Today's article in the Observer.........UK police and Wessely consider us 'dangerous!

[Wildcat]

Unum unveils consumer campaign

http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/cover/news/2083156/unum-unveils-consumer-campaign

Unum has unveiled its marketing strategy which will include consumer focused television adverts later this year.

The provider coincided the announcement, with research which revealed that workers fear the potential impact of long term sickness and highly value (IP).

It found that two thirds (64%) of workers thought IP was one of the most important benefits to them and 31% feared suffering a long-term illness, while one-quarter believed their employers would not pay them their full salary for time off due to sickness or injury.


A further 11% of respondents said they have already been off work due to illness for six months or more in the last year and one-quarter of this group say they did not receive any support from their employer.

These fears were triggered by almost half (46%) saying they were finding it harder to meet their outgoings this year compared to last year with 30% going overdrawn each month.

Just one in five 5 workers would survive for less than a month if their salary stopped and most people would have to rely on savings (39%) or their partner (29%) as financial protection support.


Speaking to COVER at the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries conference, Helene Gullen, commercial marketing manager of Unum, confirmed the provider's intentions and its ambitious hopes for market growth.

"We are launching a television advertising campaign to start later in the year," she said.

"In the USA the penetration of group IP is 70%. If we can get half of that over the next five to ten years we'd be doing well because that would be double digit growth every year.

"Typically companies are doing four times salary life insurance schemes and no GIP. Why not balance it with one to to times salary and an essential GIP with voluntary contributions to cover the gaps," she added.

Unum has already begun its marketing initiative with a supplement and website partnership with the Guardian which will continue.


Read more: http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/cover/news/2083156/unum-unveils-consumer-campaign#ixzz1Vgmh0obb



Further reading
Group Critical Illness: Squeezing the best...
Long-term care - Age, I do abhor thee
Stabilising the finances
Spending Review: Chancellor's statement in...
Britain has third highest life insurance gap...


IFA Online - News, blogs and analysis for IFAs. Visit the website now.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Unum unveils consumer campaign

Unum has already begun its marketing initiative with a supplement and website partnership with the Guardian which will continue.

Oh, isn't that a coincidence?

 

[Wildcat]

Oh yes indeed, Silverblade. My Guardian Comment that I posted in the the early summer of 2010 was in response to a Polly Toynbee article - She most definitely read my Comment, and the comments of others and she vowed to write an article on the iniquities of the cruel relentless ESA assessments that just exist to take money from sick and disabled citizens and give it to greedy corporations such as ATOS. But Polly Toynbee of the Guradian never wrote that article -

The so-called "leftie" newspaper Guardian has been Prof Wessely's handmaiden in the denigration of ME sufferers for many years now.

So now we know where exactly the Guardian's loyalties lie - With UNUM.

 

[Wildcat]

For American and other international readers - 'The Guardian' is the weekly paper and 'The Observer' is the Sunday paper of the same newspaper.

 

[Sean]

Our PR is rubbish.

Sure is.

We have been routed in the PR stakes by Wessely, who is without doubt a master political operator and propagandist. One of the best I have ever seen.

 

[currer]

In fact this is just the end of a long process which began in the eighties with the political move to the right in the US and Britain.
I lived through it and saw it happen. However, if there is a long depression coming, which it looks as if there might be, these plans will not come to pass. There will be too much unemployment, too much social instability. Our political leaders are out of touch with the reality in Britain. We have 21/2 million unemployred now and it will get worse. Their philosophy does not allow them to believe this. They think they can squeeze people further. But people will need state benefits during the depression to come and will be unable to afford private health insurance.

This is bigger than any individual's work. It is the end of a long process on the part of huge business interests to destroy the social welfare systems created since the second world war and open up the taxpayer funded welfare systems in Europe as new markets for private companies.

 

[heapsreal]

Besides his financial security in making cfs psychological, what does Wessley have against us. Surely he has seen people get sicker with his treatments and i have never heard of someone on these type of cfs boards say they were helped by his treatments. Is it just a power ego trip for him to make people suffer?

He wasnt even qualified very long in his profession when he was made an expert on cfs in the UK. Dr of medicine in 1993, not sure when he became mr cfs/cbt expert but i dont think it would have been that long after 1993 for him to have enough experience in me/cfs to make him an expert.

How can they think his research is important, i just read a small piece on how he thinks gulf war syndrome is caused by the 'stress' of getting an injection for vaccines against biological warfare. Come on! being scared of an injection causing Gulf War syndrome, what a load?????? Maybe it would be important to know what was in the injection and how it effects the immune system, that would be the first place u would think to look.

 

[Wildcat]

The relentless demonisation and scapegoating of sick and disabled citizens by Ministers and Media has been going on for so long that its become 'normalised' in Britian. Its all based on shameful, disgraceful, lies about disability benefit so-called 'fraud'. The real figures show that sickness benefit fraud is tiny, the figures for fraud are conflated with the figures for Official Errors in the system and the likes of David Freud and succesive Ministers of both parties have fanned the flames and propagated false disinformation that the media have seized on with malevolent glee.
.

