With regard to your article about the mortality rate among Scots, why has it come as a shock when this situation has been with us since time immemorial ("Mortality rate among Scots is worsening", November 20)?
As part of my sociology degree at Durham University my dissertation focused on the comparison on health and mortality between Bearsden and Gorbals from the 1930s to the 1960s (it is available in the Mitchell Library).
As part of my investigation it was clear the level of poverty had a significant impact on the socio-economic life chances of where people lived.
Although the present study has highlighted some improvements the underlying issue is still the same: poverty.
It is not just economic poverty that is the issue but poverty of opportunity, of life-choices and of mobility.
As the old saying goes: "The poor will always be with us". That is, until we do something serious about it.
Tom Lucas,
167 Edinburgh Road,
Garrowhill,
Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article