MP's Diary November 2012
Remembrance in Action
Last week, I paid a visit to Hollybush House where the veterans’ organisation Combat Stress provides treatment for veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of their service of country in wars right up to the present day in Afghanistan. Referrals to the organisation have risen substantially due to the two most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and because the need for mental health support is much better understood and accepted than in the past.
Over the years I have visited Hollybush House many times and I know of local groups who have raised funds to support it –like all charities they need all the help they can get. Of course all of the veterans’ charities need support including the better known ones like the Royal British Legion Scotland. But I feel we have a special responsibility to support this charity which does such vital work right here on our doorstep in Ayrshire.
So at this time of Remembrance as well as buying and wearing a poppy I hope that all our minds are turned on what we can do in however small a way to repay those who have suffered, as well as their families, from the horror of war on our behalf and give what we can.
Mental Health Strategy for the 21st Century
The NHS is an incredible British institution but it needs to be able to adapt to new challenges and priorities, one of which is mental health.
One in four of us will suffer a mental health problem at some point during our lifetime, making it the biggest unaddressed health challenge of our age.
Even in 2012 mental illness is a subject that is still too often brushed under the carpet and for too long it has been shunted to the margins of health policy. The cost of this neglect is enormous: in the strains and demands placed on those who carry the burden of care and in trouble stored up over the years as minor problems become major ones. And failing to address mental illness costs the economy dear too. Untreated mental illness costs the NHS an extra £10 billion a year, and costs business over £8 billion in sickness absence alone.
The Labour Party has recently announced a series of measures to improve mental health services in the NHS. We want to re write the NHS constitution to give people the right to ‘talking therapies’ for treating mental illness – just as they already have the right to drugs and treatments for physical illness, and all professional staff in the NHS will receive mental health training so it is spotted earlier.
Change Promised but not Delivered
There is much focus on the 2014 referendum on the separation of Scotland from the UK, but this Monday saw the halfway point of this Westminster parliament, so we are now closer to the next election than we are to the last one.
This is a good time for us to take stock of what the Tory led Government has actually achieved so far.
Before the election David Cameron promised change. But what he’s delivered is very different from what he promised – in fact things have got worse, not better. Unemployment is higher now than when he took office.
Instead of the strong growth George Osborne said his plan would deliver, we’ve only just emerged from the longest double dip recession since the Second World War. Families and pensioners are paying more, but 8000 millionaires are getting a tax cut worth at least £40,000 a year.
In a damning indictment of the Tory led Government’s economic strategy , former Conservative Minister Lord Heseltine called on the Government to develop a proper plan for jobs and growth claiming the message he was hearing is that ‘ the UK does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation.’ With that in mind I was pleased to attend the March and Rally the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) organised two weeks ago in Glasgow as part of their campaign for investment in the economy titled There is a Better Way.
And with all their u turns, shambles, chaos and making up policy on the hoof, they haven’t been able to govern competently. This is not what people voted for and the General Election can’t come soon enough.
Out of Touch At Home and Abroad
Last week saw Labour inflicting a humiliating defeat on David Cameron in Parliament when we voted to press the Government to pursue a cut in the EU budget. At a time when we are see massive cuts not just in our own country but across Europe, the EU should not be exempt from making difficult decisions on spending , which is why Labour has been calling for a real terms cut and reform of the whole EU finances and structures.
Remembrance in Action
Last week, I paid a visit to Hollybush House where the veterans’ organisation Combat Stress provides treatment for veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of their service of country in wars right up to the present day in Afghanistan. Referrals to the organisation have risen substantially due to the two most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and because the need for mental health support is much better understood and accepted than in the past.
Over the years I have visited Hollybush House many times and I know of local groups who have raised funds to support it –like all charities they need all the help they can get. Of course all of the veterans’ charities need support including the better known ones like the Royal British Legion Scotland. But I feel we have a special responsibility to support this charity which does such vital work right here on our doorstep in Ayrshire.
So at this time of Remembrance as well as buying and wearing a poppy I hope that all our minds are turned on what we can do in however small a way to repay those who have suffered, as well as their families, from the horror of war on our behalf and give what we can.
Mental Health Strategy for the 21st Century
The NHS is an incredible British institution but it needs to be able to adapt to new challenges and priorities, one of which is mental health.
One in four of us will suffer a mental health problem at some point during our lifetime, making it the biggest unaddressed health challenge of our age.
Even in 2012 mental illness is a subject that is still too often brushed under the carpet and for too long it has been shunted to the margins of health policy. The cost of this neglect is enormous: in the strains and demands placed on those who carry the burden of care and in trouble stored up over the years as minor problems become major ones. And failing to address mental illness costs the economy dear too. Untreated mental illness costs the NHS an extra £10 billion a year, and costs business over £8 billion in sickness absence alone.
The Labour Party has recently announced a series of measures to improve mental health services in the NHS. We want to re write the NHS constitution to give people the right to ‘talking therapies’ for treating mental illness – just as they already have the right to drugs and treatments for physical illness, and all professional staff in the NHS will receive mental health training so it is spotted earlier.
Change Promised but not Delivered
There is much focus on the 2014 referendum on the separation of Scotland from the UK, but this Monday saw the halfway point of this Westminster parliament, so we are now closer to the next election than we are to the last one.
This is a good time for us to take stock of what the Tory led Government has actually achieved so far.
Before the election David Cameron promised change. But what he’s delivered is very different from what he promised – in fact things have got worse, not better. Unemployment is higher now than when he took office.
Instead of the strong growth George Osborne said his plan would deliver, we’ve only just emerged from the longest double dip recession since the Second World War. Families and pensioners are paying more, but 8000 millionaires are getting a tax cut worth at least £40,000 a year.
In a damning indictment of the Tory led Government’s economic strategy , former Conservative Minister Lord Heseltine called on the Government to develop a proper plan for jobs and growth claiming the message he was hearing is that ‘ the UK does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation.’ With that in mind I was pleased to attend the March and Rally the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) organised two weeks ago in Glasgow as part of their campaign for investment in the economy titled There is a Better Way.
And with all their u turns, shambles, chaos and making up policy on the hoof, they haven’t been able to govern competently. This is not what people voted for and the General Election can’t come soon enough.
Out of Touch At Home and Abroad
Last week saw Labour inflicting a humiliating defeat on David Cameron in Parliament when we voted to press the Government to pursue a cut in the EU budget. At a time when we are see massive cuts not just in our own country but across Europe, the EU should not be exempt from making difficult decisions on spending , which is why Labour has been calling for a real terms cut and reform of the whole EU finances and structures.