Talking-up Scotland

The Independent newspaper headlined with: ‘Scotland’s wind turbines provided more electricity than the country needed four days in a row’ and went on to enthuse with this:

‘The total amount of wind energy produced on Christmas Eve was also the highest ever, with more than 74,000MWh sent to the National Grid – equivalent to the average daily electricity needs of 6.09 million homes. And, as energy use fell on Christmas Day, wind turbines provided 153 per cent of Scotland’s electricity needs.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/scotland-wind-turbines-more-electricity-country-needs-four-days-renewable-energy-power-national-grid-a7517066.html

Thirteen other news agencies including the Scotsman, STV and reddit also enthused about this ‘massive progress’! Who could have missed it? Oh yes, our massively staffed and resourced  ‘national broadcaster’, BBC Reporting Scotland found no time for this story. I wonder why? Well, could it be because it suggests that an independent Scotland could soon be not just energy-self-sufficient but a net exporter to the rUK desperate to break its dependence on Russian gas and having just stopped fracking to try and save the Tory vote?

Just in case you didn’t know there are far less than 6 million homes in Scotland. With a population of just over 5 million it must be less. I couldn’t find the statistics but I seriously doubt there will be more than 3 million. Let me know if you can find the actual figure. You’ll see also above there was 153% production on Christmas day so as we further develop wind power, a constant export supply seems likely.

STV did fairly if rather briefly report the story but Reporting Scotland couldn’t squeeze it into one of their typically demoralising shows. They did cover, negatively, in every case:

1. An IPPR Scotland reporting suggesting a skills mismatch in Scotland;
2. That future oil and gas income will be wiped out by rebates for decommissioning of rigs at the tax-payers expense (Won’t the oil companies have costed this in?);
3. Danish fix rooms, planned for Glasgow, are ineffective in reducing drug abuse (They were never intended to do so);
4. Increased drink-driving arrests;
5. The centralised Fire Service is causing increased mistakes;
6. In a pessimistic way, the First Minister’s case for a soft Brexit.

By contrast STV covered:

1. The wind power records;
2. Increased Scottish Government funding for historic buildings;
3. In a fair and balanced way, the First Minister’s case for a soft Brexit;
4. Increased drink driving arrests;
5. Nuclear workers to be balloted on strike action over ‘changes’ to their pension rights.

ITV is a business that cannot afford to reduce advertising income by chasing away Yes supporters who make up around 50% of its viewers. BBC Reporting Scotland, who refuse to release viewing figures, care not and are now in full propaganda mode as they work to hold back the tide of SNP victories in the forthcoming local elections. The Fear campaign did work in 2014 but I feel it’s losing its potency as Scots have become more politically aware. The fatally corrupt local Labour groups are going places….oot the door. With BBC Scotland refusing to link the Scottish Tories to the terrors of the English Tories’ actions, they might hang on a bit and also attract former Labour supporters prepared to put the Union above all their other supposed ‘progressive’ values.

(c) https://twitter.com/dajcameron

NHS England is in a real crisis of monumental proportions this winter. These are typical headlines:

 ‘The worst conditions in memory’: NHS doctors describe a week in A&E

‘Red Cross chief says his ‘humanitarian crisis’ label for NHS fully justified – Politics live’

 ‘Ambulance workers say new cost-cutting measure risks lives’

‘Doctors accuse Theresa May of being ‘in denial’ over NHS hospital crisis’

 Who is Donald Cameron. That’s him above. I don’t recall ever seeing him on TV. Remember the Scottish Tories are the ‘official opposition.’ So far all we’ve had were two teeny wee contributions from Labour’s Anas Sarwar trying to make something out of a small number of cancelled, non-urgent operations and a much exaggerated problem with bed-blocking. See:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/01/05/the-scotsman-and-labours-anas-sarwar-totally-misunderstand-and-misrepresent-the-scale-of-and-the-reasons-why-patients-die-waiting-to-be-discharged-from-hospital/

All I can find from Donald in the last seven days is this:

‘£33m – the annual cost of Scotland’s needless A&E visits. Patients turning up at accident and emergency who don’t need to be there are costing the NHS at least £33 million a year, analysis has shown.’

http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2017/01/33m-the-annual-cost-of-scotlands-needless-ae-visits/

Does he want those patients who are not sure, just to stay at home and, in some cases, die there?  NHS Scotland’s budget last year was £12.2 billion so those worried but actually not very ill patients have wasted 0.27% of it. Remember, of course that if you are really worried, you’re supposed to go to A&E, just in case. Of course, in Tory-run NHS England they had plans to put stern-faced staff outside the doors of A&E units to scare folk away. Maybe this is what Tory Donald has in mind here?

