Life expectancy is perhaps the surest sign of a country’s welfare, which makes it all the more worrying that Scotland’s is going down. Figures out today show that when it comes to life expectancy, Scotland is no longer near the bottom range of western European countries and has instead joined the ranks of the post-Soviet states. Given Scotland’s level of state spending (amongst the highest in the world) this presents a conundrum. What’s going wrong?

This is mainly a sign of deprivation, and what has been called the most expensive poverty in the world because of the cost of the country’s welfare state. In Glasgow, where parts of my family are from, life expectancy is just 73 – on a par with the Gaza Strip and Syria. And that’s an average which includes the city’s lush West End: go east and you can find places where life expectancy is in the 60s.

There’s a 14-year gap for male life expectancy between the poorest and the richest Scots. It’s 11 years for women. That gap is widening too. Dundee, having become the violent crime capital of Scotland and drugs death capital of Europe, may soon have the worst life expectancy in Britain too.

The government is keen to point to the massive impact of Covid on Scotland’s death statistics. The front page of their press release draws your attention to it. But life expectancy has been stalling since 2012, and as these figures today show, it would still be falling even without Covid deaths. Pre-pandemic, Scotland spent £125 more per head on health than England.

There comes a point where policymakers have to ask if money really is the answer – or whether the fault lies with factors that require deeper diagnosis.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Economic Matters