The health challenge

With its debilitating rates of chronic ill-health, high incidence of cancer and curtailed life expectancy, Glasgow has long been regarded as Europe's "sick man". Consistently - and rightly - poverty has been diagnosed as being the root cause of the grave malaise afflicting the most disadvantaged citizens in Scotland's most ailing city. The challenging task of closing the city's inequality gap through sustainable employment, better housing and greater educational attainment has been taken up by those in power for decades. Though steps have been made in the right direction, overall success, regretfully, remains, at best, a "work in progress".