‘Turned away at the door to A&E: Patients face a four-minute assessment by doctors and nurses to see if they really are seriously ill ‘

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4023398/Patients-face-four-minute-assessment-doctors-nurses-really-seriously-ill.html#ixzz4VGM96ShJ

(c) istockphoto.com

As NHS England faces a humanitarian crisis, Holby City’ writers have dreamed up a dramatic scenario where a handsome young Scottish surgeon is appointed to speed up operations. Based on a reference from his millionaire father’s private surgeon, the young surgeon is appointed. He makes impressive early progress and bed-blocking in Holby City Hospital falls dramatically but, tragically, it soon transpires that all of the patients operated on die within a few days as a result of major errors in the hurried surgery.

Anas Sarwar was identified as the ideal candidate for this dramatic new role after BBC Drama talent scouts spotted his two recent appearances on Reporting Scotland where his indignant attacks on the Scottish Government’s management of NHS Scotland left barely a dry eye in the living rooms of Scotland. Particularly impressive was Sarwar’s ability to work convincingly despite quite badly written scripts.

On the 5^th of January, Sarwar reported angrily on the deaths of nearly 700 patients, over a period of nineteen months, while awaiting discharge. Despite the BBC script lacking percentages or figures from previous periods to enable the viewer to judge the seriousness of the accusations, Sarwar was unhesitating in his condemnation of the results as ‘shocking’. Inspired, he even went on to discount government evidence that bed blocking was falling by reminding viewers that these deaths could have been of their own parents or grandparents. You’ll understand why Holby wanted him when he can touch hearts like that.

Only two days later, on the 7^th of January, he was back, still mad as hell, to tell us that an average of 21 operations were cancelled every day last year. Again the script was a bit limited and we had to get a real expert to remind us that 900 operations are carried out every day and that sometimes surgeons get ill themselves or have to be transferred to more life-threatening cases. Needless to say nobody mentioned that 21 cancellations works out at  only 2.33% of the total 900.

I was deeply impressed by Sarwar acting it. I wish him all the best in Holby City.

‘Academics said a recent international example of devolving control to schools in Sweden had resulted in a marked decline in standards. The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) said the Swedish example had resulted in headteachers becoming bogged down with bureaucracy.’

That’s the opening statement in the Herald newspaper today (7.1.17) aimed at undermining SNP policy. As often before, no named academic is prepared to take the rap for this nonsense, the headline is ill-founded and the content is based on no substantive research evidence. What the RSE and the OECD spotted like most other opponents of educational reform was a correlation and not a cause. Yes, Sweden’s fall in PISA tests compared with, especially, its near neighbour Finland, happened around and after a period of greater independence for schools and head-teachers but there has been NO proper research revealing any causal link between the two. Anyhow, the idea that increased financial responsibility for the head teacher will somehow negatively impact on the performance of class teachers is ill-informed. Head teachers are commonly figureheads with real, daily, responsibility for aspects of performance devolved to a number of assistant heads and senior teachers. If somehow, this latter group were to be distracted from their duties, I might accept the potential for damage.

I’ve already explained some of the reasons for the disparity in PISA scores between the culturally similar Finland and Sweden in:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/12/08/scotlands-schools-pisa-results-lean-toward-nothing-meaningful-finlands-success-is-not-real-south-korea-and-chinas-educational-programmes-amount/

One explanation is that Finnish is written exactly as it is spoken making the development of literacy easier and so releasing time for teaching toward the PISA targets. In the same piece, I explained just how useless PISA scores are anyway. However, I also touched on but could not develop another likely reason. Sweden has ten times the immigration rate of Finland. Like UK schools with non-English speakers, Swedish schools have a significant challenge educating large numbers of pupils for whom Swedish is not their first language. This unavoidably slows the development of these pupils, cuts the time for PISA-related learning and seems likely to have harmed Sweden’s PISA performance. It was a very plausible explanation but not proven. It is now. Research by Gabriel Heller Sahlgren published in Swedish but helpfully translated in the Spectator (I know, not my usual favourite source), shows a much more convincing connection between immigration levels and falling PISA scores. Here’s a quote:

