By cuckooshoe
Just heard a report on ITV News statistics for drug related deaths in England and Wales.
On the BBC website I found an article on the figures for Wales.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62393799
“There has been a sharp increase in the rate of deaths from drug misuse in Wales, according to new figures.
There were 210 deaths recorded in 2021, compared with 149 in 2020 – an increase of 41% – Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed.
The figure was also the highest since records began in 1993, with the previous record being 208 in 2018.”
At the time of posting this, there was no mention yet from the BBC about the figure for England.
ITV News has reported
http://www.itv.com/news/2022-08-03/drug-deaths-in-england-and-wales-highest-since-records-began
” Drug-related deaths in England and Wales have reached a record high, driven primarily by opiates, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show.
There were 4,859 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in 2021, up 6.2% from 2020.
This is the ninth consecutive annual rise, and the highest number since records began in 1993.”
Talking-up Scotland 
Sshhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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No it needs shouting out, VERY loudly.
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I noticed the English figures were hard to find too, just like they used to (maybe still do) hide behind UK figures for Covid. The National has a story on it with a bit more detail.
Lets hope the press and opposition MPs kick up a stink about the steady increase and maybe some action might be taken but I’m not holding my breath.
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The latest ONS figures can be found here – 2021 and time series data for England, English regions and Wales: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoningenglandandwalesreferencetable
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That’s shocking and very sad. An indication of neglect by the BritNat parties to do anything to tackle
the despondency, poverty, and resulting drugs culture in England. I don’t suppose there are any calls for England’s health miniter to resign, or for Wales’ health minister to hang his/her head in shame.
Of course the fact is, drugs are getting into England and Wales, there are the pushers and then there are the traffickers etc but where is the action to tackle that side of things, the English gov do not care at all, they and their media will continue to do a Truss and ‘ignore’ the terrible toll in England and Wales.
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What is striking is the measured way that BBC Wales has reported this, with no finger-pointing, ranting blaming from opposition members of the Senedd. For BBC Scotland, the rest of the media and opposition MSPs the fact of Scotland’s very high numbers of deaths is a matter for rejoicing, because it gives them the opportunity to be angry on demand.
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So, once again, that’s why we’ve been blasted from politicians and the MSM for our ‘ record-breaking’ drug deaths. It’s getting really obvious now that it’s a WM ploy. Batter Scotland with negative headlines just before worse ones are due out for rUK
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I’d already read the original comment but bravo for giving it well deserved prominence
I doubt the Tories or Labour or the Libdems or the BBC will pay the blindest bit of attention to the detail, concentrated as they are on rubbishing Scotland’s performance under the general heading of “it’s just politics”.
Scotland’s greatest problem over drugs is the incessant lies because “it’s just politics”.
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It is now 16.15 and the BBC website has still not reported the ONS figures for England, and while BBC Wales has had their lengthy report up online for 3 hours, their article does not contain comments by ministers in the Welsh government, or the opposition parties about today’s figures.
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The latest (2021) ONS figures for deaths due to drug misuse across the regions of England are notable. Remember we’re talking here of regions in ONE country; with ONE responsible national government; subject to ONE drugs-related policy regime; and that government having ALL LEGAL AND FINANCIAL POWERS relevant to framing, changing and implementing drug policy responses.
This is what the ONS statistics show for the drug misuse death rate in 2021:
England = 52.2 per million population
London = 32.5 per million
NE England = 104.1 per million (twice the England rate)
NW England = 80.2 per million (2.5 times the London rate)
The death rates in 2010 – when the Cameron coalition government came to power – were as follows:
England = 32.6 per million population
London = 28.2 per million
NE England = 47.4 per million
NW England = 43.1 per million.
So, very marked changes over time for the worse under Tory rule in England! What’s being done to address the negative trend? Why do major regional disparities exist and why so persistent? And why have the Tories in Westminster failed to adopt the magic solution to drug deaths known to Sandesh Gulhane and his Tory colleagues in Holyrood?
And at 1730 hours today STILL NO SIGN of any coverage of these latest ONS statistics on drug deaths in England on the BBC News website, even tho’ the Wales’s story now also appears on the main UK health page.
The ONS data do indeed show that the 2021 figure for deaths due to drug misuse in England (at 2,846) is the highest recorded going back to 1993. But the BBC article on Wales states: ‘The number of deaths per million people was higher in Wales than in England, which saw a far smaller rise in deaths.’
Would this be the BBC’s justification for NOT reporting that England in 2021 had a record number of deaths too? Is a record high for something bad – uniquely across the UK – not newsworthy if it’s about England? Just more blatant BBC bias by omission!
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Update – C4 News programme has just headlined record drug deaths in Wales AND ENGLAND.
Anyone watch/listen to BBC news programmes this evening – did the BBC broadcast anything of this news?
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With regard to Scotland’s recent statistics for drugs death figures, did they include deaths that occurred in previous years?
The ONS statistics for England and Wales released today says..
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2021registrations
“Statistics on drug-related deaths are based on the date of death registration – because of registration delays, around half of these deaths will have occurred in previous years.”
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PS John, a very good compilation comparing BBC reporting in England, Wales and Scotland on Indyref Two’s Youtube channel.
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