The Government-vs-The Depressed. A Panacea? Maybe not.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is;

"a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviours and cognitive processes and contents through a number of goal-oriented, explicit systematic procedures." Wikipedia.

So CBT addresses and overcomes the dysfunctional through reasoning and reality checks and if the practitioner is properly trained and qualified, skillful, and experienced it's good therapy that can work very well believe me. It is said to be time limited in as much as it is often claimed it can work to relieve and/or cure a problem of the psyche in a set number of sessions. It is therefore cost calculable. If each session is charged at £100 and it is estimated that the problem can be overcome in 10 sessions then the total cost is £1,000. Simple. Or so it seems. Read on.

Now from here I would like you to keep in mind that anyone can set themselves up as a Psychotherapist. They do not need any academic or practical qualifications 'proper'; if trained at all many are churned out by quack-factories that rely on gullibility and lack of regulation; there is no official state licensing; there is no meaningful regulation other than voluntary regulation; 'training and accreditation bodies' they may join could well have been set up simply as a way to add street cred to their claim of being qualified; - or they simply may read a book, take an on-line course lasting a couple of weeks, or just merely have business cards printed and get on with their version of the job. Again, simple.

But let’s say that you’ve sourced a properly trained, properly qualified CBT practitioner who is a member of a well respected exemplary and unimpeachable organisation. Good stuff to come no doubt. And if you form an efficient working partnership with the therapist, commonly known as the ‘therapeutic alliance’ then good things may very well come. However, there is a potential down side.

As much as CBT is heralded and touted as being a ‘one-size-fits-all’ form of intervention it simply does not suit some. Not all people react in a positive manner towards CBT and come out at the other end ‘cured’ or even feeling that they have improved in any way. In fact, if it fails after them being told by all and sundry and especially by those that should know better that it is the only way forward and that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach works universally then it can well add to their feelings of negative self-worth and actually deepen the problem – “I’ve failed again. I fail at everything.” I’m afraid the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is not much good then, indeed potentially counter-productive. People are individuals and react to CBT (indeed all forms of therapy) in different ways. Sorry, but that’s just a matter of fact. Being a CBT practitioner myself I would love to tell you otherwise, but that would be a lie.

However, one of the reasons CBT is latched on to as ‘super therapy’ by those with an eye more on money than anything else and who would like to convince themselves but more importantly the general public that it is the magic bullet of therapeutic interventions is that a cost per head can be calculated in advance and a spending limit can be put on it. 

As an example let’s just take what has been called “the common cold of the psyche” – Depression. (By the way I would describe it in far more serious terms but this is just a working definition ok?) Thus, if it can be said by the CBT therapist that he/she can raise someone out of their depression in 10 sessions at £100 per session then the spend will be £1,000 and to get that back from taxes and NI contributions when they then return to work post treatment will make that treatment ‘cost neutral’ within months. Once again – simple eh?

Now please don’t get the wrong end of the stick at this point. I am not criticising CBT. It can be one of the most effective and efficient therapeutic intervention strategies on the face of the planet. All I am saying is that it is not efficient and effective with everyone that walks through the therapist’s door. Now and again it just doesn't work and if that’s the case it should be substituted for a more appropriate patient orientated, tailor made therapeutic approach that suits the individual seeking help. It's the patient and their needs that should be at the centre of any therapy. Not trying to force fit them into a rigid therapeutic straight-jacket (excuse the pun) that isn't fit for purpose.

The problems that I see at the moment are rooted firstly in the idea that this government are looking to make therapeutic intervention mandatory (a bad idea in itself) for people unable to work due to mental health issues (let’s stick with depression) and the idea that, if after a short course of CBT, their depression has not lifted then they will be stripped of all and any state benefits on the then ‘proof’ that they are/were faking it. And that because, based on recent experience, it seems to me that this is the kind of flimsy ‘evidence’ this government would be looking for in order to justify to Joe Public that ‘these people’ are ‘scroungers’ and ‘benefit cheats’ and that really there’s nothing wrong with them and they should ‘get out and get a job’. More hate, more division, more grist for the propaganda mill.

Secondly that, in the spirit of the neo-liberal god of ‘competition’ this will be offered out to the private sector where firms like Atos will be able to apply for contracts to deliver this ‘service’ to those that are suffering mental health problems and, again keeping in mind recent experiences, in concert with the fact (above) that anyone can set themselves up to be a Psychotherapist the temptation would be to employ the badly (if at all) trained therapist at say £40 per session (the unqualified work cheap), cut the session numbers to the bone, and make huge profit not only from the surplus charged to government but at the very same time shovelling people out in to the workplace declared as ‘fit for work’ on the word of a quack not properly qualified to pass judgement after delivering a therapeutic intervention they were not qualified to administer in the first place.

Perhaps though I am being too cautious, even maybe suspicious, but sorry as I may be about that it sounds so plausible to me as a way forward for this government to justify even more cruelty that I am leaning more and more towards this as the minutes pass.

Is it me?

Look out - the people are coming!

