6,000 skilled people were denied entry to the UK last year due to visa caps. The Campaign for Science and Engineering reported on a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office which showed that thousands of workers had been denied entry between December 2017 and March 2018. The Government have refused over 6,000 applications for […]
News
Mental Health Awareness Week 2018
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. The theme is this year is stress. Stress can pervade our lives, but one aspect is stress at work. Keeping a mentally-healthy workforce is best for everyone: the employees, the business and the customers. Being self-employed as a musician, workplace stress has a slightly different connotation. I’m preparing […]
Vince Cable talks about his mother’s mental illness, his father’s racism and overcoming prejudice in a moving and candid interview
You probably don’t know that Vince Cable was on Radio 5 Live as the birthday guest on Sunday night because it’s not really been reported anywhere. It’s worth catching up on it though because it’s one of the most open, personal and moving interviews I’ve heard him give. He’s mentioned the racism he and his […]
How do benefit sanctions affect mental health?
There are few things more obvious than if you are deprived of the means to feed yourself, it’s going to be stressful and more than likely affect your mental health and not in a good way. This Mental Health Awareness Week, the excellent Scottish Association for Mental Health is collecting evidence to present to the […]
LibLink: Sal Brinton: Ministers must protect our NHS against privatisation
This week, Sal Brinton and others argued in the House of Lords that action was needed to ensure that Brexit didn’t open the door to privatisation of the NHS. She wrote about the issue for The House magazine: If you asked most people what effect Brexit would have on our health service, regardless of how […]
Growth in infant mortality highlights desperate pressures on the NHS
The annual statistics on stillbirths, infant deaths and childhood deaths in England and Wales were published yesterday by the government. The report also includes data on the causes of death and information on key risk factors. This report evidences the first two-year increase in infant mortality rates in England and Wales for the last 30 years. […]
#TreatMeWell campaign launched today
Mencap has launched its Treat Me Well Campaign today, calling for those with Learning Disabilities to be given reasonable adjustments in hospitals. The facts are shocking. Every year, 1200 people with a learning disability die avoidably in hospital care. I blogged this morning on the disgraceful state of PIP and ESA assessments, many suffered by […]
Clever question from Vince shows Brexit threat to NHS
Theresa May’s non-answer to Vince Cable’s question at PMQs today about whether a future trade deal with the US will safeguard the NHS could end up as being one of the turning points of the Brexit debate. One of the huge advantages of the EU is that you have a lot more clout if you […]
We might not be discussing mental health detention at our Conference, but we are trying to change things
The wonderful Ms Rigg wrote a very detailed piece on how the motions were selected for Spring Conference this week. As a member of the Party’s Federal Conference Committee, she knows all there is to know about such things and it’s great that she shares so much with us. In her post, she lamented that […]
Willie Rennie to run almost 5 marathons in 4 days to raise funds for mental health charity
As far as we know, Scotland doesn’t have any elections this May. Willie Rennie isn’t going to be slacking though. Over the Easter weekend, he’ll be running the 117 miles of the Fife Coastal Path which runs from the Firth of Forth to the Forth of Tay. He hopes to raise £1000 at least for […]