Thursday, November 30, 2006
Eagles and Geezers
Yesterday I was one of the millions who was watching BBC Parliament. The bit I caught was the adjournment debate at the end of the day. This was called by Angela Eagle who wanted to make a contribution on incapacity benefit and barriers people on IB face getting into work again. I thought it was an excellent analysis free of the tabloid benefit scrounger label which at the very least is unhelpful. There was also a bit about cognitive behaviour therapy which I think should be more widely provided by the state not just for people on IB but also more widely as happiness is undervalued especially compared with economic progress. Cognitive behaviour therepy is also cost effective as while it is a relatively cheap it also enables people to be members of the labour market which saves a fortune.
Also there are pleanty of comparative academic studies to show that after we reach a certain level of income, around 13k I think, our happiness is not that linked to how much money we earn. This should be having a bigger impact on politics than it is at the moment and offers much inspiration for progressives that our values are the right ones rather than a narrow conservative economic determinism.
Anyway the debate was certainly one of the better one's so check it out at hansard here.
Also yesterday just up the road from BBC Broadcasting house I think I saw Sion Simon, he of the sleeping with Cameron's Mrs video. He was wearing a dodgy looking black trackie and rucksack. I was tempted to go up and say are you Sion Simon? But he past in a second and that is not really the kind of thing you want to get into the habit of asking dodgy looking geezers. ¶ 1:18 pm
Yesterday I was one of the millions who was watching BBC Parliament. The bit I caught was the adjournment debate at the end of the day. This was called by Angela Eagle who wanted to make a contribution on incapacity benefit and barriers people on IB face getting into work again. I thought it was an excellent analysis free of the tabloid benefit scrounger label which at the very least is unhelpful. There was also a bit about cognitive behaviour therapy which I think should be more widely provided by the state not just for people on IB but also more widely as happiness is undervalued especially compared with economic progress. Cognitive behaviour therepy is also cost effective as while it is a relatively cheap it also enables people to be members of the labour market which saves a fortune.
Also there are pleanty of comparative academic studies to show that after we reach a certain level of income, around 13k I think, our happiness is not that linked to how much money we earn. This should be having a bigger impact on politics than it is at the moment and offers much inspiration for progressives that our values are the right ones rather than a narrow conservative economic determinism.
Anyway the debate was certainly one of the better one's so check it out at hansard here.
Also yesterday just up the road from BBC Broadcasting house I think I saw Sion Simon, he of the sleeping with Cameron's Mrs video. He was wearing a dodgy looking black trackie and rucksack. I was tempted to go up and say are you Sion Simon? But he past in a second and that is not really the kind of thing you want to get into the habit of asking dodgy looking geezers. ¶ 1:18 pm
