Tag Archives: wellbeing

2 October 2020 – today’s press release

New stats demand wellbeing be addressed at heart of Government

The Liberal Democrats have called for the appointment of a Minister for Wellbeing and new wellbeing assessments to make sure laws “empower people to live healthier lives.”

The call comes in response to new statistics which reveal increasing anxiety and depression among young women aged 16 to 24 years while only half of young people said they were satisfied with their health.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Munira Wilson said:

The impact of poor and overcrowded housing, insecure employment and our broken welfare system on the mental health and wellbeing of young people is

Posted in News and Press releases | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Lib Dems: The party of wellbeing?

Lib Dem leadership elections often bring up the same criticisms of the party:

  1. People don’t know what we stand for.
  2. We aren’t radical enough.
  3. We need to advance a “core voter” strategy based on values, not just on being “hard working local people”.

I agree with all of these criticisms, but get weary when they are repeated ad infinitum without solutions. Both Davey and Moran talk about the importance of building a distinctive liberal message without saying what this distinctive liberal message should be. What I’m seeing from both candidates is a list of reasonable policy ideas which aren’t meaningfully linked (except by the vague claim that they are “liberal” or “evidenced-based”).

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 9 Comments

For Mental Health Awareness Week, let’s remember Mill’s mantra and campaign for better wellbeing measures

We are living in a time that’s taking its toll on different people in different ways. And we have required changes in our approach to contend with this new reality. Now more than ever, I find myself reflecting on JS Mill’s mantra, that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”

My modern interpretation of this philosophy is that we should be considering wellbeing metrics and indicators in all Government decisions and policymaking. And, if a policy would worsen people’s wellbeing, it should be dropped.

It’s …

Posted in Op-eds | 8 Comments

Being a PPC with a Snap GE looming….

Needless to say, I have been busy lately! As have been PPCs and candidate selection teams up and down the country with the threat of looming General Election. Exciting times!

This uncertainty plays havoc with our mental health. We all have mental health, as we all have physical health. Not knowing whether one’s life is going to be put on hold in a few hours time for the next six weeks can be extraordinarily stressful.

At our local exec last night our team well-being was raised by a wise and concerned seasoned campaigner. He wanted us to first of all recognise the dangers of a 24/7 campaign and the huge pressure it puts everyone under; and secondly have a way of supporting our activists.

I have been at a lot of training sessions over the years since approved as a PPC in 2014. I can not remember any ALDC or party training in protecting and preserving the health and well-being of our campaigners and activists. There are usually lots of jokes about the junk food we all consume and the weight we gain due to poor hours, lack of sleep and not looking after ourselves – a feeling that our bodies might take a bashing during the campaign but its all worth it in the sacrifice for the Greater Good, i.e. winning.

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A Basis for a National Health and Well-Being Policy?

The Frome Model of Enhanced Care is a GP focussed, community serving and using way of creating, assessing and delivering comprehensive health and well-being skills, services and attitudes, in, with and for a community, at a low to negative net cost. Its administration is remarkably inclusive, heterarchical or flat.

It is so attractive that it merits awareness, analysis, adoption and adaption to spread its remarkable and measured attributes.

It has delivered 5 years of medical care with social cohesion. It saves money and is more enjoyable! Somerset CCG reckons some £2 …

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Opinion: It’s not such a bad thing if we’re a nation of idlers

An extract from a forthcoming book appeared in the Evening Standard last week. The book the Standard quotes from is Britannia Unchained, a collection of essays by senior backbench Tories. Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Chris Skidmore might not be household names yet, but they are young, right-wing and tremendously ambitious for themselves and the Conservative Party.

According to the Standard article, the authors believe Britons today need more “graft, risk and effort” in order to make Britain part of the “superleague” of nations. “Once they enter the workplace”, the young Tories argue, “the British are among the worst …

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LDVideo: Jo Swinson MP on new body image report

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has today launched Reflections  on Body Image, a report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image, which suggests that children as young as five years old can be worried about their weight and looks.

The report makes a number of wide ranging recommendations from giving children body image and self esteem lessons in school to requiring advertisers to use a more diverse range of models to looking at whether the Equality Act needs to be amended to cover appearance related discrimination to challenging the evidence base that supports dieting and the idea that low weight guarantees health.

Jo has had an exhilarating day doing the rounds of the various media outlets from the Today programme to BBC Breakfast to Sky News.

Here she is talking to Bill Turnbull on BBC Breakfast this morning:

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