‘Two weeks ago, I published a paper at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics and an op-ed in the largest Swedish daily about the impact of immigration on Sweden’s Pisa scores. Quite a row followed. Why? Well, it turns out that the change in pupil demographics due to immigration explains almost a third of the average decline between 2000 and 2012: 19 per cent in mathematical literacy, 28 per cent in reading literacy, and 41 per cent in scientific literacy. The effect is especially pronounced in recent years, coinciding with accelerating refugee immigration. Indeed, between 2009 and 2012, 43 per cent of the average Pisa score decline is explained by altered demographics: a full 29 per cent in mathematical literacy, 45 per cent in reading literacy, and 62 per cent in scientific literacy. These are strong effects. In fact, the change in pupil demographics is the only factor that we know for sure has contributed to Sweden’s falling scores. Furthermore, the full impact is probably somewhat larger. This is because immigration may also have lowered performance among pupils with a Swedish background, for instance through the redistribution of resources to immigrant pupils.’

In 2012, the average PISA score for Swedish heritage pupils was 500 (down from 521 in 2004) while the score for other (immigrant) pupils was 446 and falling as immigration increased.

Please don’t read this as anti-immigration sentiments. I have no respect for the PISA scores and feel sure there are many social, economic and longer-term cultural benefits from a degree of immigration. My purpose here is to debunk the Herald article and, I’m sure other media coverage, which will make the same ill-informed criticism as part of an anti-SNP agenda.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15008430.SNP_warned_that_giving_more_power_to_headteachers_in_Sweden__quot_led_to_declining_standards_quot_/

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/08/immigration-helps-explain-swedens-school-trouble/

 

(c) www.1stdibs.com

Ruth Davidson’s new shoes for standing toe-to-toe with Nicola?

‘Ruth is the real opposition to the Nationalists in the Scottish Parliament. She is the person who can stand toe-to-toe with Nicola Sturgeon and take the battle to the SNP.’ (David Mundell, October 2015)

In the last five days, we’ve had headlining roles for both Kezia Dugdale and Anas Sarwar on Reporting Scotland. Do you remember, they’re the leader and second in command of the third party in Scotland? The Tories are the official opposition, we’ve been told. Allegedly 25% of Labour voters have deserted to them and Labour are predicted to get 15% to the Tories’ 25% in the next elections.

There was one story based on a Conservative Party Freedom of Information request on the 3^rd. It was about Police Scotland’s allegedly too high compensation costs but no Tory rep turned up to shout about it. I’ve ‘done’ this one already at:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/01/04/compensation-paid-out-by-police-scotland-has-hit-nationally-and-globally-quite-low-levels-according-to-new-figures-from-british-broadcasting-conservatives/

So where is Ruthie? A Google search for the last week finds only:

• Her New Year wishes tweet
• A com survey calling her Remain campaigner of the year
• Alex Bell in the Daily Record calling for her to come forward and dae something

Isn’t the second one quite funny given her complete silence now that her London bosses are going full-ahead with Red, White and Blue Brexit.

So, if she is still standing toe-to-toe with Nicola she must be wearing those extra-long clown shoes.

https://www.davidmundell.com/news/local-mp-addresses-conservative-party-conference-0

 

‘Bed blocking in NHS England has become significantly worse in Mental Health Trusts than in Acute Hospitals.’ (BBC Breakfast, 6.1.17)

Here are the facts in percentages so we can understand properly:

Bed blocking in NHS England, Physical Health Care, is up 30% and in Mental Health Care it’s up 56%. That’s more than 200 000 lost in just October 2016.

That look s like a crisis doesn’t it? Yesterday Anas Sarwar, of the wee Labour in Scotland Branch Office, announced that ‘more than 680 people died in hospital care while waiting to leave between March 2015 and September last year.’ Just to be clear that was 680 in 19 months or roughly 570 days. He didn’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t tell us whether that was worse or better than the previous 19 months. He couldn’t or wouldn’t tell us what percentage that was of the roughly 1.6 million cases dealt with every year by NHS Scotland. He didn’t remind us that the number of people dying in Scottish hospitals continues to fall with 7% less dying in hospital since 2014. He didn’t tell us that bed-blocking in Scotland was down 9% in 2015/16 compared with the previous year because he somehow, illogically, wanted to blame that for the deaths.

Most of all, of course, neither Anas, the newspapers, STV News, not BBC Scotland gave us any context by comparing the situation in NHS Scotland with that in NHS England. You have to watch BBC ‘National’ News or read the English newspapers to hear about the oh-so-real crises in NHS England which make the serial reporting of made-up crises dug up by the Tories or Labour and then dutifully reported by Reporting Scotland, the fabricated non-news they clearly are. A Scottish 6 produced by the same inept team? No thanks!

