• REGISTER NOW!! Why? Because you can't do much without having been registered!

    At the moment you have limited access to view all discussions - and most importantly, you haven't joined our community. What are you waiting for? Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join Join Talking Horses here!

Do, Especially For Your Delight

krizon

krizon

Dormant account
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
16,263
Location
Dahn sarf
A recently-published report examining ten key factors of small countries in Europe of 9m or less people has found Scotland to be the worst. It came bottom of the life expectancy league, showed a falling rate of economic performance, and fared poorly in the other categories such as health, employment rates and education. Countries doing considerably better were Iceland, Norway, and the Rep. of Ireland.

Come on, DO, do something about it!
 
The snippet I heard on the BBC radio news this morning said it was only bottom because of the poor health record (which has been the case all my life).

The report said that in a number of other areas including education it was "above average".

Edit: I've just found the report on the Beeb site.

Two key quotes:
The Federation of Small Businesses' annual Index of Wealth compared 10 countries on economic performance, employment rates, health and education.
Click to expand...
(the four indicators)

Despite being above average on three of the four indicators, life expectancy in Scotland remains well below the OECD average.
Click to expand...

It's the health issue that's holding us down the table. We are notoriously unhealthy eaters, drinkers and smokers, presumably because of our heavy industry background.

Economically, we're still trying to recover from the Thatcher years but this report suggests we're getting there (since it says we're above average).
 
Bit unfair to compare Scotland to truly independent countries like Ireland, Norway and Iceland who have much more control over their own performance.
 
Originally posted by Desert Orchid@Jun 11 2007, 08:55 AM


It's the health issue that's holding us down the table. We are notoriously unhealthy eaters, drinkers and smokers, presumably because of our heavy industry background.

Click to expand...
Not the overriding desire to consume cheap food then... :P
 
:laughing: :laughing: It's the overriding desire to not spend a groat that's kept their economy doon the noo. What do you expect, when their finance and accounting students attend the Harry Lauder School of Economics?
 
Originally posted by Songsheet+Jun 11 2007, 12:31 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Songsheet @ Jun 11 2007, 12:31 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Desert Orchid@Jun 11 2007, 08:55 AM


It's the health issue that's holding us down the table. We are notoriously unhealthy eaters, drinkers and smokers, presumably because of our heavy industry background.

Click to expand...
Not the overriding desire to consume cheap food then... :P [/b][/quote]
Ironically, that is probably true in general.

Historically, our economy lagged behind other parts of the UK, especially England, for so long we ended up buying what we could afford: cheaper, fattier cuts of meat, etc.

On the other hand, my diet was probably much healthier as a child because my mother could only afford staple food. There was no such thing as a packet of crisps or a Mars Bar in the weekly shopping basket. Unfortunately, there was seldom any fresh veg (other than for Monday evening soup, which was our dinner, and potatoes) or fruit.
 
And that seems to be so ridiculously ironic, given the prevalence of delicious Aberdeen Angus and all those salmon a-leapin' in your lochs and rivers, DO! Not to mention the Scottish fishing industry in general. What did they do - sell everything to the rich English at premium rates?
 
The best of the stuff goes to the top London (& elsewhere) restaurants but what's left is still pricey.

Also, I was about 16yo before we had a fridge (or telphone come to think of it) so food had to be bought on the day it was to be cooked or eaten and we didn't have supermarkets, just the local Co-op grocery with women working behind the counter serving individual customers.

We had fish on a Friday (for religious reasons), which was just as well as that was the day it was freshest. (There was a local unwritten law: never buy fish on a Monday as there was no delivery between Friday and Tuesday.)
 
I had no idea you were 90, DO! :D It sounds as if things were rather different in Scotland to England.

We had a fridge in the mid-1950s, and that was in the middle of Africa! Until then, of course, we had to eat meat pretty much within a couple of days because it would get whiffy fairly quickly, also milk, but otherwise we shopped at separate stores for all fruit and veg requirements. It was all very cheap and plentiful. I don't remember us having much fish, being landlocked and with only the now-fashionable bony little tilapia (favoured mostly by Africans, and dried). I do recall us coming to England on leave in 1956 and being surprised at how expensive food was - beef must've been four times more costly than in Africa, and even British-grown produce was pricey. Goodness knows why?
 
With one blue-collar wage to feed a family of eight, I suppose it was a case of needs must.

I think my father must shoulder a lot of the blame, though. He gave my mother an allowance to deal with all the needs of the family. I'm not sure what he did with the rest; probably banked it 'for a rainy day'. I remember one day when my mother was unwell and father was off work, he had to do the weekly shopping. When he came home, I heard him apologising to my mother because he hadn't realised the allowance was nowhere near enough to cover the basics. My mother was in tears. "Haven't I been trying to tell you that for donkeys years?" she sobbed. I think we ate better after that.

Neighbours were neighbours then, especially those from the parish. If a neighbour had a phone and someone needed to contact us urgently, they'd phone the neighbour and they'd come round and pass on the message. They were also very generous in allowing us to make urgent calls, if necessary, but I think we got the phone because my parents came to realise how necessary a phone was becoming in everday life.

The fridge? Bought second hand in 1971. Home-made ice lollies!! Geez, we were going up in the world!

That same year, I was with my dad when he bought, brand new and totally on impulse (I think he must have backed a big winner), our first TV with BBC2. Black & white, £64 cash. 1973: first automatic washing machine, bought second hand.

I was beginning to think we were well off.
 
Fascinating insights, DO. Even though my folks became MUCH better off financially by moving to Africa, we weren't struggling even post-War because Mum worked full-time as a secretary, and my Dad worked full-time, too, learning 'the Knowledge' after being demobbed and driving a taxi in London and earning well. Plus, there was only me (and I didn't eat much then!) and Mum's tiny mother to feed, and she lived with them and cared for me out of school hours. When she died, we took off for Africa and their material betterment continued. The first car was a gigantic black Chevrolet with running boards and dinnerplate headlights! It would've fit right into those 1930s gangster movies, but it finally died on the rough bush road we lived on during one of our many moves, and that's where my exasperated father left it!

Next was a dear little Morris Minor in a tasteful shade of sage green, with those little indicators which popped out from the sides. It took us very comfortably to South Africa and back, and even survived my mother ramming it three times into a tree while trying to park it. I was being taken to the hospital for some weird childhood condition which required injections, and having banged it into a tree in the car park once, she reversed and repeated the dose until she pranged the radiator! My mother + car = unbridled terror.
 
It's total rubbish that we don't eat healthy and smoke too much. I expect to live to a ripe ol [thud]
 
Originally posted by Honest Tom@Jun 12 2007, 12:56 PM
It's total rubbish that we don't eat healthy and smoke too much. I expect to live to a ripe ol [thud]
Click to expand...
I knew it.... all that posing by the E.Dead group as vegans was just a front - they're down to eating their own , now! :what:
 

Recent Blog Posts

Back
Top