The Labour Government

mackenzie said:
My son's situation is perhaps a snapshot of this country at this time;
My son is 42 and recently returned to the UK very unwell, after working in the Czech Republic for 8 years.
He has no fixed home as I live in a studio apartment and there's no room. Thankfully, his half sister (who has 3 kids) lets him sleep on her sofa for 3 nights and then he has my flat when I'm not here.
He tried to work. Managed it for a few weeks with an ex manager, but his mental health has deteriorated because of his living arrangements. He was self employed at this time, earning good money, but can't rent privately because the letting agents want evidence of 12 months self employment invoices. Then he had to leave work because his mental health was getting worse because of no fixed base.
So we have tried getting a flat together. Again, his absence from the UK is proving difficult for the checks that they do and my income alone is below some of the rental requirements. So the letting agents then want a UK home guarantor. I have some relations who are UK home owners but have declined because of the credit rating effect.
So we are now at an impasse. With my son's mental health getting worse by the day.
He got a GP appointment this morning, but it was with a mental health practitioner who gave him a fit note but said he can't prescribe meds. Oh, and who also suggested "talking is better than tablets"

I fucking despair, I really do.
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I am really sorry to hear of your and your sons' plight.

This country really is a mess and it is the party's of both colour that are responsible/

I hope you get to a satisfactory conclusion at the soonest.

I'll never forget your act of kindness.... must be well over 15 years ago (BIB)
 
BigJoe#1 said:
I am really sorry to hear of your and your sons' plight.

This country really is a mess and it is the party's of both colour that are responsible/

I hope you get to a satisfactory conclusion at the soonest.

I'll never forget your act of kindness.... must be well over 15 years ago (BIB)
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Thank you ;-)
Hopefully we will get through this. The only option at the moment is I offer to pay a 6 months let upfront (out of my meagre savings) so he can get a place of his own and then he pays some back when he is working. And he always been a worker, it's just that he needs some peace of mind.

And I remember that! Lol...wasn't sure if you were the same poster to be honest. And you were more than welcome xx Didn't we and your lovely wife meet in The Waldorf?
 
Mental health has got a lot worse in recent years. I was amazed at how high a percentage of PIP claims are for mental health. There are reasons for this I am sure. Connected with modern life. I could speculate, but really it needs a scientific analysis and I don't have the data.

The snag is, Daily Mail types, and it now seems, most politicians, want to put it down to people taking the piss.

That's too glib an answer. Life isn't that simple. I wish we had a party to vote for that believed in fact-driven policymaking. There is too much pandering to the prejudices of ignorant bigots these days.
 
BrianW said:
Mental health has got a lot worse in recent years. I was amazed at how high a percentage of PIP claims are for mental health. There are reasons for this I am sure. Connected with modern life. I could speculate, but really it needs a scientific analysis and I don't have the data.

The snag is, Daily Mail types, and it now seems, most politicians, want to put it down to people taking the piss.

That's too glib an answer. Life isn't that simple. I wish we had a party to vote for that believed in fact-driven policymaking. There is too much pandering to the prejudices of ignorant bigots these days.
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Yes, it's both a depressing yet "interesting" topic.
For my own family the mental health issues has been there since the 1920s. All of it documented, and in every generation since on our maternal line.
Schizophrenia in the main, yet also possible bipolar, personality disorder and now, more recently, autism and ADHD. Across all of our diverse upbringings in the last 100 years. Well above the average one would expect to see.

Yet there are other factors that have also always played a part; poverty being the main one.

Now we have social media too. I honestly don't believe that constant 24/7 information is good for the human brain.
 
BrianW said:
Mental health has got a lot worse in recent years. I was amazed at how high a percentage of PIP claims are for mental health. There are reasons for this I am sure. Connected with modern life. I could speculate, but really it needs a scientific analysis and I don't have the data.

The snag is, Daily Mail types, and it now seems, most politicians, want to put it down to people taking the piss.

That's too glib an answer. Life isn't that simple. I wish we had a party to vote for that believed in fact-driven policymaking. There is too much pandering to the prejudices of ignorant bigots these days.
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There's plenty of research, and believe it or not, most Labour politicians don't put it down to taking the piss. Most of the rise is post-Covid, and I posted a graph the other day, showing that similar countries hadn't seen the same rise. In fact most were now back to pre-Covid levels.

I doubt it was intentional from the Tories, but they let pretty much everything drift since the 2015 election, obsessing about Brexit and having such a ridiculously high turnover of PMs and senior ministers, that very little got done. This is one of the more serious consequences.

Here's just some of the justification for the conversation around PIP, and I don't think it reflects any kind of Daily Mail 'taking the piss' headlines.

www.gov.uk

New survey suggests benefits system is letting down people with mental health conditions who want to work

Many sick and disabled people say they want to work to help boost their living standards – but aren’t given the right support, according to new data published on Time to Talk day today [6 February].
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk
 
mackenzie said:
Yes, it's both a depressing yet "interesting" topic.
For my own family the mental health issues has been there since the 1920s. All of it documented, and in every generation since on our maternal line.
Schizophrenia in the main, yet also possible bipolar, personality disorder and now, more recently, autism and ADHD. Across all of our diverse upbringings in the last 100 years. Well above the average one would expect to see.

