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Sat, 05 Mar 2011

it's the outcomes, stupid

At some point I will learn that listening to Any Questions only makes me grumpy but today is not that day. On this occasion it was listening to Lord Falconer asserting that the quality of health care in Scotland had decreased under the SNP government.

What irked me wasn't the claim but the way he substantiated it: health spending in Scotland has only increased by 4% a year versus 6% in England. The accuracy or otherwise of the statistics is less relevant than the choice of statistics and the underlying implication that spending more means better health care. This either points to naivety on the part of Lord Falconer or disingenuousness. Disappointingly no one on the panel actually questioned this.

posted at: 20:02 #

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