted that life would get better for people. between the nation’s wealthiest and poorest postcodes.
With the UK State Pension age currently at 67, the data
I Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was suggests that a vast portion of the population will succumb
plenty of poverty and ill health but also a sense to chronic illness or infirmity nearly two decades before
that we were on top of it. The welfare state, they are eligible to retire. In the most impoverished areas,
properly funded, would shape a society that was residents are essentially biologically old by their late 40s.
healthy, educated and aspirational. The Royal College of Physicians and other health bodies
And for those who needed a helping hand, have responded to this data by pointing toward the social
0$!.! 3 / /5/0!) +" !*!Ƃ0/ 0+ ((!2% 0! determinants of health rather than just clinical failures.
The report identifies several systemic factors fuelling
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. this decline:
However, from a 2026 perspective, endless Housing Quality: Damp, cold, and overcrowded
global economic crises and myopic political housing contributing to respiratory and chronic conditions.
leadership have resulted in an impression that Food Insecurity: A ‘broken food system’ making
we are on the road to nowhere. calorie-dense, nutrient-poor diets the only affordable
Indeed, a couple of recent reports involving option for millions.
Economic Inactivity: A surge in adults unable to work
0$! Ɖ ! "+. 0%+* ( 0 0%/0% / ʼn ŋ $ 2! due to long-term sickness, which creates a feedback loop of
highlighted the feeling that the collective poverty and further ill health.
treadmill is now in reverse.
A turning point for the nation’s children
Biological recession Another report and more alarming news. Data released by
A report published by the Health Foundation and the the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) and the
ONS, paints a sobering picture of what has been termed ONS, also reveals a country at a crossroads. For the year
the UK’s ‘biological recession’. It highlights a nation where ending March 2025, England saw 3,492 child deaths (ages
overall life expectancy has largely plateaued, but the quality 0 – 17). While this represents a slight 2% decrease from the
of those years – specifically Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) previous year, the figures remain stubbornly higher than
– is in a sharp, historic decline. pre-pandemic levels.
The report suggests the average number of years Perhaps more tellingly, 2026 is projected to be the
a person can expect to live in ‘good health’ has fallen by first year in over a century where deaths may outnumber
approximately two years over the last decade. Nationally, births in the UK, a demographic turning point that places
the average man can now expect only 60.7 years of good the health and survival of every child under a renewed,
health, while for women, the figure stands at 60.9 years. urgent spotlight.
Perhaps the most alarming statistic in the report is The most accurate tool for assessing the health of the
that for men in the UK’s most deprived areas, healthy life nation’s children isn’t a stethoscope but a map. The gap
expectancy has dipped below the age of 50 for the first time between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ has widened into

6 The Plain Truth Spring-Summer 2026 Find us online at www.plain-truth.org.uk