Reading for Battle
Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Health & Well-being
Ignore these scaremongers - I'm not giving up my bacon butties!'
So now it's the great war on bacon. After the battles against smoking, alcohol and being fat, the not-so-innocent breakfast staple is the latest target of the increasingly preposterous health police.
Michael Hanlon, The Daily Mail, 1 November 2007
So now it's the great war on bacon. After the battles against smoking, alcohol and being fat, the not-so-innocent breakfast staple is the latest target of the increasingly preposterous health police.
Michael Hanlon, The Daily Mail, 1 November 2007
Obesity: the big fat lie
The hysteria whipped up around the problem of obesity obscures awareness of what is and what is not a genuine cause for concern
Viviene Parry, The Times, 19 October 2007
The hysteria whipped up around the problem of obesity obscures awareness of what is and what is not a genuine cause for concern
Viviene Parry, The Times, 19 October 2007
Obesity 'as bad as climate risk'
News report on government plans to tackle obesity
staff writer, BBC News, 13 October 2007
News report on government plans to tackle obesity
staff writer, BBC News, 13 October 2007
Enhancing the species
Our correspondent meets the controversial philosopher John Harris, who argues that we have a moral and ethical duty to improve the human race by biologically enhancing our children
Anjana Ahuja, The Times, 10 October 2007
Our correspondent meets the controversial philosopher John Harris, who argues that we have a moral and ethical duty to improve the human race by biologically enhancing our children
Anjana Ahuja, The Times, 10 October 2007
Diet and fat: a severe case of mistaken consensus
How the fat-is-bad consensus inhibits the scientific study of diet and prevents knowledge of its actual effect on health
John Tierney, New York Times, 8 October 2007
How the fat-is-bad consensus inhibits the scientific study of diet and prevents knowledge of its actual effect on health
John Tierney, New York Times, 8 October 2007
Service design: how does it feel to be our patient?
An unusual change project drafted in anthropologists to explore patients' experiences.
Stuart Shepherd, Health Service Journal, 8 October 2007
An unusual change project drafted in anthropologists to explore patients' experiences.
Stuart Shepherd, Health Service Journal, 8 October 2007
Behaviour change at population, community and individual levels
Behaviour plays an important role in people’s health (for example, smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise and sexual risk-taking can cause a large number of diseases). Interventions to change behaviour have enormous potential to alter current patterns of disease.
NICE, October 2007
Behaviour plays an important role in people’s health (for example, smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise and sexual risk-taking can cause a large number of diseases). Interventions to change behaviour have enormous potential to alter current patterns of disease.
NICE, October 2007
The Diagnosis? We’re just hypochondriacs
Millions of Britons are denying themselves their favourite foods because they wrongly think they are bad for them. They are victims of wholly imagined ailments that stop them enjoying many dishes.
Emma Bamford, Daily Express, 18 September 2007
Millions of Britons are denying themselves their favourite foods because they wrongly think they are bad for them. They are victims of wholly imagined ailments that stop them enjoying many dishes.
Emma Bamford, Daily Express, 18 September 2007
The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues
Considers whether current police powers in the UK to take and retain bioinformation are justified by the need to fight crime.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 18 September 2007
Considers whether current police powers in the UK to take and retain bioinformation are justified by the need to fight crime.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 18 September 2007
Experts disagree over NICE's approach for assessing drugs
This month, the UK's High Court ruled in favour of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence decision to limit access to drugs for Alzheimer's disease. But the legal win is unlikely to stem the recent spate of controversies surrounding the institute.
Richard Hoey, The Lancet, 25 August 2007
This month, the UK's High Court ruled in favour of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence decision to limit access to drugs for Alzheimer's disease. But the legal win is unlikely to stem the recent spate of controversies surrounding the institute.
Richard Hoey, The Lancet, 25 August 2007
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