ONE of these years a pleasant surprise may await us when it’s another decent neighbourhood’s turn to be humiliated. Each quadrennial, going back to the start of this century, the Scottish Government has published its Index of Multiple Deprivation. The same communities always occupy the places reserved for the most and least disadvantaged. Occasionally the chairs are re-arranged a bit near the top and bottom but we all knew before the 2020 index was published on Monday that there would be no shocks.

This year it was Greenock Central which occupied the most deprived slot, thus preventing Paisley’s Ferguslie Park, barely 15 miles away, from making it a treble. No-one is suggesting that Carntyne in Glasgow’s east end or Possilpark should be aiming for a place amongst the top 50 in a list that comprises nearly 7,000 datazones. Evidence of a rise in life expectancy would be just the ticket though; perhaps even a modest cut in the gap between rich and poor. Nothing life-changing, you understand; just a sign that something is working because, currently, absolutely sod-all is.

A separate report released the following day starkly outlined what multi-deprivation now means in Scotland. Those living in the most deprived parts of the country are now four times more likely to die early than they were 20 years ago.

And so, the residents of these places woke once more to quilted and coiffed television news reporters turning up to peer in at them, thankful that their satnavs had worked. Some in these places will have felt a sense of shame and distress at their communities being named in such a manner, but they shouldn’t: the shame belongs entirely to Britain’s politicians and a curse be upon all their houses.

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The rest of us, who bleat about inequality and who salve our consciences in marches and designer sleep-outs, have nothing of which to be proud either. Many generations have passed since universal suffrage was introduced, during which time Scotland and the UK have grown more affluent and technologically proficient. Yet the places that were deemed to be the poorest when Charles Dickens was writing about poorhouses are still poor 150 years later.

Yet, we still put our trust in a political system that hard-wires inequality. Many of us who have been lifted away from these places vote for nice, well-meaning left-ish sort of parties and buy rooms for the homeless at Christmas instead of gifts for our children and then strut about the place thinking we’re Florence bleeding Nightingale.

In previous years when these figures have been released there has at least been some analysis and pledges to improve outcomes and initiate initiatives. This week the caravan moved on with indecent haste as the UK left the EU and thus set a new record for the longest suicide note in history. In Scotland a new opinion poll showed that a majority of us now back independence and the SNP found another patch of long grass (this one called the Electoral Commission) to park it.

On social media, Kevin Pringle, the SNP’s wise and astute former media chief, pointed out that the most deprived neighbourhoods on the SIMD list were all in areas which voted for Scottish independence in 2014 or came closest to doing so. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Scotland’s poorest communities had all suddenly become rock and roll nationalists; merely that, quite literally, they felt they had nothing to lose. If there had been an option in 2014 to become a protectorate of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea this would have been in with a shout too.

In some of these communities conversations about the challenges posed in post-Brexit Britain or the potential advantages of Scottish independence tend not to last long. This isn’t because they are any less aware of these big debates; just that other ones about feeding a family when your benefits have been stopped or how to save heat in the winter tend to take precedence.

This isn’t to suggest that Brexit won’t hit these places hard. Chris McEleny, the SNP leader on Inverclyde Council, detailed some of the practical challenges that remain in communities such as his when the flag-waving and chest-beating stops. The European Social Fund, which accounts for around 10% of the EU budget, currently supports employment across the EU. It is a lifeline for council areas like his, which now houses Scotland’s most deprived datazone.

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According to Cllr McEleny, there is still no clarity on future funding three and a half years after the EU referendum. The UK Government has failed to commit to matching previous EU funding or even hinting how much will be available in its new Brexit Xanadu. Don’t hold your breath.

Dickens wrote of a time and place where the poor saw little evidence of the excessive lifestyles of the super-rich and when royalty and regular wars made them feel needed. In 2020 Britain, our most disadvantaged citizens are reminded of it hourly and on all devices. It’s one thing being on the wrong side of the great British swindle; it’s quite something else, though, to have your nose rubbed in it.

In Scotland, health and education, two of the main indicators by which we measure deprivation, are reserved to Holyrood and are appropriately well-funded. Each five-year cycle of Holyrood brings forth a raft of well-intentioned initiatives devised by sincere people to tackle inequality in our neediest places. Now, though, a genuinely radical approach is required if we want to make life better in Greenock for the 2040 Index of Multi-Deprivation.

Next year, when a new Scottish Government produces a fresh suite of health initiatives it must give them time to settle and bear fruit by ring-fencing them from any future ministerial re-shuffles. In education, it’s also now time to identify our best head teachers and make it financially worthwhile for them to give their best years to schools in the most deprived areas.

Deprivation is embedded in these places and over decades it has become resistant to the conventional legislative cycle of Scotland, the UK and Europe. They have been failed by modern, enlightened, risk-averse democracy. This isn’t a failure of financial commitment but a failure of ideas by people who view politics as a career and not a vocation.