Every day the clock resets - thinking about the changes we might make

Yesterday, we moved the clocks an hour forward. It’s British Summer Time. When I worked shifts, it was a prized night shift to try and get. These days, it simply means a slightly earlier start to the day. What is different is that most of our clocks adjust themselves automatically. The cooker and one wall clock are the only ones that don’t. I can just about understand how my phone and laptop change the time, but my car doing the same thing is slightly baffling.

I’ve been thinking about the nature of change a lot this past week. Lots of possible reasons, I guess. For example, every couple of days I do the ‘cabbage run’. In the winter time, J likes to give her goats a cabbage each day. They get fresh hay and a goat mix, but rightly so, she likes them to have fresh greens. In the summer, I go hedge trimming and bring home sacks of lovely greenery for them. Anyway, the ‘cabbage run’ is a 1 km walk to Aldi (there are other supermarkets available), and a 1 km walk back. 

Last week while collecting the cabbages, I walked up and down the central aisle (where there is always something to buy that you didn’t know you needed) when my eye was drawn to what looked like flat bottles of wine. They were indeed flat bottles, holding the same amount of wine as ordinary bottles, but where the weight was 84% less than glass bottles. I was intrigued, and bought a few!

Coming home I poured myself a glass, and found the wine was quite drinkable. What an innovation, a change for the better, just like when screw caps replaced corks. That was a change that some folk thought was a change too far. I didn’t, and just like the screw caps, I welcome this latest change. In the summer time, we often pack a rucksack with a picnic and bottles of wine and go and listen to the live music in our local park. These new plastic wine bottles, as well as being much lighter, won’t run the risk of being smashed along the way either.

Some changes are cyclical in nature. We live just north of Blackpool. Like many other coastal and seaside towns, Blackpool has had to reinvent itself. The days when folk from across Lancashire and Greater Manchester came for a week or two in a guest house have long gone. Back in 1894 when the famous Blackpool Tower was first opened to the public, the resort would often get as many as 50,000 visitors each year. By 1937, more than 10 million visitors came to Blackpool! During the 1960/70s visitor numbers went into decline, as cheap Mediterranean holidays gained in popularity. However, post-pandemic there has been a resurgence in its popularity, with record numbers of visitors to the town, there were over 20 million visitors in the year 2022-23.

The ups and downs of the Blackpool tourist industry continue to change, and, at the moment, I think for the better. Last week, Blackpool was named as the most affordable and popular ‘staycation’ destination to visit this year, based upon research undertaken using Google and TikTok data. Ironically, given the changes to Blackpool’s tourist industry, this situation results from more people considering ‘staycations’ over foreign holidays, as a way of saving money and avoiding the stress of flying.

Whilst for many people, Blackpool might be a great place to visit and enjoy a holiday, living here isn’t always so great for many people. Blackpool contains eight of England’s 10 most deprived wards. It has a lower life-expectancy than that of people living in Angola. Life expectancy is one of the key indicators of health across a population. It is usually measured as being the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live when applied across current mortality rates. In Blackpool, the life expectancy for women is 79.00 and for men, 73.4 years. Both these figures are way below the national average, and the gap continues to grow.

Not only do folk in Blackpool live shortened lives, they also spend a smaller proportion of their lifespan in good health and without disability. As with other parts of the UK, health inequalities are a large factor in making this a difficult situation to resolve. There are high levels of smoking, obesity, alcohol and drug misuse, all overlaid with other social determinants of poor health, including poor housing and limited employment opportunities. Blackpool also appears to be a fairly dangerous place to live. Last year, it was the second worst town in Lancashire for criminal activity. The most common crimes during 2023 were violence and sexual offences. Blackpool’s least common crime is bicycle theft. Changing this picture will involve decisions and choices that individuals make, but some will need Government support and funding. Don’t hold your breath though.

Some things don’t change. Last week, I was able to visit some of our Health and Justice Service colleagues working in prisons around the North West of England. I visited two very different male prisons and came away mightily impressed with what I observed. Great care, compassionate approaches being provided in a person-centred way, but in a context that was uncompromising about security and safety. What did I see that made me think some things never change? Many of the men knew little about their own health journeys and when assessed would more often than not say ‘I will need to ask my mum; she will know’. This was even true of a prison officer suspected of being in contact with someone diagnosed with measles. When asked if he had received the MMR vaccination, he responded by saying he didn’t know, and ‘would need to ask his mum’. And yes, I bet my mum would know how to reset that clock on the cooker too!