Short and sweet today. Just to say welcome to Black Dog Tribe, a new website started by Ruby Wax, one of my fellow Time to Change Ambassadors. Ruby asked me to answer a few readers’ questions, which you can see here
Good luck to Ruby, the Black Dog Tribe and all who have, or live with people who have, depression.
by
"Your country needs you. Your world needs you. Your time is now."
Our politics is a mess. We have leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. We endure governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. And we are confronted with policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, 'But what can I do?' That question is the inspiration behind this book. It's a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means getting involved. But What Can I Do? provides each of us with the motivation and the tools to make a difference. Opening with an acute analysis of our polarised world and the populists and extremists who have shaped it, it goes on to show how we help transform it. It explains how we can develop our skills of advocacy and persuasion. It draws on Alastair’s long experience, as well as on role models and lessons from history, to offer practical tips on starting and leading a campaign. It offers advice on developing confidence and coping with criticism and setbacks. And it sets out the practical steps by which we can become political players ourselves. Part call to arms, part practical handbook, But What Can I Do? will prove required reading for anyone who wants to help change things for the better.
Excellent – verghts expressed interesting insights expresed there.
Maybe, just maybe a little light is beginning to shine amid the darkness and shadows associated with mental ill health.
Maybe it is spring in the air but even I am starting to feel a thaw.
All the best,
Duncan.
It’s a really nice looking site.
I suppose there must be ways round it having ads, I was amazed to see a constant one for chocolate of all things.
Fresh air, exercise and the UK countryside have long been recognised as therapeutic in relation to ‘The Black Dog’. Can I therefore recommend a BBC Radio 4 programme tomorrow (Saturday 3rd March) at 6am? It’s ‘Ramblings’, presented by Claire Balding, and it’s near Kinder Scout in Derbyshire. It’ll be on the BBC Radio 4 web-site, probably after the broadcast:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xrr2
I might even be on it.
UK politics is not as bad as it is painted – it is much worse!
Britain is being rebuilt in the interest of big business.
The biggest battle of the 21th century is a battle between democracy and big corporations.
The Telegraph now says that business should get the vote. And that there should be income qualification for voters.
Votes for business; nothing for the poor!
According to David Cameron business in the most powerful force for social progress.
Not democracy, science or education.
Regulation according to PM should be replaced by trust in big business.
The Tory-led government supported by press of rightwing billionaires is building Britain around the demands of business.
The plan is to destroy the welfare state and create an economy in which much of private sector depends on state contracts.
This requires destruction of PUBLIC HEALTHCARE and realiable STATE EDUCATION.
Greater powers to corporations. Less democracy. This is what the globalist bankers want.
And they have a plenty of good friends in politics!
Leveson has exposed Britain´s growing corruption problem.
Politicians accept corporate and media hospitality. There is revolving door employment between media companies, political offices and the police.
Public trust in government and democracy is down.
According to a university study Chatham House rules UK.
Chatham House is the number 2 thinktank in the world after Brookings Institution.
Council of Chatham House consists of people with links to Shell, JP Morgan Chase, Trilateral Commisson, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs International and BP.
Corporate members include Economist, Goldman Sachs International. HSBC, Tesco, Vodafone, Daily Mail and General Trust, De Beers, Google, McGraw-Hill, Telegraph Media Group, Times Newspapers Ltd, BBC, BP, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever.
According to their annual reports most of these companies are controlled by Rothschilds.
Brookings board members include people from Goldman Sachs and Carlyle Group. Other members include Ford Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jacob Rothschild, Nathaniel Rothschild, Visa Inc, Shell and News Corp.
I am not trying to claim that bankers are going to take over the world with their thinktanks and strategy groups – because they have already done so!
Some good points as always Olli. I am indeed disappointed at some of the lines taken by the Telegraph lately. They have some good contributors like Peter Oborne but they do seem to be doing what the guardianistas claim they do at the minute and just campaigning for leaving bankers alone, cutting the 50p tax rate, cutting corporation tax – there might be a case for that but if they were right wing for the reasons they claim then rather they would call for cutting all taxes and particularly cutting tax for poorer people.
