09/04/2011 by JohnBuck.

Prescriptions for anti-depressants have risen by more than forty per cent over the past four years. Doctors and various charities have said that this figure is mostly people who are struggling with general debt and also fears of redundancy. Financial problems can sometimes act as a “trigger”, but there are other things to take into consideration such as the fact that being depressed is now more acceptable. The worrying thing is that this particular rise has happened during a time when alternative therapies have been available such as talking therapies, which should have curbed the demand for anti-depressant drugs. Department of Health figures have shown that this year referrals for talking therapies have risen to nearly 600,000.

During times of economic hardships mental health problems seem to get worse and GPs are seeing more and more people coming in to their surgeries with major debt problems or they have employment worries. People often feel guilty that they cannot provide for their loved ones and this can often lead to depression. The rich seem to get richer and the poor just seem too get depressed.

Posted in Finance | 4 Comments »

21/03/2011 by admin.

Why are we getting involved in Libya? Haven’t we learnt our lessons from previous attempts at world policing? In 2003 I was in favour of us going into Iraq because of the fact that Saddam Hussein was supposedly putting to death hundreds of people a day and doing terrible things such as gassing the Kurds. But here we are, after only a relatively few deaths in Libya, trying to once again to sort out another countries problems. The Labour party got so much stick over Iraq and I particularly feel sorry for Tony Blair who was only doing what he thought was right at the time. What we sometimes forget is that all military action was passed in our houses by a majority, and was also backed by the Tories. In fact it was only the Liberal Democrats who were against that war.

Funny how silent Nick Clegg has been on this new WAR in Libya, and I’m afraid WAR is what it is. At a time when we can’t afford to keep basic services in our country and can’t afford to pay military pilots and have had to make them redundant - we are going to war, again, what is the sense of this? Libya is an internal dispute Gaddafi has not brought any other country into this, unlike Iraq, where missiles were exploding in neighbouring countries.

I was in support of the Iraq war and now have now decided, on all the evidence presented to me, that war affects all civilians, breeds more terrorists and has lots more consequences than anyone can imagine.  So I have revised my view and am now of the opinion that any war is not worth all this and I have many friends who feel the same way. I bet if Cameron had a referendum on Libya tomorrow the people of this country would vote against any action. I have also come to the conclusion that once again all of this must really be about oil and the world’s current unstable economies. We wouldn’t dream of going into Zimbabwe – no oil! So I have filed this posting under the heading of “finance” and not “politics”.

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

16/03/2011 by TonyM.

Apparently there is going to be a 49 per cent rise in the world’s energy consumption from now until 2035. So can this new demand for energy be met without relying on nuclear power?

But when the disaster in Japan caused a nuclear emergency it made everyone think back to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - it was taken for granted that nuclear power would be more important around the world.

What a shame that it takes a disaster like this to make those with the power to rethink their strategies.

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

22/02/2011 by Dandy.

One again David Cameron re-launches his idea of the Big Society but he didn’t call it a re-launch, he was probably annoyed that people didn’t get it the first time. I have a suggestion for him why not relaunch it a third time with a new title “Big Sobriety”, and new content and then people might just listen.

With over a million hospital admissions every year that are attibuted to excessive drinking, and the total cost to the NHS expected to rise to £3.7 billion. Hospital admissions for alcohol misuse stood at half a million in 2002 and have doubled, now costing the NHS £2.7 billion  every year.

If Cameron really wants to save money somewhere . . .

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

22/01/2011 by JohnB.

Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, has just been valued at about $50bn. We hear often of the advantages of this website but what of the drawbacks:

• Advertising is targeted totally to you, how do the advertisers know about you and your likes/dislikes?
• Some people spend hours a day, searching for friends and updating their profile, it is addictive.
• Depending upon your privacy settings (most people don’t know how to change them) your entire profile is there to be read by anyone with a generic Facebook account.
• Potential employers and abusers look at Facebook to see what you are doing or have been up to. They can even check out your friends and family.
• How far are we detaching ourselves from real contact, in the real world some “Facebookers” would not have have any friends. Some claim to have a thousand friends plus, these types have definitely built up a psychological problem.
• Cyber bullying is rife at the moment and it is also so easy for someone to go off the deep end and insult a whole family group in one go. Or to threaten to kill.

Facebook should keep their money safe because I feel that maybe in the future someone will try to take them to court for allowing threatening and abusive behaviour and for giving “facetime” to those that have lost the plot.

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »