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Motherhood in Western Europe

Insights from Western European Mothers

The changing face of motherhood — Western Europe

The accompanying reports combine a review of existing literature with an analysis of original quantitative data derived from a poll of 9,582 mothers from 12 countries in Western Europe, making it one of the largest studies of this kind ever conducted

Child Obesity and Health

An analysis of the latest available data from the Health Survey for England (HSE)

Child Obesity and Health — download the full report in pdf format

In this ‘National Childhood Obesity Week’, the SIRC report, Children, obesity and heath: Recent trends, holds up a true mirror, accurately reflecting the trend towards slimmer, healthier children. more

The Future of Freemasonry

An examination of the role of Freemasonry in the 21st century

Freemasonry

This report is, as far as we know, an account of the first ever study that has been commissioned by Freemasons from a non-Masonic body. None of the SIRC members involved in the project are Freemasons, a fact that evoked surprise and welcome in equal measure from the Lodge members we met. more

The Changing Face of Motherhood

Insights from three generations of mothers

Motherhood

The report seeks to answer some specific questions about the changing face of motherhood and determine the extent to which modern ‘solutions’ to motherhood are more or less beneficial than the solutions of the past. more

Media and government duped by slimming industry

The £2bn UK slimming industry has yet again obtained many pages of free advertising from our more gullible newspapers – and despite cynical exploitation of the anxieties of young women about their weight, will not be held to account at Tessa Jowell's summit on eating disorders.

A Slimming Magazine survey generated the sort of headlines the diet industry loves, such as "Being fat makes us miserable and ruins our sex lives" in the Express, followed by uncritical reports which failed to make any mention of the vested interest Slimming Magazine (which also runs a chain of lucrative slimming clubs) might have in hyping the miseries of being overweight and the benefits of slimming.

Meanwhile, Tessa Jowell has invited representatives of the fashion and modelling industries to be scolded at a Downing Street 'summit' about their role in promoting the thin ideal that leads to eating disorders. The slimming industry, which uses the health establishment's own favoured methods of moralising and scare-tactics to promote weight-obsession and dieting, is not implicated in this process and clearly has the tacit support of the government.

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