Ally Brown
@allybrown.bsky.social
Research Associate in Social Policy @ Strathclyde Uni.
Food policy for THRIVING Food Futures.
Also policy approaches to health inequalities, and to mental health.
Food policy for THRIVING Food Futures.
Also policy approaches to health inequalities, and to mental health.
Pinned
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
Reposted by Ally Brown
One of the biggest challenges in public health & environment-related fields is the miscommunication of population-scale results to the individual-level
This is often caused by the desire to formulate “action” relevant to people’s lives but ends up blaming individuals for things not in their control
This is often caused by the desire to formulate “action” relevant to people’s lives but ends up blaming individuals for things not in their control
November 25, 2025 at 9:10 AM
One of the biggest challenges in public health & environment-related fields is the miscommunication of population-scale results to the individual-level
This is often caused by the desire to formulate “action” relevant to people’s lives but ends up blaming individuals for things not in their control
This is often caused by the desire to formulate “action” relevant to people’s lives but ends up blaming individuals for things not in their control
Reposted by Ally Brown
We have a few spaces left for an in person event on Tax and Poverty on the 5th December in Glasgow.
Aimed at experts and non-experts alike.
Speakers include @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social Sara Cowan (SWBG) and @elainemaag.bsky.social
More info & link to register: www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-an...
Aimed at experts and non-experts alike.
Speakers include @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social Sara Cowan (SWBG) and @elainemaag.bsky.social
More info & link to register: www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-an...
Poverty and Tax Conference - SPA Tax and Social Policy Group
Eventbrite - Tax and Social Policy Group presents Poverty and Tax Conference - SPA Tax and Social Policy Group - Friday, 5 December 2025 at Level 9, Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) Conference, ...
www.eventbrite.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:46 AM
We have a few spaces left for an in person event on Tax and Poverty on the 5th December in Glasgow.
Aimed at experts and non-experts alike.
Speakers include @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social Sara Cowan (SWBG) and @elainemaag.bsky.social
More info & link to register: www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-an...
Aimed at experts and non-experts alike.
Speakers include @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social Sara Cowan (SWBG) and @elainemaag.bsky.social
More info & link to register: www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-an...
Reposted by Ally Brown
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
November 23, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
Reposted by Ally Brown
PhD opportunity with @mark-glasgow.bsky.social, me and Mhairi Mackenzie looking at the Relational Determinants of Intersectional Health Inequalities.
Get in touch if you'd like to discuss.
tinyurl.com/RelateHealth
Get in touch if you'd like to discuss.
tinyurl.com/RelateHealth
November 18, 2025 at 8:33 PM
PhD opportunity with @mark-glasgow.bsky.social, me and Mhairi Mackenzie looking at the Relational Determinants of Intersectional Health Inequalities.
Get in touch if you'd like to discuss.
tinyurl.com/RelateHealth
Get in touch if you'd like to discuss.
tinyurl.com/RelateHealth
Reposted by Ally Brown
This does feel like a major crossing of the Rubicon – the world's best-funded and in many ways most powerful public health agency is now actively pushing disinformation.
I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
The CDC website now disseminates disinformation about vaccines, claiming erroneously that infant vaccines might cause autism, when we know conclusively that they do not. It is difficult to overstate just how dangerous this is. www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
November 20, 2025 at 2:03 PM
This does feel like a major crossing of the Rubicon – the world's best-funded and in many ways most powerful public health agency is now actively pushing disinformation.
I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
Reposted by Ally Brown
Relying on personal nutrition and exercise as the main pandemic strategy is a nice idea, but it leaves huge swaths of the pop exposed. Individual agency just isn’t equitable! people don’t all have the same time, resources etc to ‘optimise’ themselves to safety
www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
RFK Jr.’s Miasma Theory of Health Is Spreading
The agency is picking up Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s argument that a healthy immune system can keep even pandemic germs at bay.
www.theatlantic.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Relying on personal nutrition and exercise as the main pandemic strategy is a nice idea, but it leaves huge swaths of the pop exposed. Individual agency just isn’t equitable! people don’t all have the same time, resources etc to ‘optimise’ themselves to safety
www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Ally Brown
I just asked Claude to turn one of my lectures into the script for an Adam Curtis documentary and I am not sorry
November 14, 2025 at 8:24 PM
I just asked Claude to turn one of my lectures into the script for an Adam Curtis documentary and I am not sorry
Reposted by Ally Brown
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Reposted by Ally Brown
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
November 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
Reposted by Ally Brown
Huge COPs are an equity issue.
