I recently went to an event organised by The Church of Scotland and Mackay Hannah where we discussed ‘Ethics
and Politics ‘.
One of the most interesting presentations was by Richard Wilkinson,
part of the double act with Kate Picket, joint authors of The Spirit Level.
I intuitively, and on their evidence, I find a lot
to agree with in their book and
their arguments . However, as I get older I get pickier and something caught my
eye.
So I noticed in his presentation of the various aspects of equality variance in different societies there was one big element missing .
What was not
listed alongside various inequality factors such as income variations ; mental distress; lack of trust; crime rates etc. was the subject matter of early work by
Durkheim – suicide.
Seeing that omission took me back to the Wilkinson/Picket
book where they do refer to suicide , but fleetingly, as an apparent and unexplained counterfactual to their equality findings . “ The only social problem
we have encountered which tends to be more common in more equal countries [ but
not significantly amongst more equal
states in the USA ) is, perhaps surprisingly , suicide.” [ W&P,Edition 1:
p175 ].
A distressing conundrum – particularly in Scotland .
Suicide Rates per
100000 adult pop.
Most recent data for
each country [Eurostat, OECD, ONS, GRO
Scotland & NHS Data ] varies from
2008 – 2010 and there is acknowledged data
variation that relevant reporting organisations are trying to standardise.
European Union /EEA
|
10.2
|
Denmark
|
9.9
|
Estonia
|
14.8
|
Latvia
|
17.5
|
Lithuania
|
28.5
|
Finland
|
16.8
|
Sweden
|
11.1
|
Iceland
|
11.5
|
Norway
|
10.8
|
Japan
|
23.8
|
USA
|
12.0
|
Scotland
|
14.5
|
Northern Ireland [ 1998-8.6 to
2010 figures..]
|
16.0
|
Wales
|
8.6
|
UK
|
6.4
|