Yet there are other factors that have also always played a part; poverty being the main one.

Now we have social media too. I honestly don't believe that constant 24/7 information is good for the human brain.
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And that's before the madness that is Trump gets to us all.

The reasons for the mental ill health epidemic was discussed on The Moral Maze this evening, with less left/right division than usual. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028sz8
 
BrianW said:
That's too glib an answer. Life isn't that simple. I wish we had a party to vote for that believed in fact-driven policymaking. There is too much pandering to the prejudices of ignorant bigots these days.
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What's the saying "One man's truth is another man's lie". What is, or isnt fact is influenced by perspective. Political parties and the media control that perspective, particularly when it comes to issues where a person may have no lived experience.

We then loop back to who controls the media, ah that would be multi billionaires, with little to gain from truth and facts, but much to gain from deception.
 
mackenzie said:
Yes, it's both a depressing yet "interesting" topic.
For my own family the mental health issues has been there since the 1920s. All of it documented, and in every generation since on our maternal line.
Schizophrenia in the main, yet also possible bipolar, personality disorder and now, more recently, autism and ADHD. Across all of our diverse upbringings in the last 100 years. Well above the average one would expect to see.

Yet there are other factors that have also always played a part; poverty being the main one.

Now we have social media too. I honestly don't believe that constant 24/7 information is good for the human brain.
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Agree 100% with your last sentence. In fact, there have already been scientific studies that have determined this is the case.

I hope your son gets better soon.
 
Labour not endearing themselves to farmers...

Tories replaced the EU's basic payments with "public money for public good" schemes - have to apply, complicated, and less money. Labour seem to have made it easier to claim - now the budgeted amount has been spent so suddenly have stopped applications. Like a lot of "apply for" and "bid for" schemes the money goes to those with most means (and time and skills) to apply rather than the most in need.

defrafarming.blog.gov.uk

Update on the farming budget – Farming

Updates from Defra's Farming and Countryside Programme
defrafarming.blog.gov.uk defrafarming.blog.gov.uk
 
NHS England to abolished. Originally a quango, but still thousands of jobs in the public sector to be lost.

Abolition of Network Rail along with the introduction of Great British Railways means more more jobs to be cut. Labour promised the unions front line staff would be increased, not cut. However they are now considering the tory proposal to close All booking offices with the exception of major stations and revaluation of front line roles. Meaning my job maybe gone too. It maybe another summer of strikes coming up.

:(
 
metalblue said:
NHS England to be scrapped.

www.nursingtimes.net

NHS England to be scrapped, announces prime minister | Nursing Times

Read why the Department of Health and Social Care is abolishing NHS England and taking back ownership of the health service.
www.nursingtimes.net www.nursingtimes.net
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Seems a good move, although as always it remains to be seen how much unnecessary cost and duplication will actually be removed, rather than simply switched back to central government.

The next logical step is to centralise the bureaucracy for the UK as a whole, and properly exploit economies of scale, but devolution has obviously prevented that. What an expensive and ineffective folly devolution has proved to be.
 
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The Future’s Blue! said:
Good or bad thing?
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Brings it closer to government so on the surface good if government think they can run it better (and let’s face it the government are held to account not NHS England). However I question the timing given the commitment to cut waiting lists and wonder how such fundamental change will impact that.
 
Cutting thousands of jobs is all part and parcel of the drive to get folk off the welfare state and into work because as they tell us, they’re the Labour Party.

This morning I listened to just that from the minister who then went on to tell us that he could save £45B from government by slashing jobs and introducing AI to replace them.
 
Serious question (not WUMming, honest!); what's the general mood over in Blighty now, compared to the last days of the Conservative government? Is there more of a "feel good factor" around, or was the economy in such a mess that it'll take years for said factor to manifest itself?
 
jimharri said:
Serious question (not WUMming, honest!); what's the general mood over in Blighty now, compared to the last days of the Conservative government? Is there more of a "feel good factor" around, or was the economy in such a mess that it'll take years for said factor to manifest itself?
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I think world and UK events have combined to produce a pretty depressing period. I don't think it's controversial to say though that things haven't been positive since 2008 -09 really. Some will have done okay, alot badly or just about treading water.

Not just speaking about money either. Tis an uncertain future.
 
metalblue said:
Brings it closer to government so on the surface good if government think they can run it better (and let’s face it the government are held to account not NHS England). However I question the timing given the commitment to cut waiting lists and wonder how such fundamental change will impact that.
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I believe that reducing waiting times is one of the main reasons they've done it.

They've been quite open over the past month that the extra layer was slowing down the changes they wanted to make.
 
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