How about these NHS England headlines from the last month only:

‘Hundreds MORE die unexpectedly at crisis hospitals.’

‘NHS winter crisis: hospitals across England report they are full.’

‘Crisis in the NHS’‎

‘NHS gripped by winter crisis with 15 hospitals listed as having no spare beds on at least one day.’

‘NHS CRISIS: Patients waiting 18 weeks or more for treatment rises by more than 40 per cent’

‘The NHS bed-blocking crisis stems from a lack of planned home-care.’

‘NHS England sending anorexic patients to Scotland for treatment.’

BBC Scotland seemed to have missed that last one.

Finally, why is Anas leading on this. I thought Ruth Davidson’s Tories were now the real opposition. Why isn’t she attacking the SNP-run NHS Scotland? Is it because her pals in England are running down NHS England and somebody might make a connection?

 https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/pipe/news/scotland/shona-robison-hails-good-progress-as-bed-blocking-drops-by-9/

 

‘Hundreds of patients have died waiting to be discharged from hospital since ministers made a landmark pledge to eradicate bed blocking from the NHS. More than 680 people died in hospital care while waiting to leave between March 2015 and September last year.’ (Scotsman 5.1.17)

Back in August, BBC Scotland, even, reported this:

‘Meanwhile fewer people are dying in Scotland’s hospitals. Between 2014 and this year, hospital mortality fell by 4.5% which is 3 000 fewer deaths than predicted.’ Reporting Scotland Aug 2016

The Scottish Government’s Information Services Division also published this in 2016:

Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios

• The HSMR for Scotland has decreased by 7.0% between January to March 2014 (first quarter after new baseline) and April to June 2016.
• No hospitals had significantly higher standardised mortality ratios in April to June 2016 than the national average.
• Eight of the 29 hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme have shown a reduction in excess of 10% since January to March 2014

So, are Scotland’s hospitals getting better or worse? You could easily get confused when Anas Sarwar gets started. You see there’s something missing. How many died in the previous six months? Why hasn’t he revealed this? Is it because it was just the same or lower and so no use to him in his half-witted propagandising attempt to link the deaths to an SNP policy?

Under the Scotsman article this letter writer (the perceptive Huntly Loon!) did a fine deconstruction of the story revealing its complete pointlessness:

‘I find these statistics puzzle me a bit. People do die in hospital. The elderly do die. Does this report imply that if there had not been bed blocking the 680 persons would have gone home to their own houses or into a care home and lived? Or would they have died soon after getting home? It is expected that hospital patients will go home when their treatment is complete, but may it not often be the case that they are so ill with so little life expectancy that they stay in hospital receiving palliative care until they actually die there. We will find that with the increase in life expectancy and the demographic that we are facing an increasing number of elderly will end their lives in hospitals. We have to prepare for that and fund it appropriately. The integration of health and social care which is now in place in Scotland since April 2016 is designed to reduce bed blocking and seamlessly care for the elderly in sheltered accommodation or in their own homes, should address part of the problem, but it is also to be recognised that in the closing days of their lives a great many elderly will be admitted to hospital with no anticipation of any recovery and to be allowed a proper cared for death.’

I couldn’t have put it better myself. To add to the Loon’s impeccable logic and reasoning, here’s some actual evidence from a piece of research on a sample of Scottish hospitals, published in Palliative Medicine 2014, Vol. 28(6) to put the figures into perspective

‘We identified 10,743 hospital inpatients on the census date. More were women (54.7%) than men (45.3%). Most (64.1%) were aged 65 years or older. A disproportionate number of admissions belonged to the two most deprived quintiles (50.1%), and more patients had been admitted to a medical (63.1%) than to a surgical specialty (36.8%). 2.9% had died within 7 days of the census date, 8.9% by 30 days, 16.0% by 3 months, 21.2% by 6 months, 25.5% by 9 months and 28.8% by 12 months. We have shown in the Scottish context that almost 1 in 10 patients in teaching or general hospitals at any given time will die during that admission. Almost 1 in 3 patients will have died a year later, rising to nearly 1 in 2 for the oldest groups.’