The 'system' is beginning to crumble. Not just here in the UK but it seems to me world-wide. 

With easy access to alternatives and to reality via the internet rather than the propaganda that they've force fed people for centuries then I think it's time has just about come. I sincerely hope so anyway.


Social media is packed full of anger, frustration, and daily justified rants from credible, even unimpeachable sources about rising inequality and the oppression of the poor world-wide. Easy access to increasingly hungry mass markets for people like Robert Reich and his video 'Inequality for All'; or Woody Harrelson's documentary on youtube, 'Ethos' and many more are beginning to stir even the sleepiest. It's a growing hunger for truth and alternatives that the people in power do not want but can't really stop. The Genie is out of the bottle as it's said.


Instead they are now beginning to go down the 1984 route predicted by Orwell. I always thought it was a warning of possible horrors to come but (especially) this government and the American political elite seem to see it as a service manual. 


Snooping on the citizenry; water cannons at the ready in London purely to suppress the civil unrest to come; police brutality; CCTV on every corner watching your every moment and movement outside your home; location information on your mobile; and so much more designed to keep us in line and on message. The fabrication of 'terrorists' and 'threats to our national security' all around us to worry us continuously and constantly be at war with. People living in fear and under the gaze of security services are far easier to control. Why not a war on poverty and inequality eh? Or on individual and corporate tax dodgers or famine or disease? 


But people are beginning to ask "why not?" and the thinly veiled synthetic replies and excuses that have worked so well in the past are not working as well any more. The ruling elite and their plutocratic governments are slowly losing ground and I firmly believe that's why there is such a huge rush on their part to transfer as much from the poor to the rich as possible before it crumbles and dies. I just hope to live long enough to attend the funeral but I doubt it.

The Deception.

Y'know people on their blogs, on FB, Twitter and everywhere 'social media' keep posting that this government, and especially George Osborne are stupid, or blind, or that they just cannot see the folly of their ways as far as austerity is concerned. This seems always to be based on the premis that austerity doesn't work. Hmmmm!

Well actually - it does! And it works very well, but when the excuses above are applied it can be made to look as if it's all just a bit of an unfortunate mistake, a bit of an error, a slip of the pen, and can therefore be put down to incompetence and/or ignorance. It isn't! This government is one of the most competent and determined in many a generation. Stick with me.

In just four short years, they have managed to shift enormous amounts of money (£Billions actually) from the pockets of the poor to the pockets of the rich. They have, and are, daily it seems, forcing poor people in to abject poverty; beggary; indigence; and even to deaths' door. At the same time the UK has seen an increase in riches for the top 10% in the £Billions, and it's multiplying. We now have more Millionaires and Billionaires per square mile than ever before in our history. More Ferraris are imported to the richest parts of the UK now than any other country world-wide and Rolls Royce has just announced an increase of 33% in orders for the UK market alone. Multi-Million pound homes in London have queues out through the doors to buy them and yacht sales at the upper end of the market (£2 million+) have never been so good, as it is with private aircraft in the form of luxury small jets. Incompetent?! Mistaken?! Stupid?! Misguided?! Please let's think again eh?

Whilst more than a million people are forced to use Food Banks daily; when 300,000 children live in absolute poverty and even more in comparative poverty; when 10,600 disabled people died within six weeks of having their benefits stopped in 2010/11; when every year older people die (around 30,000 per year) in their own homes from a combination of malnutrition and the inability to heat that home; when benefit sanctioning numbers are going stratospheric and people are left with absolutely nothing to live on; when children are setting up Food Banks in their own schools to feed their mates coming to school (and going home) hungry; when homelessness has seen an increase unknown since records began; all through this the rich sit on golden thrones raking it in and living a life of luxury. Don't believe me? Check it all out - the information is freely available, and it's not even hard to find.

So what to do? OK, first things first, let's get rid of the ConDems. But please nobody fool themselves by thinking the Labour Party 2014 is anything like the Labour Party 1944. They are most definitely not and have been following and voting in favour of the Tory agenda ever since they lost the last election. They are becoming a brighter shade of blue every day. They were once the political party of hope. It's hope that they buried along with their founding principles many years ago. Now they just look the best of the worst.

In my opinion this UK of ours is in dire and absolute need of a new political agenda - and it looks as if that means a new political party. One that actually addresses the needs and wants of the public in the majority instead of slavishly following the neo-liberal lunacy of 'trickle down economics' (if you give the rich enough they'll give some back - yeah right!), which has been a 30 year plus Reagonomic experiment that has proven itself to be a total failure for everyone except the rich.

Anyway, let's please dispel this myth that this ConDem government is "incompetent" or "misguided" or "stupid" or indeed anything that excuses their deliberate, and very successful attempts to asset-strip the poor for the benefit of the rich.

Graeme.

Mass Slaughter? - An apology will do nicely Sir!

Here we go again. This time laundering money for international criminals, drug barons selling to our kids on street corners, and known terrorist groups world-wide. But, on the upside, they've apologised so that's ok then eh?!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/17/hsbc-executive-resigns-senate 


Once again it was a failure in the 'system' but "lessons have been learned" (where have I heard that before?) and "safeguards have been put in place so that this never happens again" - Yeah right!!