As for your point about education I even noticed Rupert Murdoch of all people saying on twitter that free education is vital to lift people out of poverty – he mentioned some success stories in Harlem.
Regarding the main thrust of your post though, yes at present governments and bankers have a cosy relationship. Occupy blame the greedy bankers for the financial crisis. Tea Partiers blame the government for helping out their banker mates with bailouts etc. Do you blame the bankers for lobbying the government or do you blame the government for accepting the bribes? Whats the solution?
This is where the answer comes but people don’t want to hear it. The answer is limited government. The great political thinkers of Britain and America knew this. And they were proved right. Under limited government the bankers could lobby till they were blue in the face for a bailout, and bribe officials however they want, but those officials would not have the power to grant a bailout whether they want to or not. Oh, imagine if we had to have a referendum on bailouts!
Don’t tease Dave, are you on it or not!
And are you talking about revolutionary politics or rambling in the countryside, ie are you wearing your beret or your barbour!
Powerful and terrifying thoughts you present there. Lucid and robustly researched as ever, Olli.
Difficult one this… its like when eating a bad steak I’m asked if I’m enjoying my dinner and I know if I say no I’m in the doghouse, and if I say yes we’ll buy the same hardened shoeleather again. I’m stuck between a rock and… that steak.
So… I think this is a wonderful cause… but the website is horrible! Its ghastly!
I saw this comment on another website last summer and thought at the time it was maybe a little ott. According to the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of fascism though, what is happening in this country, the western world in general and the EU in particular maybe fascism is a fairly accurate description?
Here is the comment:
‘The Police collude with the corporations who collude with the Politicians who collude with the Media – it’s the definition of fascism – pure and simple’
I would say that the people that are actually believing (or just pretending to believe) whatever suits them from NoW liars are those that are colluding (or just being used?).
When you have proof of named individuals that have taken bribes, believe it happened.
Till then? Stop being used and helping spread their bile.
If it’s a quote Gbc, a cut and paste, may we have the source?
That would apply to the former USSR, with the slight difference of there being only one ‘corporation’. It would also apply to western capitalist societies. Fascism is usually characterised by an alliance of social classes united in feeling threatened and wanting simple, black and white solutions. Scapegoatism flows from this toxic mix, and democracy soon gets ditched in favour of the mailed fist. There is also usually a failed attempt to resurrect a mythical ‘golden age’.
I was wearing a bouzouki.
We need immediately tax cuts to the poor to boost demand.
Bankers caused the subprime crisis which caused the financial crisis and recession.
Former Goldman Sachs employee in the US government let the Lehman Brothers to collapse.
The Tory-led government is aiming that the public sector will be 40% of GDP.
I think that the maximum size is 41.5% if people in Britain are not ready to pay more taxes.
I am not in favour of system in which the state only takes care of defence and law and order.
We need a somewhat smaller state – but active one with more regulation and fairness.
In the US the sister organisation of Chatham House, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), IS the government!
It is easier to say who does not belong to this Rockefeller-funded body than who does.
Nearly all major politicians and board members of the Fortune 500 companies are in it.
CFR influences legislation.
Corporations supporting CFR include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays Capital, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Standard & Poors, Rothschild North America Inc, Visa Inc, Soros Fund Management, Standard Shartered Bank, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Moody´s Investor Service, ExxonMobil Corporation, BP, Shell, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, McKinsey, Bloomberg, Economist, Thomson Reuters, News Corp, Time Warner, McGraw-Hill, Coca-Cola, De Beers, Google, IBM, Microsoft and GlaxoSmithKline.
Needless to say that Rothschilds control almost all of these companies.
I suppose the site does need some sponsorship in order to exist but agree with Michele that the chocolate ad seems very prominent.
I wouldn’t argue with any of your points Dave.
But would just say that they the powers that be have learned from past mistakes and are now a whole lot smarter and much more devious. Plus the fact that they now own everything that is important. See all or any of Olli’s posts for details 🙂
I disagree that we need to boost demand, see reply on Alastairs latest blog.
