New figures published yesterday show 12,770 deaths were registered from April to June this year, a drop of 5.4 per cent compared to 2008.According to the General Register Office for Scotland, that was the lowest total recorded for “at least” 30 years, and just over 3,000 less than the same period in 1979.
And the number of Scots falling victim to the “Big Three” killers has shown a drop compared to last year.
Heart disease deaths fell by nearly 11 per cent, stroke deaths by almost seven per cent, and there was a 0.6 per cent decline in the number of people dying from cancer.
Scottish Daily Express
Well, maybe it is too much of a coincidence. But it's a very welcome one. Big government went out of favour in the eighties, but these figures would suggest the smoking ban is working and that there is a place for the 'nanny state'. Perhaps we should be less afraid of being censorious in our attitude to smoking and drinking. Break out the Schloer..
2 comments:
Missed this post Friday due to visit to your country, the land of my forfathers. What the hell are they doing to Edinburgh and how did you all fall for the 'tram trap'? It is not the 'get out of jail free' for all the global warming problems.
However, I would be loth to take much of these statistics too much to heart. Scottish death rates for CHD have been on the decline since the 80's when the 'sick man' label was applied. As they have been to an extent in the UK and the EU (except the eastern admissions). I think the NHS has little to do with it.
A well founded hypothesis is that the improvement in the HPA-axis dysfunction is the likely reason. Probabably linked to the rise in Scottish well-being founded in prosperity, sense of identity, reduction in poverty etc. What effect the recession may have on this may take some time to show results but a decline is likely.It is certainly the case, as in the so called French paradox that societys with a diet of saturated fats coupled with strong personal sense of worth and identity have extremely low rates of CHD.
Politically this phenomena should be the case in Scotland now you no longer suffer direct rule from Westminster and have enjoyed a real rise in prosperity and identity which instills confidence in most citizens.
I would profer that this coupled with the wonderful 'Scottish Breakfast' is the most likely reason. May it continue.
Thanks for the insight, Black Dog. I'll take a look at the other figures, but I think things are on the up here.
Re the tram trap, it was all Labour's fault. The SNP were against the tram project, so Labour voted for it. They forgot shock!horror! that we now have consensus government in Scotland which meant the tram project went ahead. It's proving to be every bit the expensive white elephant that we thought it would be. Labour also voted against the budget last year and suddenly realised that it meant that if the budget wasn't passed it meant the local authorities weren't going to get any money. It was passed a couple of weeks later. Old adversarial politics dies hard...
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