Hugo_Minney's blog

If it i'nt money

how does it count? What value

to give, when it's so great?

A reflection on the difficulty of trying to evaluate the value of making someone feel more empowered.  In fact it isn't so difficult to work this out, as people who aren't getting the support they need often use much more healthcare, get depressed, and can be quite costly to look after.  So the benefit of making a difference, of giving the care a person needs, is the amount that has been saved.  But the process of doing the calculation can be quite involved.

What’s the big fuss?  We’re only changing the voting system by a little bit.  It’s not as though we’re going to Proportional Representation, or a serious change?

Well the main parties (Conservative, Labour) are dead against an Alternative Voting system.  Whenever people get passionate about something that isn’t very dramatic, it always makes me wonder why?

Things are pretty tough for a lot of people right now.

Success in business, and outside the workplace, frequently depends on the nature of the relationship. And the nature of that relationship is entirely within the control of – YOU.

Cialdini describes six weapons of influence, of which three relate directly to the relationship between people:

The Labour Party is in opposition in the UK. Their policies, and those of the tea party, couldn't be further apart. But there are lessons from the rise of the tea party, that any political party in opposition could learn from:

chocolate: a consuming passion?
So it isn't programmed it was genetically, but it is the next best thing – we can't help our addiction to chocolate!
I don't know why this has come to the surface just now (work was published in 2007, but it appeared in my Google News feed this morning) but here's a piece of research that shows we develop cravings for chocolate because of bacteria in our gut.

Kindergarten teachers (Reception in UK) can make a dramatic difference to the children, depending on whether the teacher is good or bad, inspiring or not.  This can be measured in the children's test scores, scores which broadly agree with parent and other teacher assessment.

Marc Woods, Paralympic medallist and motivational speaker, came to speak to health service staff in Easington today.
He is superb, and in between explaining how he changed from moderately successful (a county level teenage swimmer who was sufficiently good that he didn’t have to try, so he didn’t try), to realising how much he had lost when his leg was amputated below the knee, to deciding to make something of his life, Marc made a number of very important points.

Grahame Morris, MP for easington, questioned whether the proposed white paper will work.
 I have a small knowledge of GPs as commissioning consortia, though I'm only voicing my own opinion here.