Glad to hear you say we need a smaller state.
While we have a big state, we will always have Goldman Sachs and Rothschilds being able to exert a lot of power. If we had a smaller, more democratic state, we could give that power to the people instead.
We could even do that within the current size of state though it would be harder.
If we had an anti bailout, anti subsidy constitution – then when any vested interest wants a bailout or a subsidy we could put it to the people. We would probably find more sympathy for good pensions for nurses, than for bailouts for bankers under such a system – which would be a good start.
Hi Dave, I’ve just listened to that radio programme on the iplayer and very interesting it was too. I didn’t know the toffs were still land-grabbing until Victorian times! I think I heard that right? I thought/assumed that they had grabbed all ‘their’
land in the very olden-days when they still went into battle.
Incidentally, you have a very pleasant speaking voice. I suspect you may be a big(ish) bloke.
It referred to the Parliamentary Enclosures of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which involved a lot of land-grabbing and closure of rights of way to which people had become accustomed over the centuries. The railways made places like Kinder Scout more accessible to the well-off, and grouse-shooting became big business, as it still is. Kinder Scout in the 1930s was a jealously-guarded grouse moor, but being the high point of the Peak District it was also very attractive to walkers and climbers. I was present in 2002 when the previous Duke of Devonshire, Andy Cavendish, apologised to ramblers for the actions of his ancestor in 1932. Incidentally I’m thin and medium height – as Sarah Dodd, who I was lucky enough to meet briefly in Lincoln yesterday (3rd March), will perhaps attest!
Just say it is superbly wonderfully cooked, but who is your butcher, with that required look on your face
But it will be one of the big four no doubt, unlike the good old days of Lance Corporal Jones from Dad’s Army, ration books at the ready, pack of dodgy sausages from under the counter, bartered.
Anyway it is a new site, so as like anything new, will need some tweaking – just a snags list needs to be made and sent to the website design and building contractors, as like a new house.
Nice playing DS
I like Ms Balding, she must be choosy, gets some interesting programmes.
PS: Heard it on iplayer, 6.30am on Saturday’s unthinkable!
Just watched ruby on alan titchmarsh show,I suffer with severe depression and have for many years …..im hoping this site can help me as I never knew about it ……thank ruby xx
So good to see Ruby Wax on AT today .well done ! I have suffered on and off for years. Everyone thinks I am so funny ………..funny eh !
I have just seen Ruby Wax on the Alan Titchmarsh show, brilliant that someone is publicising this illness, I have really been through the mill with bi-polar. More medical professionals seem to understand now, but it was a very dfferent story 20 years ago.
Keep it up Ruby!
Why is it that Winston Churchill used the term Black Dog to describe depression, as opposed to using ‘White Dog’ for instance?, or saying the is a ‘white’ cloud hanging over me, or i’m entering into a very light depression etc. Why is the term ‘Black’ given such negative connotation, and how do you think this might impact on ‘black’ people who experience mental health problems? I don’t think the analogies are particularly helpful.
Oh, I see. Many thanks for the info. all of it!
It’s taken 2 days for this comment to make it onto the site. Maybe AC just forgot to upload
this and other new comments.
Yes I wasn’t moaning about advertising itself, wouldn’t expect RW to be funding the site as well as running it 🙂
It was the fact that it was a revolving ad for chocolate all the time (and chocolate being suspected of causing downs – in between the ups) that I was commenting on.
It’s now an ad for Boots so perhaps there’s a team of advertisers that are ‘on’ for a constant week at a time.
They aren’t helpful but the term ‘black dog’ is about a ghostly figure and comes from a time when I doubt natives here knew there were black people anywhere anyway.
Not helpful but not new currency either.
Education and awareness is key to having an effective approach to any mental illness. This is especially true with regard to treatments available. That is why many lawsuits against Paxil have surfaced because many patients do not know of side effects. That is why a campaign is really a good idea in helping depression patients.