 

[Wildcat]

New Labour and the end of Welfare

Jonathon Rutherford (Middlesex University Professor and Guardian writer)

http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=563&offset=0

In November 2001 a conference assembled at Woodstock, near Oxford. Its subject was Malingering and Illness Deception. Amongst the 39 academics and experts was Malcolm Wicks , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work, and Mansel Aylward, his Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

What linked many of the participants together, including Aylward, was their association with the giant US income protection company, UnumProvident, represented at the conference by John LoCascio. New Labour, in an attempt to reduce the 2.6 million who were claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB), was looking to transform the welfare system.

by the 1990s falling interest rates and the growth in new kinds of illness were causing a collapse in profits. The old industrial injuries were giving way to illnesses like Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis.

Provident introduced an aggressive system of claims management. Specific illnesses were targeted in order to discredit the legitimacy of claims. In the UK, two Woodstock participants, Professor Simon Wessely and Professor Michael Sharpe were working on reclassifying ME/CFS as a psychiatric disorder. A change in classification would trigger the twenty four month pay out limit on psychological claims and would save the industry millions of dollars. In 1997 Provident acquired Paul Revere, and then in 1999 merged with Unum under the name UnumProvident.

That year New Labour introduced the Welfare Reform Act. All new claimants had to attend a compulsory work focused interview. The All Work Test had failed to reduce the inflow of claimants with mental health disorders. The gateway to benefits needed tightening up. Mansel Aylward, now Chief Medical Officer of the DWP, devised a new Personal Capability Assessment (PCA). The task of administrating the PCA was contracted out to SchlumbergerSema which was then taken over (along with its DWP assets) by the US corporation Atos Origin. In 2005, Atos won a new 500m contract. Its computerised evaluation of claims driven by clearance time targets resulted in significant numbers of rejected claims, particularly for those with mental illness..


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Please note that Professor Mansel Aylward is now a UNUM Executive at the UNUM Centre for Psychosocial disabilities at Cardiff University. Professor Aylward has taken a keen interest in ME matters, and has been invited to, and had an official position at, 'CFS' conferences, such as the one joint organized by the charity Action for ME and the NHS.

 

[heapsreal]

I think that illustrates my point. These people are simply not prepared to debate with us in an honest way. Another favourite Wessely straw man is his often repeated suggestion that ME patients are in some way prejudiced against mental illness.

There is no evidence to suggest that ME patients as a whole are any more prejudiced against mental illness than society at large. The reality is that we've simply looked at the research literature, and carefully monitored our symptoms over many years, and reached a conclusion (based on the facts) that our illness is not psychological. End of story. The frustrating thing is that this point has been put to Wessely literally dozens of times over the years but he simply chooses to ignore it.

Debating with these people is like shooting ducks at a fairground attraction. No matter how many times you win the argument, they still keep coming back with the same tired old disingenuous arguments.

Prejudice againsy mental illness is so wrong of wessely to think that. Personally i went down depression treatment after a dr said cfs doesnt really exist and i have depression, i wasnt against it, actually thought wow i can get out of this hell hole. I tried antidepressants hoping i would return to normal again, so had placebo was on my side as well, what a kick in the head that was. I just got worse from the medications and then trying to get off effexor is worse then have cfs/me. In australia there would be more prejudice against someone saying they have cfs/me then saying they have depression. owning up to having cfs to others lets many think your crazy as they dont understand it. I dont understand why someone would really want to fake an illness and say they have cfs when know one believes it exists and its not recognised by social security, but if you have depression you could get social security which i think alot of severe cfs people do as its alot easier to get social security then to say you have cfs/me, not that their doing it to avoid working but because they are too ill to workand function.

 

[heapsreal]

As I've said before, the parallels with the Weasels' current propganda, and that of the Third Reich, Stalin and the Witch Finders of 16th to 17th century, is very very similar, and just as evil.

Psychologists and psychiatrists learn how to "push peoples' buttons", Good ones of course merely use that to help patients, Bad ones have been using it to run Public Relations and other services and goals
I'll give you an example of the manipulation everyone faces day to day:
You know why they put "staples" like bread and milk at the back or far end of a supermarket? so you have to pass by all the non-essential luxuries, first...ie, it encourages you to spend more on things you don't need.

Alas, Human pond scum can read historical accounts and autobiogrpahies, and learn methods to manipulate, abuse and worse, from "The Prince" by Mahciavelli to "The Stanford Prison Experiment". It's one of the problematical things with the printing press and free speech: it also helps ratbags, lol

Wessely and others, a whole bunch of folk who'll fall with him when he goes, are desperate to shore up their "defences", as there's huge amount of reputations, money and egos riding on this.
But this shows their contempt and secret hatred of their victims. They blame us for daring to speak out of turn, we are the ignorant plebs, the weaklings who should beg and scrape and tug the forelock to our Lords & Masters who do so very much to help us sick, ungrateful bastards!
Well they can go F**K THEMSELVES, CROSSWAYS!
They are the actual criminals of this story, abusers, deviants, pyschopths, torturers, hypocrits, fraudsters, LIARS.

