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By Liz S (S for Smoakinnn! these days?)

Anas Sarwar now knows his election campaign in Scotland is crumbling , mainly because it was all built on a foundation of lies, that as a strategy , is one that was not sustainable as an ongoing plan that would generate support for him to be the next FM in Scotland.

Labour in Scotland need to now stop using people as political pawns to try to gain a political advantage over the SNP, such as all of those people who are victims of drug deaths and the relatives they have left behind.

However if that is how they (and other UK parties in Scotland) want to operate then they need to look at this headline in September 2025 in relation to England & Wales to see how some factors impact what is reported as incorrect information.

“Thousands of opioid deaths missed off official figures”

“More than 13,000 heroin and opioid deaths have been missed off official statistics in England and Wales, raising concerns about the impact on the government’s approach to tackling addiction”

“Research from King’s College London, shared exclusively with BBC News, found that there were 39,232 opioid-related deaths between 2011 and 2022, more than 50% higher than previously known”

“The error has been blamed on the government’s official statistics body not having access to correct data and it is understood ministers are now working with coroners to improve the reporting of deaths”

“A former senior civil servant said fewer people might have died if drug policies had been based on accurate statistics“.

“The number of opioid deaths per million people in England and Wales has almost doubled since 2012, but this new study means the scale of the problem is likely to be even greater”

One example of an incorrect recording not included in the statistics was a young victim in England called Ben, who was 27 “when he died from a heroin overdose in 2018, his death was ruled as “misadventure” and was never included on the official opioid death statistics”.

“Ben’s family believe that different treatment and support for drug addicts could have helped him”.

Also in this same BBC UK report on 16 September 2025 was this statement:

“The flaw in the ONS system is not present in Scotland, where there are no coroners and where National Records Scotland (NRS) is responsible for collating official statistics”

“Unlike the ONS, the NRS does receive more detailed pathology reports, but differences in how deaths are reported across the UK make it difficult to compare”.

See this is something, as a report elsewhere, that Labour in Scotland and also other UK parties (and some of the media) prefer people in Scotland do not know and that is purely for party political reasons alone.

People before party politics please…..that’s you Labour (and others too)………..as two, or more could also play at that distasteful game.

However to engage and so then to also play that game leaves you feeling a tad unclean , especially if you have a strong sense of morality, as you are more than aware that you are simply exploiting people’s lives who have been hugely impacted by drugs and that you are also exploiting the grief of all those relatives that have been left behind…………just so that you and your party can try to gain a political advantage over a political opponent !

That solves nothing , but it does cause great distress for those involved in the scourge left behind by drug deaths, especially for the relatives of those who have been the victims of drug addiction.

Solutions and attempts to reduce drug deaths are what is required , more so by those impacted by drugs, as in for both the victims of drug addiction and their relatives, and not indulging in gutter politics and so then attempting a petty one-upmanship over the SNP.

Liz S

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