We don't hear marginalised voices above the din of who can afford the pavilions, flights, comms teams, or hosting.
theconversation.com/the-un-clima...
We don't hear marginalised voices above the din of who can afford the pavilions, flights, comms teams, or hosting.
theconversation.com/the-un-clima...
The UN climate talks have become too big for their own good
Cop30 will have 50,000 delegates. But bigger Cops are not better Cops.
theconversation.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Huge COPs are an equity issue.
We don't hear marginalised voices above the din of who can afford the pavilions, flights, comms teams, or hosting.
theconversation.com/the-un-clima...
We don't hear marginalised voices above the din of who can afford the pavilions, flights, comms teams, or hosting.
theconversation.com/the-un-clima...
Reposted by Ally Brown
🚨 NEW in @bjpols.bsky.social : When Partygate hit Westminster, trust in Scottish politicians increased. Our experiments reveal a "contrast effect" - scandals at one level can make the other look better by comparison. Who lost most trust in Westminster? Scottish unionists. Read now #OpenAccess 👇
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
🚨 NEW in @bjpols.bsky.social : When Partygate hit Westminster, trust in Scottish politicians increased. Our experiments reveal a "contrast effect" - scandals at one level can make the other look better by comparison. Who lost most trust in Westminster? Scottish unionists. Read now #OpenAccess 👇
Reposted by Ally Brown
💯 You can basically lift this word-for-word for healthcare too.
Can’t quite believe I’m saying this but: more funding *for these services* isn’t how I’d fix criminal justice! Probation & courts 100% need more money, but big increases are already planned. I’d focus on drivers: housing, substance misuse, lack of opportunities, behavioural/speech & language issues
- significant funding increase for police, the courts, probation and the prison service
- action to lower energy costs (this looks like happening)
- more tax powers for councils so they can increase their own spending power on local amenities etc (poorer areas are already destined for more funding)
- action to lower energy costs (this looks like happening)
- more tax powers for councils so they can increase their own spending power on local amenities etc (poorer areas are already destined for more funding)
November 10, 2025 at 6:23 PM
💯 You can basically lift this word-for-word for healthcare too.
Reposted by Ally Brown
Good thread, lots of competing (with different advocates and 'fashions') and shifting meanings of health inequalities (as other concepts such as population health), v evident in English policy and debate too over time.
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
November 6, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Good thread, lots of competing (with different advocates and 'fashions') and shifting meanings of health inequalities (as other concepts such as population health), v evident in English policy and debate too over time.
Reposted by Ally Brown
The contrast between how expensive the cars are in this country and how shabby everything else is tells you that we absolutely can afford to electrify the railways and a million other nice things, but we have politicians that are terrified of asking for a few pennies extra in tax
November 9, 2025 at 8:26 AM
The contrast between how expensive the cars are in this country and how shabby everything else is tells you that we absolutely can afford to electrify the railways and a million other nice things, but we have politicians that are terrified of asking for a few pennies extra in tax
Reposted by Ally Brown
Food industry corporate greenwashing
www.foodpolitics.com/2025/10/food...
Comparing promises ("we will be good", "we care") with actions
"food companies have no market incentive to reduce their environmental impact if it is going to raise their costs".
www.foodpolitics.com/2025/10/food...
Comparing promises ("we will be good", "we care") with actions
"food companies have no market incentive to reduce their environmental impact if it is going to raise their costs".
November 8, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Food industry corporate greenwashing
www.foodpolitics.com/2025/10/food...
Comparing promises ("we will be good", "we care") with actions
"food companies have no market incentive to reduce their environmental impact if it is going to raise their costs".
www.foodpolitics.com/2025/10/food...
Comparing promises ("we will be good", "we care") with actions
"food companies have no market incentive to reduce their environmental impact if it is going to raise their costs".
Reposted by Ally Brown
Check out this terrific new work by @allybrown.bsky.social!
