Another parliamentary question we don’t need to wait for the official answer to:
FFS Adam, you were a leftie! You know the answer – reduce inequality! I know you were hoping to blame the feckless poor for stuffing their weans with Mars bars and cocaine in front of the TV but here’s evidence that core Tory policies to maximise corporate profits, reduce taxation, allow exploitative advertising, minimise public services and increase our opportunities to earn poverty wages and live in slums, creating and worsening inequality, are significantly to blame. You can read scatter-graphs and correlations, I hope?
https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/
As for what the Scottish Government is doing to compensate for their policies, see these:
Scottish Government fighting Tory austerity helps thousands hit by benefits cuts
Brutal evidence of austerity in England & Wales as abortion rate soars 40% higher than in Scotland
New pregnancy and baby payments to offset Tory austerity in Scotland
Author AL Kennedy defends Scotland as more caring than ‘austerity England’
Scottish Government continues to fight brutal Westminster austerity politics
Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths
Scottish Government fights to protect against the effects of Tory austerity cuts.
Another brass-neck award goes to the Scottish Tories!
Talking-up Scotland 
Here is the answer for the idiot Tomkins.
Click to access triple-i-overview-report-apr2019-english.pdf
Click to access scotpho181003-income-based-policies-in-scotland-briefing-paper.pdf
LikeLike
Brilliant! Thanks
Delayed by WordPress re urls!
LikeLike
I have been writing to NHS Scotland asking about what it might do to raise public awareness of the fundamental causes of health inequalities in Scotland and the lack of devolved powers to address those causes. The links are what came back.
NHS Scotland regards itself as apolitical and is therefore unwilling to campaign for more devolved powers or independence. Health inequalities are all about bad politics. So says the WHO.
What is proposed here is innovative and undoubtedly useful – I hope. Note, though, the limitations placed on what can be achieved to address the fundamental causes of inequalities without independence or more devolved power.
It would be great if you wished to convert some of this information into a post and /or put up the links.
I am going to suggest to NHS Scotland that it seeks to make this topic one of those discussed at a Citizens’Assembly. I have hopes for that idea.
Best wishes – you do a great job and are one of my favourite bloggers.
Sam
LikeLike