Stupid, vicious politician of the month

It was quiet in the Tavern and I managed a few minutes to catch up on the news and views. A copy of the Spectator came to hand.

It is quite usual to see commentary on political goings-on, but one recent item (11 April) caught my attention.

The Scots have lagged behind somewhat on the looney stakes. They have made little mark contributing to the feminist hysteria. Their 'green' record is hidden below the North Sea oil seams. They have focused on becoming 'Independant' and developing the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) although they failed to get the votes in a Referendum on the matter.

Their 'leader', a charming scottish bogan, Nicola Sturgeon, who refuses to wear a manly kilt as it might disempower her if the wind blew it up, has picked a doozy of a stand to take.

I'll crack a better smile for sixpence.

Pensions.

It seems she has vowed to block any attempt to increase the pensions of old folk nationally because..... wait for it....it would be 'unfair' to the scots, whom she claims die earlier than the English.

I noticed that she does not mention that it might be unfair on men generally on that basis as men die earlier than women as a rule. But heck, she would be shooting down a feminist 'gap' myth doing that.

Unfair.  Of course. The longer you live, the more you will get ! How dare the English live longer. (But don't say that about women, of course).

Tha' sixpence was doon here.

So, how did the lady arrive at her astounding claim?

The idea came from a 'study' (yes, I know, roll those eyes back) by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. Dated 2006.

That study 'found' that the (male) life expectancy in a place called Calton was 54, which is less than many third world countries.

Figures were collated from 1998 to 2002 (so they are at least 13 years out of date, but heck you have to dig deep to get just the right statistics for your argument) and are exaggerated by the presence of a large number of 'Hostels' for drug addicts which other areas send there. 

Hello !! Hoots mon.

For Glasgow as a whole the life expectancy was 73 for men and 78.5 for women.

"Hoots, Archei, she's gonna take away ooor pensions the noo ! Ooch. Do somefink. 
Gee 'er a smack or a Glasgee kiss"

This, while up on 54 was in actual fact still the lowest of any Council area in Great Britain.

Taking Scotland as a whole (no, not hole. I ha' some scottish blood in ma veins) the actual, up to date (well 2013) life expectancy was 76.8 for men and 80.9 for women.

In 'England', the life expectancy 79.2 (men) and 82.9 (women).

So, what we have is a cherry picking, nit-picking, mean scottish woman almost but not quite there in the Harriet Harman mode,  prepared to punish all old people just so that she can smirk and claim victimhood.

Oooh. How d'ye spell misogynist

Lord, smile favourably on the Scots.

They need it.

Nicola has some way to go to reach the depths of say Hillary Clinton who has started on her path to the American Presidency by parking her bus in a disabled spot, but give her time. ...er whoops. Better be quick before she reaches pension age where she will go on and on reaping the benefits long after all the menfolk have died. But we won't mention that.

Noo, wherrre's ma sporran and ma dirk?  Ah feel a chill wind.


Pax.