This is an interesting table that has gone around a few of the political conversations. Either to say that the SNP are really bad or that New Zealand has really got its shit together.
We should take a step back from the noise and look at the data available from a more holistic view point.
Singapore has a pretty totalitarian society, New Zealand is a democracy. But New Zealand is a distant island with a sparse population. Two extremes of politics and a similar result.
Scotland is the fattest nation in Europe, New Zealand has a sports culture that produces the All Blacks.
Scotland has a large part of its population in a very small part of the country. Scotland has a very significant care home population, which was maximised to free up space within the hospitals.
The data within the above table is too complex to simply decide that 'Scottish politicians are shit'. They may well be, but probably not that much shittier than any others.
I think we are making a massive mistake if we think that our politicians are any worse or better than any others. We put far too much emphasis on what they say when we know they are only parroting their interpretations of something they have heard elsewhere.
I'd like to highlight again the Stacey Matrix, example above. Politicians are only capable of decisions when there is high levels of certainty. The Covid19 crisis has highlighted just how unfit for purpose our, frankly, antiquated system of government is. Society is far too complicated now for a left/right bias on any topic to have anything more than a peripheral effect.
We have to have much more emphasis on science, fact, honesty and consensus.