Among the exhibits in Edinburgh university’s famous anatomical museum are the bones of ‘Bowed Joseph’, a notorious 18th century rabble-rouser who could allegedly assemble a crowd of 10,000 by beating his drum. He was ‘bowed’ because Joseph had rickets, a disease that ravaged Scotland’s working classes until the middle of the last century. Rickets is a disease of poverty, caused by poor diet and lack of sunlight and it is back, to the shame of the Scottish government. Cases have risen 33 per cent from 354 in 2018 to 442 last year.
Well, poverty is caused by Tory austerity, say SNP MSPs and nationalists on social media. This shows why Scotland must free itself from the toxic yoke of the Union. But wait a minute. Rickets is certainly a disease of poverty, but it is very much a Scottish problem. Its incidence is 700 per cent higher than in England.
Most of these cases come from the most deprived areas of Greater Glasgow.
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