life expectancy in part of glasgow is 54 for a man.....that is appalling and horrific poverty

[zippitippitoes]

....a gp from the area tells why here

Well it was ever thus in these areas and it is more to do with generations of dependency caused when the traditional jobs went.

My mother's family came from a poor area in Glasgow but none of them live like that now. It has to do with a determination that you are no longer going to live like that although now it is near impossible to get out of that situation thanks to Labour continuing Thatcher's policies.

One of my very good friends lives in another rotten area of Glasgow, nicknamed after a warzone to give you an idea. She is the stereotype, single mother on benefits (like me!) but she fought to get her two sons into schools in better areas, she works very hard in making sure they stay away from the trouble surrounding them, to know their own worth. It is hard and a lifetime of drugs and alcohol are the choice others make. S and I are trying to give our children that ambition to get out of the situation and not let it dictate how our lives pan out, just like my grandfather did for my mother and her siblings.

Never mind the advertising, if people don't take responsibility for how they are going to live their lives then there will always be an excuse to fall back on.

horrendous isn't it.

the last time Questiom Time came from Glasgow there was a discussion about raising the retirement age to 70. One studio member pointed out that a good proportion of glaswegians would have bene dead 15 years by then - put their gas a peep somewhat

this gp was talking on bbc breakfast this morning he did feel that more people were coming forward to give up smoking and that more education was making some progress but clearly the bottom line was the grinding circle of dependancy and poverty