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Professor John McLaren of the Scottish Trends website said the Scottish Parliament may have to adopt a more "radical" approach to address well-being.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
“Scotland has one of the biggest falls in 'wellbeing index' “
(15 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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Eastern European countries like Estonia, which has moved above Scotland, and the Czech Republic saw significant increases in their performance.
Now, just what is it that distinguishes Estonia and the Czech Republic from little old Scotland....scractches chin.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@IWRATS but they have been republics and below us in these indices. For years. So you will need to build a time lag into your chin scratchin.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Hm, beware of seeing what you want to see. The "research" cited looks like a bawbag of confused and skewed nonsense. From the comments on a similar article in The Times:
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The implication is that this is a 1 year fall in an established league table. The reality is that this is a fall as measured over 14 years in a one-off cobbled together league table that doesn't do 'what it says on the tin'. I have read the research in full and cross-checked other available data. The author has selected 4 measures that do not accurately reflect wellbeing (contrary to claims) and crudely gives them equal weighting to arrive at a score. It is claimed that the data is 'akin to the UN Human Development Index' which it blatantly is not. It is biased and unreliable.
Having said that the core data used is accurate and there may well be some validity in some of the conclusions but the rankings are a nonsense. Gives The Times a good excuse to have another pop at scottish governance.
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Posted 4 years ago # -
Posted 4 years ago #
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@laidback, if i click on this will it be opinion masked as fact or will it be a decent analysis?
Clicked, it is fine it is an extension of a critique of the flawed earlier piece which is helpful, though already discussed here?
Posted 4 years ago # -
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1221831582929104896?s=19
"Scotland fell 5 places into bottom half of 32 OECD nations across range of measures including income, education, longevity and inclusivity."
"The Index of Social and Economic Wellbeing report said that Scotland had underperformed in key areas during the two decades since devolution. Scotland had dropped to 21st place."
Posted 4 years ago # -
Enough of repeating this misleading nonsense. Here is the official OECD wellbeing indices comparator. Seems that Scotland is doing okay.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Bottom half for health only. Though poor in comparison to rest of UK in this measure vans some others but better than other uk regions in other measures. Having looked at the report now, thanks @crowriver those journalists and commentators are really bending it.
Despite all of this we seem very satisfied with our lot?
Posted 4 years ago # -
https://twitter.com/JaneyGodley/status/1222078365835972608?s=19
"THIS so-called “index of well-being” is not an official publication but is the work of a self-employed and self-styled “political economist” called John McLaren. McLaren previously was a special adviser to both Donald Dewar and Henry McLeish and is a staunch Unionist"
Posted 4 years ago # -
How odd that the work of this "staunch unionist" is praised on page 25 of the SNP sponsored Scottish Growth Commission report. He was also commissioned to produce a background paper for this report.
Honestly, regardless of the merits of this index, traducing arguments because of who made them rather then on their merits is a poor show. Calling someone who has made it to professor in the field they are commenting on a "self-styled" expert is just daft.
It's a sad day if only a certain type of Scot is deemed worthy to hold a mirror up to the country.
I had never heard of this guy until a few days ago, I have no real interest in defending him - but at least he has posed an interesting question and attempted to answer it.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Will be interesting to see how this affects the stats -
Posted 4 years ago # -
Have to order beer from England now if want a good price
Posted 4 years ago # -
"Despite all of this we seem very satisfied with our lot?"
Top of the "Wha's like us?" index?
Posted 4 years ago #
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