Will Michael Marmot’s crucial review of health inequalities in England meet the same fate as its predecessor by Douglas Black? Certainly, as our editorial by David Hunter and colleagues points out (doi:10.1136/bmj.c684), there are striking parallels in the timing. Published in 1980, the Black report had been commissioned by a Labour government, but it reported to a less than enthusiastic Conservative one. Hunter et al think the Marmot report will fare better. We must hope so, but can we as doctors do more than just hope?

What prompts me to ask is Jane Moore’s letter (doi:10.1136/bmj.c482). In what she rightly calls “the “contrived and fictionalised image” in Fildes’ …