It is estimated that a staggering 47,000 people have lost their lives since 2006 to Mexican drug trafficking alone and all under the financial wing of Europe's largest bank - HSBC. To this end they have been complicit in a mass slaughter. But hey! - C'mon they've apologised so now a hefty fine and that's that. No worries really since they'll probably borrow that at a privileged interest rate via the Libor system where they'll also be complicit in fixing that rate illegally too. Good innit?

If I was caught money laundering or stealing a few quid to feed my family I would be imprisoned. They collude and conspire to (in effect) fund organisations that commit murder on a mass scale and an apology and a fine will do just nicely. The whole damned system is as sick as the people within it.

Austerity Cannot Work.

We in Europe (UK included) are on the brink of being pushed in to an unnecessary economic depression. It is much the same in America but happening more rapidly. For people (politicians in the main) who would claim to have some modicum of intelligence, it is a mix of lunacy and dogma that occupies their minds. Although if they were to suffer the same financial fallout of the current austerity measures that they impose upon others with such relish or pay themselves the national minimum wage things perhaps might change a little and possibly quite rapidly.


Austerity is offered as the answer when it is not. In fact it is the complete opposite - it is and will continue to be, a main factor in deepening the economic depression even further. It simply cannot work. As a device to transfer money from the poor to the rich it works reasonably well (which is a main reason for it's current vigorous implementation) but to get the UK Plc out of depression it is counter-productive.


Like it or not we live in a consumer society. If the general public do not or cannot consume above subsistence levels then the economy shrinks and eventually implodes into a state of economic depression such as is happening right now. The solution of the conventional wisdom of today (just as was in the 1920's)? More cuts; more job losses; less disposable income; less consumption; more depression. If individuals and families cannot spend over and above what they need to survive then the consumer society we all depend on for our personal prosperity dies a slow and anorexic death. 


In addition to this if you put people out of a job they draw benefits and don't pay income tax or National Insurance and they don't pay as much VAT because they can't afford luxury items. They have to 'make do' - 'make shift - and 'mend'. Their consumerism is confined to eating enough to stay alive and hopefully to put a roof over their heads full stop. To all intents and purposes they become 'non-consumers'. Their numbers are growing.


So there's a 'double-whammy' here; they cannot spend because they don't have any income above subsistence (lowly subsistence at that too when on benefits although the ridiculous mythology of the 'Benefit Millionaire' still abounds) and they are paid to sit on their backsides. The Aboriginals summed it up neatly when they called the Australian Government dole money they receive as "sit down money".


John Maynard Keynes in the 20's and 30's had it spot on and Roosevelt's 'New Deal' in America brought his ideas to life. You have to spend and spend big and, via what Keynes called "The Multiplier Effect" alongside financial prudence, you can actually pull yourself out of recession/depression. It works and works every time unless thwarted by political dogma and/or the International Banking Financial Mafia.


Keynesianism will make a return, although it may be called something else like 'Osbornism' or 'Cameronism' or 'Cleggism' even. In fact it's already started with announcements about £Billion investments in the rail and road infrastructure, but it will take time and some may still see it as nothing more than convenient coincidence. It's not. However, it will not work alongside austerity too well as the austerity measures will be a drag on it. We need to ditch 'austerity' in favour of proven methods of economic recovery. 


In essence the economy of today is no different from the economy of yesterday. It will respond in the exact same way and this can be seen today as the austerity measures being applied right now are evidently deflationary just as was in the 1930's. A dose of Keynes would have the opposite effect.

The Way of the Banker.

Bankers.

A young man bought a donkey from a farmer for £100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

Delivering the donkey he pulled up and said, "Sorry son,

but I have some bad news. The donkey died during the trip."

The young man replied, "Well then just give me my money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I've already spent it."

"OK," says the boy "then, just bring me the dead donkey."

A little shocked the farmer asked, "What are you going to do with him?"

"I'm going to raffle him off." He replied.

The farmer said, "You can't raffle a dead donkey!"

The lad replies "Sure I can. Just watch me. I just won't tell anybody

he's dead."

"But that's fraud!" states the farmer. "You shouldn't do that!"

The young man takes the dead donkey and smiles.

A month later, the farmer met up with this lad and asked,

"What happened with that dead donkey?"

He replied, "I raffled him off and sold 500 tickets at £2 each.

I made a profit of £898"

The farmer said, "My god, didn't anyone complain?"

The young guy said, "Just the man who won. So I gave him his £2 back."

He now works for Barclays .

Management Explained.

A woman in a hot air balloon realised she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below.

She descended a little more and shouted: "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don't know where I am."

The man below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

''You must be an Engineer", said the balloonist.

"I am", replied the man, "How did you know?"

''Well", answered the balloonist, "Everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip by your talk".

The man below responded, "You must be in Management".

''I am", replied the balloonist, "But how did you know?"

''Well", said the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

Bout says it all!