'Don't tell us what we already know. Give us solutions'. Paul Martin MSP

The dilapidated and quite magnificent Springburn Winter Gardens. Waiting for someone to recognise its beauty and potential.



'Don't tell us what we already know. Give us solutions'. Paul Martin MSP

Springburn, lovely name, redolent of countryside streams, pastoral scenes, milkmaids, randy ploughboys, meadows, butterflys, daisy chains and so on...Then the Victorian age, St Rollox, 25% of the then worlds trains, heavy industry, migration, religious divide, social deprivation, closure, mass unemployment, drinking, poverty ill health, crime...

Kenneth Roy did an excellent piece in 'The Scottish Review'.

http://www.scottishreview.net/KRoy103.html

I read on with my maw slightly agape.

School leavers with no qualifications 300 per cent higher than the Scottish average.

Teenage pregnancies – 60 per cent higher

Deaths from lung cancer – 94 per cent higher

Heart disease – 40 per cent higher

Folk on income support – 130 per cent higher than the national average

Unemployment rate – 140 per cent higher.

I couldn't quite believe these figures so checked the source.

http://www.scotpho.org.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=2396&sID=2012

...and there it all was in black and white...or rather more blue and white.

CONSTITUENCY HEALTH REPORT 2001
A profile of the health of the people in Glasgow Springburn.

The respected academic authors said:

"A rounded view of this constituency would suggest that it has a considerably lower average household income, higher levels of
unemployment and a lower level of educational attainment among
school leavers compared to the Scottish average. Almost all the
health indicators compare poorly with the Scottish average, with
teenage pregnancy and lung cancer mortality being
particularly high in comparison."

They highlighted that the reason for this report:


"The aim of this profile is to focus the attention of politicians and
planners on health rather than disease, and to highlight the fact that
many factors other than medical care influence the health of
communities and individuals. It is intended to stimulate debate and
lead to action targeted at the determinants of health at a local level.
The profile is also for local residents to inform them about the
health of the constituency they live in."

The response of the elected members?



'Don't tell us what we already know. Give us solutions'. Paul Martin MSP

Amazingly enough this report was written in 2001 and presented to Martin and Son as a means of engaging them with the problems, opening it up to debate.

At the time Dad was the recently elected Speaker of the House of Commons. Possibly the most important post outside of the big three cabinet posts.

Son Paul, was midway through his first term as the local MSP and an important part of the Labour machine running Holyrood.

In the EIGHT years since this independent report was published, what have they done?

Surely, a father and son of the constituency would put their heads together and play their combined networking cards. They could have called in massive favours and brought jobs to the constituency, built new schools, invigorated the teachers, set up early intervention measures to stop teenage pregnancies, smoking heart disease.

Between them they had the means to turn around Springburn and invest some enthusiasm and ambition in it.

What did they do?