Now, Anas hasn’t shared any percentages with us but his 680 cases in nineteen months doesn’t look that big if, in only a sample of 10 743 patients of whom 64.1% were 65 and over, 28.8% or 3 094 of them were dead within the year. This survey only looked at 25 out of Scotland’s 300 hospitals. There are 157 000 staff in NHS Scotland but for some reason I can’t seem to find a total patient population at any one time. I did find that there were 1 612 011 cases altogether in 2015/16. Either way, Anas Sarwar ( Why does that sound painful? Is it just me? Ring of fire?), is talking through a hole in his bahookie again.

Sources:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/hundreds-of-patients-die-waiting-to-be-discharged-from-hospital-1-4332090

http://www.isdscotland.org/publications/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37164244

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scottish-hospital-admission-deaths-fall-9308341

Palliative Medicine 2014, Vol. 28(6) 474–479, Imminence of death among hospital inpatients: Prevalent cohort study David Clark, Matthew Armstrong, Ananda Allan, Fiona Graham, Andrew Carnon and Christopher Isles at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0269216314526443

‘In 2015-16 the force paid out £1.27m in damages as a result of 516 claims, up from almost £1.17m the previous year and just under £1m in 2013/14.’

These figures were obtained by the Scottish Conservatives under freedom of information legislation (FoI) and then of course immediately headlined and repeated as often as they could by BBC Scotland. They did mention that:

‘Police Scotland said the compensation payments were a “tiny percentage” of their £1.1bn annual budget.’

What is the tiny percentage? Well, it’s 0.11%. Police Scotland work in an often dangerous and risky environment. They regularly have to take risks and act very quickly in the public interest. Personally, I’d have expected a higher figure.

Of this £1.27 million around £459,000 was paid as a result of employment liability claims or in other words compensation for injured staff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38491433

Here’s what UK Police overall paid out to staff in compensation pay-outs over two years – £14m. So assuming it’s £7 million in one year, how does the Scottish £459 000 compare? Scotland’s population is about one eleventh of the UK total. Scotland’s figure is a bit less than one fourteenth of the UK total so less than you might have expected. No story there for the Scottish Tories, I suppose, is there?

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/574537/UK-police-compensation-14-million-payouts-two-years

Now South Yorkshire Police covering a population of 1.33 million or about one quarter of Scotland’s population. Just for their mismanagement of the Hillsborough disaster, they spent £25 million on legal fees for officers involved, over the last two years. They had to get a Home Office grant of £20.4 million to enable this. You may argue that this was a unique case and therefore not comparable in anyway but Police Scotland regularly cover large crowded events as did their predecessor regional forces. The UK Conservative Party has been broadly protective of South Yorkshire Police. They owe them for their militaristic approach to the miners’ strikes, of course. How would Ruth Davidson react, however, if Police Scotland were to make even a much smaller mistake, with only a handful of deaths, in the handling of a large crowd in Scotland?

‘Police Scotland’s failure to protect the public is a national disgrace and the SNP are to blame!’

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/funding-to-defend-south-yorkshire-police-over-hillsborough-disaster-branded-a-disgrace-1-7906718

If Hillsborough is too unusual to use here, how about the case where Cleveland Police paid £450 000 in compensation to one officer? That’s virtually the same as the whole Scottish budget for compensation to officers. Cleveland’s population is 390 000 or about one fifteenth of Scotland’s. Here’s the story:

‘Police ordered to pay £450k for PC racially abused by his bosses An Asian police officer who was labelled “just a P***” by his superiors has won more than £450,000 damages after enduring 10 years of abuse.’

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/728656/Nadeem-Saddique-Asian-Police-Cleveland-racially-abused-bosses-payout

Finally, just out of interest, here’s a global comparison on an admittedly different cost centre. In 2016, based on a population of only 2.7 million

‘Chicago Has Spent Half a Billion Dollars on Police Brutality Cases.’

https://www.thenation.com/article/chicago-has-spent-half-a-billion-dollars-on-police-brutality-cases-and-its-impoverishing-the-victims-communities/

I wonder what the Scottish figure for this was? Maybe another Tory FOI called for?

Image: © http://dragonflydezignz.50megs.com/

Reporting Scotland tonight (3.1.17) took us back to Ballater and Deeside in December 2015 for one of their bigger ‘news’ stories. We saw again the dreadful floods, saw the one temporarily trapped old guy and heard of the one traumatised bairn who only has to hear a raindrop and he’s off to hide upstairs. We also heard from only two locals who feel the new defences are still not strong enough for another deluge. We didn’t hear from any expert or government official, as to the actual preparations that have been made, or who might have known how sound they were.

Is there extreme rainfall on the way? Does Jackie know something the Met Office doesn’t? Is she hearing voices from above?

