Last week’s Analysis programme on BBC World Service about the problem in Glasgow of poor health outcomes and lower life expectancy made for fascinating listening. First, it avoided the temptation to look at the issue through the misty prism of the referendum due in September. Second, it was genuinely thought-provoking in considering the multiple causes of the problem. Why, it asked, are health outcomes worse in the city when incomes elsewhere in the United Kingdom are lower and when figures on nutrition and physical activity rates are no worse than other big UK cities.
Instead, a more nuanced picture emerged – one which anyone who spends a good deal of their time knocking on doors in Glasgow as I do will readily attest to. Yes, there are severe problems with low wages. The median wage in my constituency is a mere £342 a week, nearly £200 below the UK average. Nearly three in 10 people in Glasgow North-east go out to work but do not bring home a living wage. Material inequality is a root cause of the problem of ill health and unhappiness, but this is equally the case in communities in Northern Ireland, Wales, the north-east of England, parts of the south-west of England and beyond. A rising minimum wage for my low-paid constituents will help lessen this burden, while helping cut the benefits bill at the same time.
Yes, there is a massive crisis of long-term unemployment and insecure work. Speaking to people during the European election short campaign this was the main concern for them, their children and grandchildren. The proliferation of the zero-hours culture and the lack of skilled manufacturing jobs which provided an identity and a social life for young people in past decades is creating huge problems and unhappiness for thousands of people, manifested in the rise in alcoholism and drink- and drug-related violence. People trapped in under-employment are uncertain about their prospects for secure jobs, and it affects every other part of their lives. A Labour government determined to prioritise balanced growth across these islands, to clamp down on zero-hours contracts, and help people progress through a focus on workplace skills will help deal with the root causes.
Yes, there are serious issues with the cost of food, housing and energy which impact upon the poorest with unerring severity. Labour governments at UK and Scottish levels will best be able to reset broken markets and deliver improvements in living standards for ordinary people.
Yes, there is a crisis of lack of exercise, excessive alcohol consumption, the need for more preventative healthcare services, and for cheaper, nutritious food to be more available in very low-income areas. Community-based plans like the North Glasgow Community Food Initiative, supported by UK Lottery funds and others, and credit unions throughout the city breaking the grip of the loan sharks and high-cost credit providers, show how cooperative action from the grassroots up can help transform lives.
There is also a deeper crisis which I have sensed in the last few months – an isolation that comes from people living alone with fewer of the shared bonds of community which my parents’ generation were brought up with, and a deepening sense that politics cannot provide the solutions to these problems. Technology gives people the ability to have multiple forms of expression of identity, but while liberating in some ways, there is a great frustration that the things which contribute most to happiness and wellbeing – a satisfying job, good friends, social, leisure or cultural interests, decent health, affordable housing, time spent with loved ones and family, and a fulfilling relationship with a spouse or partner – are harder to find than ever. Officially, we have never been happier, but for many that is not how it feels in insecure communities feeling increasingly disempowered and marginalised by multinational forces outwith their control. The more profound identity dilemma for thousands of Glaswegians is not that posed by the referendum, but instead what is happening to society and what it means for their place within it.
Improving Glasgow’s wellbeing and health is complex, requiring Labour to offer hope as well as practical solutions, to nurture communities as well as to reform our economy. But it should be a mission for people right across these islands.
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William Bain is member of parliament for Glasgow North-east. He tweets @William_Bain
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