Ian Swanson: What can Scotland learn from Finland?

IT has a population of five million, a reputation for hard drinking and poor health and has just been named the best country in the world. No, it's not Scotland, but Finland.

Newsweek magazine this week announced the small Scandinavian nation had come out top in its survey of 100 countries across the world, based on five key criteria - education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism and political stability.

Switzerland and Sweden were close behind in second and third place, followed by Australia. The USA came in eleventh and the UK was in 14th place.

Newsweek said it had set out to answer the question: "If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous, and upwardly mobile life?"

When the Scottish Nationalists came to power in 2007, one of their first moves was to ditch former first minister Jack McConnell's favourite slogan describing Scotland as "the best small country in the world" - perhaps a wise move given the Newsweek verdict.

So can Scotland learn from Finland and make Mr McConnell's boast come true?

Finland is famous for Sibelius, saunas, dark winter nights and Nokia phones. But it also used to be notorious for its addiction to drink and its poor diet - a bit like Scotland.

In the 1960s, Finland had the world's highest rate of men dying from heart disease.

However, since then a huge effort to improve the national diet and cut smoking has paid off.

The North Karelia project, which began in 1972, involved every public health nurse and physician in trying to modify the risk factors of their patients. There were television broadcasts targeting smoking, national "quit and win" contests to reduce smoking and cholesterol-lowering competitions between villages.

The government, the health service and local authorities got together with sporting organisations and produced a wide variety of initiatives to get unhealthy Finns fit again through better diet and sport.

Between 1972 and 1992, a three-fold increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and a decline in smoking led to a dramatic drop of 55 per cent in deaths from heart disease among men and by 68 per cent among women.

Labour former health minister Malcolm Chisholm says Scotland could learn from Finland's success. "We should recognise when talking about heart disease that Scotland has made big strides compared to a few years ago. But equally, there are lessons to be learned in terms of initiatives, particularly around diet."

SNP MSP Christine Grahame, convener of the Scottish Parliament's health committee, was impressed with Finland's achievements when she made an official visit with colleagues in January.

And she believes the country's experience of dealing with its drink problem is something Scotland can draw upon. She says: "There is a lot of state intervention in health in Finland and they make no apology for it. They own all the major alcohol outlets, so they are very heavily regulated and there's a lot of education.

"At one point, because of cheap imports, they dropped the price and found within a year health problems had increased dramatically, so they had to raise them again. There were two or three price increases in quick succession and there was an almost immediate improvement in heavy drinking and alcoholism."

Education Secretary Mike Russell also visited Finland earlier this year and said afterwards there were lessons Scotland could learn. "The depth of national trust and confidence in teachers is impressive and something that Scotland needs to aspire to," he said. "I was also impressed by the level of consensus around a long-term direction for education, which again is something I think Scotland can learn from."

However, Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish international education expert visiting Scotland, warned against trying to copy their success.

Finland's educational achievements were inextricably linked to its culture, history and traditions, he argued.

"There are only a few concrete elements of the system that are of any value to other countries," he told the Scottish Educational Research Association's annual conference. "If you are thinking about copying Finland, I would say don't, because it most likely won't work."

He did highlight, however, Finland's more eccentric contributions to the world - its "wacky competitions" like the Air Guitar World Championships, the Mobile Phone-Tossing World Championships and the Wife-Carrying World Championships.

Finland's new ambassador to Britain, Pekka Huhtaniemi, was in Edinburgh this week to coincide with a Festival performance by the Radio Finland symphony orchestra.

Henry Fairweather, Finland's honorary consul in Edinburgh, sees great potential for co-operation.

"We have a similar position on the edge of Europe, we are similar in numbers of people, though Finland has a much bigger geographical area, and both countries also have large rural and relatively remote parts. There is a lot of scope for Scotland and Finland getting to know more about each other."

FINLAND

Population: 5,367,188

Land area: 130,596 sq miles

Pint of lager: 3.94

Economy: Electronics, metal, timber, paper, chemicals

Life expectancy: 82 (women) 75 (men)

Newsweek ranking: 1

SCOTLAND

Population: 5,194,000

Land area: 30,414 sq miles

Pint of lager: 2.80

Economy: Financial services, tourism, whisky

Life expectancy: 80 (women) 75 (men)

Newsweek ranking: 14 (UK)