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
November 5, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Check out this terrific new work by @allybrown.bsky.social!
Beautiful autumn leaves, very silly dog (Marble)
November 6, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Beautiful autumn leaves, very silly dog (Marble)
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
November 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
Reposted by Ally Brown
Look for this factor and you see it - and its absence - everywhere: Starmer and Reeves can't do it, Burnham can. Of the older generation of Democrats, only Biden.
I think one of the underrated things about Mamdani is just that he looks like he’s enjoying himself - which is incredibly appealing.
It’s one of those qualities which helps a lot of the most successful politicians, from Barack Obama to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. Being at ease with yourself.
It’s one of those qualities which helps a lot of the most successful politicians, from Barack Obama to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. Being at ease with yourself.
November 5, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Look for this factor and you see it - and its absence - everywhere: Starmer and Reeves can't do it, Burnham can. Of the older generation of Democrats, only Biden.
Reposted by Ally Brown
🎬 🍿 Official Film Release!
We’re thrilled to announce the public release of Unmasking Influence -now available via the LSHTM Vimeo channel! vimeo.com/1123819285
There is overwhelming evidence that many industries are undermining public health.This documentary makes the issues visible and relatable.
We’re thrilled to announce the public release of Unmasking Influence -now available via the LSHTM Vimeo channel! vimeo.com/1123819285
There is overwhelming evidence that many industries are undermining public health.This documentary makes the issues visible and relatable.
Unmasking Influence - The Official Trailer
This trailer is for a film called Unmasking Influence. Unmasking influence is about how commercial actors influence policy and public health. Many of the major…
vimeo.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
🎬 🍿 Official Film Release!
We’re thrilled to announce the public release of Unmasking Influence -now available via the LSHTM Vimeo channel! vimeo.com/1123819285
There is overwhelming evidence that many industries are undermining public health.This documentary makes the issues visible and relatable.
We’re thrilled to announce the public release of Unmasking Influence -now available via the LSHTM Vimeo channel! vimeo.com/1123819285
There is overwhelming evidence that many industries are undermining public health.This documentary makes the issues visible and relatable.
Reposted by Ally Brown
Here's a paper we wrote about how it's actually very bad that a "context of constrained funding has incentivised... providers of adult education, sports, arts and community services to demonstrate ancillary wellbeing benefits." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40447986/
Reading as therapy: medicalising books in an era of mental health austerity - PubMed
In the UK, a range of everyday activities are being re-framed as interventions to promote public mental health. Drivers of this include the rising burden of mental ill-health and constrained funding for community-based arts and educational provision, in the context of austerity. A consequent interes …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
October 29, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Here's a paper we wrote about how it's actually very bad that a "context of constrained funding has incentivised... providers of adult education, sports, arts and community services to demonstrate ancillary wellbeing benefits." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40447986/
Reposted by Ally Brown
Jesus Christ. We go mad about one bloke we wrongly released, yet hear next to nothing about this horror? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
More than 50 child asylum seekers still missing after disappearing from Kent care
Council data obtained by the Guardian shows 345 children have gone missing in recent years, many probably taken by traffickers
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Jesus Christ. We go mad about one bloke we wrongly released, yet hear next to nothing about this horror? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Ally Brown
New post out:
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
"The worst social policy ever"
We have a couple of bonus guest posts over the next week.
open.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:27 AM
New post out:
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
Reposted by Ally Brown
X is a cesspit led by an unhinged billionaire who is desperately trying to stir up civil war in Britain.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
October 29, 2025 at 8:22 AM
X is a cesspit led by an unhinged billionaire who is desperately trying to stir up civil war in Britain.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
Reposted by Ally Brown
We are in the process of creating a new journal for our community, the Population Health Journal, and we are now inviting applications for editors:
journals.gla.ac.uk/phj/announce....
journals.gla.ac.uk/phj/announce....
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| Population Health Journal
journals.gla.ac.uk
October 24, 2025 at 11:18 AM
We are in the process of creating a new journal for our community, the Population Health Journal, and we are now inviting applications for editors:
journals.gla.ac.uk/phj/announce....
journals.gla.ac.uk/phj/announce....