Of course, we already know that flood defences across Scotland are far better than in England but hey why mention that when you want to scare everybody again? Why mention either that 2016 has been one of the driest years on record and so river levels are low or that the Met Office forecast for Ballater for the next seven days is dry?

http://newsnet.scot/citizen/despite-deluge-flood-protection-stronger-better-funded-scotland/

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/gfjudctuv

Were they just short of news and had to fill in with something, anything or was the non-story about Police Scotland not enough bad news about Scotland?

The Scotsman had these actual news stories they could have lifted:

Raft of tech flotations expected as market bounces back

Edinburgh science venture targeting jobs growth

Too dry?

Two years before the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Scottish Government commissioned research into the history of legacies flowing form major sporting events. Here’s the conclusion:

‘There does not appear to be an inherent direct link between elite sporting events and positive legacy outcomes.’

http://www.gov.scot/resource/0040/00406065.pdf

That’s a polite way of putting it. No major sporting event (see evaluation report below) has ever produced a meaningful legacy in terms of increased participation by the local population or of any significant regeneration of the local area to benefit the local population.

Here’s how the Scottish Government’s own evaluation in 2015 put it:

There is no inevitable improvement of grassroots active infrastructure related to hosting major multi-sports events. Some research has found potential tensions between funding the infrastructure required for elite competition sport and investment in community grassroots infrastructure.

‘Thus, the message remains unchanged that increased sports participation and/or physical activity is not an automatic result of hosting a major sporting event, but is instead affected by a multitude of individual level, social and environmental factors.

Put more honestly, the Games damaged grassroots, local, infrastructure, reducing accessible facilities for the general public and probably reducing local participation.

The evidence from London 2012 was specific on participation:

‘The number of people playing sport in England has fallen since the 2012 London Olympics, despite the Games’ pledge to “inspire a generation.” Latest figures show 15.8 million people play sport or exercise at least once week, a drop of 0.4% since 2012.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36540017

 Also, from the Guardian in 2015:

‘And since the Olympics, once-a-month participation figures show nearly 700,000 fewer adults are playing nationally funded sports. Since 2010, over 1.5m more people are not taking part in any sport. And that against the backdrop of a growing population base.’

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/05/olympic-legacy-failure-sporting-numbers-plummet

Looking back across the history of the Olympic Games supposed legacies; see this damning evidence from British Columbia Medical Journal in 2009

‘Is there any evidence that physical activity levels have increased in conjunction with previous Olympic Games? In fact, relatively little research has been done to study the “trickle-down” effect of staging an Olympic Games. Population-level data collected after the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games revealed no impact on parti­cipation in sport-related activities. Population-wide surveys on physical activity levels conducted in conjunction with the Sydney Olympics found little change in citizens’ activity levels from pre- to post-event. In fact, physical activity levels actually were lower in 2000 in Australia than in 1999 and 1997, the years leading up to the Olympics. Success by a country hosting the Olym­pics may have an impact on people already active in a sport that does well, but activity levels overall do not increase.’

http://www.bcmj.org/council-health-promotion/olympics-and-physical-activity%E2%80%94how-can-our-patients-benefit

Further, the cost of Olympic Games has been much more expensive than first stated, taxpayers have picked up the tab and the Olympic Committee still walks away much richer. See this from The Political Insider in 2016:

‘The Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games misleadingly claim that since 1984, every host city has broken even. This assertion conveniently excludes capital costs of stadiums, infrastructure, and the Olympic Village—the most expensive part of the tab.

In fact, every modern Olympic games has overrun its budget expectations. Research from Oxford University concludes that the average cost overrun in the last 50 years is 179 percent.

The average summer Olympics generates $5–6 billion in revenue, half of which goes to the International Olympic Committee. Brazil’s anticipated budget for the 2016 Rio Games is $11 billion and counting.’

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/olympics-scam/#ixzz4UghzCzR5

Mind you:

‘Glasgow 2014: Commonwealth Games ‘was £25m under budget’

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29935465

 Then again, £543 000 000 could have built around 10 000 new homes for the people of Glasgow.

Finally, the locals had their say in an extended Guardian piece which essentially trashes the idea that the locals benefited in any way but rather, their community was sacrificed for the Games. Here’s a snippet:

“We used to have a cafe and a chemist, two newsagents and a chip shop, but all that’s been flattened. They took away our high street, leaving us without any amenities for the last three years, and what have we got to show for it? A ‘transport hub’.”

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/mar/03/glasgow-faces-reality-commonwealth-games