The Daily Telegraph reported this week that a study to assess whether marriage improves if a husband agrees to all his wife’s demands had to be abandoned after the man sank into a deep depression.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand were hoping to test whether the key to a happy marriage lies in bowing to the whims of a partner and giving up the need to ‘always be in the right.’
In the experiment the husband was asked “agree with his wife’s every opinion and request without complaint. Even if he believed the female participant was wrong, the male was to bow and scrape,” said researchers. But after recruiting a couple for an initial pilot they were forced to scrap the project as the husband became deeply depressed.
There were a number of conclusions drawn from the pilot study.
These suggest that it seems that being right may be a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness.
The availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end.
This last comment not only applies in a marriage. It also applies in Government where elected representatives think that they were elected to rule. Worse are the civil servants (at all levels) who think that they have the God given right to tell people what’s good for them. Often a case of don’t do as I do, do as I tell you.
More can be read on
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10524035/Happy-marriage-study-abandoned-as-husband-becomes-depressed.html
Author: Brian Riley
Chihuahua of Doom
On Thursday I attended a full Council meeting at Endeavour House, Ipswich. The day started at 10 a.m. when the political group meets and chews over the bones in the documentation and discusses best ways of answering the questions and motions put and proposed by the other parties. We look not only at the questions and the motions but also at the minefields which might come from the follow up discussions.
So it was seemingly innocuous in the afternoon to hear Motion No. 1 – proposed by Councillor Julian Flood and seconded by Councillor Tony Brown “That Suffolk County Council supports the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition in his aim of freezing energy prices, and will work towards the same goal.”
Julian turned his opportunity to speak into an attack against green taxes. Claiming that they did little to counter adverse climate change but instead penalised the consumer and those businesses who had to compete in a world where effective green policies were not always in evidence. And then it went pear shaped. Julian was trying to highlight the effect of carbon in the U.K. It was the equivalent of six thousandths of a degree of temperature change. As you usually have to ascend or descend a thousand feet to see a change of one degree – this was the equivalent of six feet of vertical movement. Suffolk’s carbon emissions were the equivalent of less than one part per thousandth of a degree or about ten inches of vertical movement – the height of a Chihuahua.
And then it went surreal as we were cautioned against the Chihuahua of Doom which was threatening our economic survival and the richness of our countryside through unnecessary wind and solar panel farms.
There were enough votes in the Conservative Group and their friends to defeat the motion.
Best entertainment of the day was the way in which the Leader of the Labour Group tried to endorse the motion but distance himself from the idea that green policies were overdone.
More details can be viewed on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/suffolk_chihuahua_of_doom_stalks_the_council_chamber_1_3132304
Internships up for grabs
Over 20 internship placements are available in councils across Suffolk starting in the summer of 2014, but interested parties need to get their applications in by Tuesday 28 January 2014.
There is also an information session to which interested candidates are invited to learn more about the application process, meet members and heads of departments and hear what past interns got out of the experience. The session is being held at Endeavour House, Ipswich between 11am and 1pm tomorrow. Anyone interested in attending should email risinghigh@suffolk.gov.uk
The internship programme is designed to encourage young people to take up careers in the public sector and to provide paid opportunities for undergraduates (or graduates) to experience working for us during their summer break from university. It consists of a 12 week paid work placement supported by group development opportunities.
A paid 12 month Industrial Placement is also available at Suffolk County Council which will put the successful candidate at the forefront of innovative and exciting developments in economic development and skills policy. This placement must form part of the applicant’s university course.
Details of the internship opportunities can be found on the Rising High website via: www.risinghighsuffolk.org.uk
Onward and Yeoward
Wednesday brought us the news that our M.P. Tim Yeo will fight his deselection by the South Suffolk Conservative Association Executive. Tim has decided that the party members should decide if he is to be their candidate in the 2015 General Election.
Apart from the Executive, everyone I have met (both party members and other well wishers) only speak good things about Tim.
I think this might be a case of “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” (Mark Twain). Certainly we have a man who is not backward in coming forward and this is what we need in anyone who represents us. Certainly we do not need a milquetoast.
Voting papers will be sent out around the 20th January.
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/south_suffolk_mp_tim_yeo_to_fight_for_his_seat_with_party_ballot_1_3101155)
No Woman’s Christmas Morning
…is enhanced by a man saying “Thus cream is brilliant for crow’s-feet”
– India Knight writing in The Sunday Times Style Supplement 8th December 2013
Happiness is
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family — in another city – George Burns
Tim Yeo MP
Yesterday evening the Executive Council of the South Suffolk Conservative Association (SSCA) met and voted not to re-adopt Tim Yeo as our candidate for the 2015 general election.
