I was disappointed with the credence given by Andrew Moscrop to the extreme political views of Michael fitzpatrick's The Tyranny of health. 1 fitzpatrick gives voice to the fashionably cynical view of politicians and health promotion and fails to address the ill health promotion of other, more powerful tyrannies.
Health promotion is about empowering individuals to make informed choices about their own health.
This sees health not as the goal of life, but as a resource that can improve the quality of people's lives. It requires not only the provision of accessible health information, but also changes to policy making by governments and others to remove obstacles to healthy choices in people's socioeconomic state and environment. As such I welcome its recognition and inclusion in the Labour party's policies. If health promotion has been unsuccessful in the past this is because previous governments have relied on education without the support of policy change. We are not all quitting smoking, cutting drinking, eating more healthily, or exercising more regularly.