Talking-up Scotland

I think some eye-catching points got lost in my large piece of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Poverty in the UK, so I’m re-posting excerpts:

‘Across the four countries of the UK, Wales has consistently had the highest poverty,

only slightly lower than London and similar to the North East. Scotland has generally

had the lowest poverty but has seen a rather different pattern to the rest of the UK –

poverty rose slightly between 1994/97 and then remained constant to 2013/16.’ (P29)

Poverty ‘remained constant’ in the face of central Tory austerity cuts? So that’s a wee plus for the Scottish Government?

‘However, in the latter part of the 2000s, the picture began to diverge. Scottish pensioners

began to experience slightly lower poverty rates than the other nations and, from 2010/11, Welsh pensioners began to see significant increases in poverty rates.’ (P64)

Labour-led devolution in Wales, SNP-led devolution in the latter 2000s in Scotland.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017