Tim has represented the seat, which covers much of the Babergh district, for 30 years and is an effective and hard-working MP. He is a very good constituency M.P. and has never shrunk from offering his assistance to the people of Hadleigh when he has been approached with their problems.
At the last general election in 2010 he received 24,500 votes – a 47.75% share.
I am not a member of the Executive Council. I was consulted on deselection in mid September and made my views known.
Last week I wrote to Tim as follows:
“It was with joy that I read that the Committee on Standards had cleared you on all counts of any breach of the MP’s Code of Conduct.
I’ve had no problems in reminding my constituents and colleagues that you have always been of assistance not only to myself but also to anyone who has contacted you with problems”
This letter was read out last night – alas to little effect.
Tim’s reply to my letter is attached Yeo T 131127 fm
It will be a sad day if we lose him as our M.P. We have eighteen months until the general election. That is far too short to select and embed a new candidate. Many of Tim’s 24,500 votes are personal and may not be easily transferred to the new person.
Meanwhile we have UKIP snapping at our heels and everyone else is make hay at our expense.
It’s time to support Tim. If you agree with the Executive Council then you need do nothing. If you think that Tim’s deselection is not a good idea, I suggest you email Toby Kramers, Chairman of the SSCA Executive Council. He can be emailed via Peter Burgoyne (the political agent) at peter@ss-ca.org.uk
Lady Lane Property
On March 31st I wrote how Babergh had approved the transfer of land on Lady Lane to a Registered (Social Housing) Provider for the provision of a four bedroom house. At the time I mentioned that I did not like proposals whereby I didn’t see a price tag nor was I happy that we were approving in principle a four bedroom house when the greatest need in the housing market is for small (one and two bedroom) houses. I made the (unappreciated) point that we should put two two bedroom residences on the site and thus release two four bedroom houses from those families whose children have permanently moved away.
Orwell Housing have now submitted an application (B/13/01087/FUL) to develop the site with a three bedroom house!
I have written to the Planning Control suggesting that the application should be returned to applicant for further work.
Primarily, because there is a minimal amount of information. There is no design statement, nor is there a history of the site. In particular no reference is made to Council Paper No M148 which authorised a single four bedroom scheme on this property.
Consequently the basis on which this application has been allowed to come forward is flawed.
I wonder if this is a case of casting pearls before swine insofar as you should not put what is valuable in front of those who will reject that which has value and furthermore who will diminish or destroy your gifts.
Should it come forward to the Planning Committee for discussion, I will speak against any recommendation for approval since the application is contrary to the authorised use of the Council’s assets.
Non-Salary Expenses
The readers of this blog will recall that since July I have been endeavouring to ascertain the level of the non salary expenses of Babergh’s & Mid Suffolk’s senior managers.
The details are published on Babergh’s report No. JAC15 to the Joint Audit
& Standards Committee. See: http://bdcdocuments.onesuffolk.net/assets/Uploads/Committees/Committee-Reports/Reports-2013-14/JAC15.pdf
The details are quite interesting. There is a one off charge of £10,467 for
relocation and removal expenses. Details of the expense are to be provided
later.
Apart from this figure the expenses are £22,073 spread across 13 posts. The
chunkiest category was £3,573 for attending conferences. Conferences are
attended to keep up to date with what is happening in the public sector as a
whole and also in specialist areas and hopefully ensure that the councils are reflecting current and best practice. Training and course fees came in at £400.
Overall I am quite happy with the outcome of my enquiries. My colleagues
enjoyed themselves pursuing detail which had hitherto remained unreported. More details will come out in future reports and each officer now knows that their actions are subject to more detailed scrutiny than hitherto.
Tesco – The Fall Out
The following appears in the November edition of the Hadleigh Community News under the heading “Towards the Deep End”.
“Damian Thompson in The Daily Telegraph on October 9th commented that being bonkers is no longer a bar to political advancement.
Well anyone who watched Councillors support the proposition in September that the Brett Works site should be developed by Tesco would not be strangers to this idea.
Reasons advanced in favour of the development included:
The development of the site as a supermarket would be a long term benefit for our town.
There are no shops in Polstead.
It will raise the profile of Hadleigh.
The introduction of Tesco into the town will benefit out of town residents (especially those from Polstead).
The development will bring people into the town.
There are no good reasons for rejection.
Some councillors once again demonstrated that every time they speak they put the cause of local democracy back by at least five years. It became embarrassing to hear some of the speeches of support for the proposed Brett Works site development.
That being said, the Planning Committee meeting was a very interesting day and brought about a satisfactory outcome. I was glad that I was able to cancel and re-jig my holiday arrangements joining my wife and her cousins a few days late in Croatia.”
The Brett Works Site/Tesco discussion continues with people in Hadleigh grateful for their escape from Tesco but bemused that the margin for victory was so slender.
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