Apparently, pensioners with the highest life expectancy live in the Somerset village of Hinton St George, while those with the lowest live in Bootle, Merseyside. Much fuss was made of this survey in the newspapers, and I daresay that hundreds of old folk in Bootle are now scurrying down the M6 on their mobility scooters before the grim reaper catches up with them.
But it is surely nothing to do with geography and all to do with income, isn’t it? Hinton St George is affluent and Bootle isn’t. It’s a bit like saying that pensioners have the longest life expectancy if they live in Sandringham and the shortest if they live under a piece of tarpaulin on a slip road just off the M18.
There was another survey, of a similar kind, a while back about drug usage in the UK. It was worst in one of the South Wales valleys, I forget which. But of course if The Queen moved to Tonyrefail she wouldn’t immediately start jacking up in front of the vicar, would she? Again, it’s about poverty and deprivation.
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