BLACK DOG


Ed Miliband made a highly principled speech this week concerning the stigma of mental health. Principled as a) there are no votes in it and b) it is something of a taboo subject and is about as politically un-sexy as it gets.
 
Advanced capitalism has transformed the western world bringing about a level of material comfort in the lives of most working people hitherto unknown. The great social democratic welfare states of the post war period sought to harness the energy of capitalism, whilst curbing, what Edward Heath called, its ‘unacceptable face.’ Across Western Europe the mixed economies of this period sought to create societies that addressed the material needs of the population whilst protecting the most vulnerable. To a great extent they were extraordinarily successful.
However by the 1980’s the consensus behind the welfare state came under a sustained assault. Big corporations and the money markets were finding that welfare provision, employment protection and the power of the trade union movement were cramping their style. Remove these ‘obstacles’ and serious money could be made. The assault had a human face in the UK, Thatcherism was born. The damage wrought to the fabric of society in this decade we not only still live with but, like a cancerous tumour, has continued to grow, wreaking ever greater havoc. One of the major shifts of the Thatcher years was a move away from the idea that the financial markets required to be regulated and kept under scrutiny, the subsequent deregulation and ‘greed is good’  culture was continued and even extended by New Labour, leading ultimately to the implosion of the banking system in 2008. Greed being good the bankers merely shrugged their shoulders and pocketed their bonuses and let the citizens across Europe, from Greece to Spain, the North East of England  and East End of London to suffer the consequences. If you wanted an image of the true insanity of Thatcherism look no further than Fred Goodwin or Bob Diamond.
With the Trade Union movement successfully castrated there has been a steady erosion of employment protection, only slowed down, not reversed, during the Labour years. Whilst productivity has increased this increase has not translated into a comparable increase in wages; workers in the worst paid jobs – such as dinner ladies, hairdressers and waiters – have seen their pay fall sharply in real terms. The bottom tenth of earners saw their pay creep up just 0.1% between 2010 and 2011 while the top tenth saw their pay grow 18 times faster.[1]
Significant sections of the working population are now working excessive hours, many in more than one job, for wages barely above the poverty line. Whilst the corporations like Starbucks that employ them, and which make use of the infrastructure of society, from the police to the roads and the health service, see no moral obligation to pay for these services. For the like of Amazon, Google and Starbucks there is indeed no such thing as society.
The erosion of collective institutions such a Trade Unions and Working Men’s associations, and the increasing atomisation of life means that poverty and hardship falls increasingly solely upon individuals and families.[2] The consequences can be registered all around in increased alcoholism, drug abuse, obesity,[3]  and depression and anxiety. The spectre of Black Dog haunts society as individuals turn the indifference and cruelty of an unjust society in upon themselves. The growth of mental health problems is political, a consequence of the world that has been created and the consequent devaluation of life.

[1] Richard Cousins, chief executive of the world's largest canteen catering firm Compass Group, employs almost 430,000 staff around the globe, including an army of school dinner ladies. Last year, his pay package was worth £4.4m, including a £1.3m cash bonus. His pay is not out of line with that of his FTSE 100 peers, but the pay gap at Compass is one of the widest to be found anywhere in corporate Britain. With contracts to provide meals for hospitals, prisons, mess tents in Iraq, and school and office canteens, Compass s one of the largest FTSE 100 employers. Staff earn an average salary of £12,480 a year, based on figures from company's annual report – though that includes many part-time workers. On that basis, Cousins' pay deal is worth 350 times that of an average employee at the company.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/23/pay-gap-rich-poor-widens 23/11/2011. The situation has worsened since The Guardian report.
[2] Traditionally when faced with hardship and the fundamental unfairness and inequality in life people turned to the magical thinking of religion and this is still true of the Muslim community, however  with growing secularisation and increase in atheism this prop is now gone for many.
[3] The link between obesity and mental health has not been sufficiently explored, from professional experience I can testify to the link between overeating, particularly cheap junk food, and depression.
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries...
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a café/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t...
Read more

VOLINE AND TROTSKY

Волин и Троцкого A Footnote in Russian History In April 1917 the Russian anarchist revolutionary Voline* and Leon Trotsky were both stranded in New York as the Russian revolution broke out in Petrograd , inevitably coming into contact with one another. Voline stated that he felt that the Bolsheviks, given their ruthlessness and single minded determination, would ultimately come to power. They would then begin eliminating their opponents, amongst whom of course were the anarchists; this persecution would end with the Bolsheviks shooting the anarchists “like partridges.” Trotsky was dismissive, they might have their differences but they were comrades in arms, they had different interpretations of the revolutionary process but shared the same goals. It was nonsense to speak of Bolsheviks shooting revolutionary comrades, “we are socialists, comrade Voline! So we are not your enemies….” [1] In December of 1919, whilst gravely wounded Voline was captured by the Bolshe...
Read more