ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the cost to the National Health Service (NHS) of unemployment, poverty, inadequate housing and environmental conditions and sets out some of the major parliamentary bills which are needed to bring about positive changes in the health of the nation. Any minister of health who arranged to increase the NHS annual budget by this amount would be hailed as a saviour of the service. The strain on our immune systems imposed by new pollutants and stress creates a pool of illness which cannot be counted. Social conditions - lack of social support and integration, and a sense of powerlessness, together with the disruption of communities by agents as diverse as traffic, videos, and the cult of individualism - are known to have a significant effect on health. Unemployment causes poverty and social breakdown. It stresses the people affected and it stresses the economy as a whole. Unemployment is the water on which people sail - the basic assumption.