"FREEDOM!"

In the end, they will get what's coming to them. Not a "death threat", just I long to see Wessely etc, broken, reputations destoryed, vilified in the media as modern day monsters akin to the Nazis, and on their way to a 30 year stretch in general population of worst jail in UK
That's the thing about monsters, they always see themselves as in the right, and doing things for the "greater good"...and wonder why they are being lead away in handcuffs...

I have only just started reading this thread and i must say Silverblade, i love the way u use the english language especially the bit about something arather etc THEMSELVES, CROSSWAYS!

cheers!!!

 

[Valentijn]

I have only just started reading this thread and i must say Silverblade, i love the way u use the english language especially the bit about something arather etc THEMSELVES, CROSSWAYS!
cheers!!!

I picture Silverblade sitting at the computer with a kilt and blue facepaint, occasionally bellowing at bad research articles while brandishing a broadsword.

Maybe I've met too many Scots

 

[currer]

There is a post on the MEA newsboard which suggests that the current media onslaught against us may be more to do with the fact that the MRC is putting the research proposals for the new 1.5 million funding on ME through the peer review stage.

What do you think? Could that influence the process?

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=7713

 

[Enid]

Thanks for spotting currer - as they say the whole thing is getting pretty obscene. The MRC must be thoroughly stupid if they cannot see that difference between a tiny band of whinging psyches and real biomedical research/researchers.

It does appear to be addressing the underlying mechanisms.

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Fundingopportunities/Calls/MechanismsofCFSME/MRC007715

 

[Wildcat]

But unless the MRC biomedical research uses a neuro-immune ME diagnostic entrance criteria (CCC or ICC) we will have 1.5 million wasted on 'fatigue studies' again.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Currer, Wildcat
yeah as I've said before, the rise of "Corporate Fascism" has been a growing horror.
The US has moved so far to the Right, that Obama is accused of being a "Socialist" when he's got many political similarities to Nixon, a Republican!
Nixon is arguably the last, true US "Conservative" President, and despite his huge screw up due to his fear/hubris, he was a brilliant and very capable man, which has been overlooked due to the Watergate mess.
ie the Political Spectrum has been warped so far to the Right, it's now Centre Right to outright Fascism, and the resulting inevitable horrors that brings.
Recent US judicial ruling regarding political donations proves this: the US government is up for sale to the highest bidder...what if it's China, Saudi Arabia etc who want to "donate campaign contributions"?

Same in the UK, New Labour is bugger all to with Socialism, Keir Hardy must be turning in his grave in outrage and shame. (and for Americans who may not be used to European politics, most European "democratic" Socialism is *not* Soviet style crap)
We live in the 21st century, you cannot turn the clock back or society will implode!
The rich get richer, poro get poorer and it's accelerating...
Alas, folk have forgotten the hard lessons learned after WW2 and the much needed social changes that brought, sigh.

UNUM are an evil menace, that corporation should have been destroyed and many in it sent to jail.
But since coporations own government...and as I've said before I found out they funded at least one of the Uk Labour party conferences...yeah corruption most high.
Old saying "People get the government they deserve" because they chose to vote or put up with it...alas, lots of innocents suffer because "All it takes to let Evil flourish, is for Good men to do Nothing":/

Heapsreal, Valentjin,
*bows with a theatrical flourish*

The actual, non-Hollywood story of Wallace is much more interesting than the film, suggest reading Nigel Tranter's book "The Wallace"

and simple fact is...the English were not the biggest problem the Scots had, yes some were bad like Edward I, but in general, it was the Scottish nobles were the damn menace, often unwarrantedly attacking/interfering with the English, and betrayed or screwed over their country repeatedly, blech. Some things never change

 

[AndrewB]

Hello everyone,

It would seem to me that the article is offensive to the majority of us, whom, lets be honest, pose no physical threat to anybody.
The media hasnt all been one sided, Dr Shepard does get press exposure and im hoping he'll wade in on this should he get a platform to do so.
I have some question's about ME as a recognised illness.
Clearly this is not some kind of 'drug company cover up' in the sense that they stand to make billions of pounds making treatments for the illness.
However, the issue that could raise some ugliness is, 'where did ME come from' ?
Ive heard ideas that it may have been the result of immunisations gone wrong in some patients, in that some people's immune systems react in an
uncommen nature to the shots ?
If this were true, then the burden of blame is something im certain nobody would want to carry.
Another theory i think more likely is simply funding. Who gets the funding in each country to carry out research on this illness, and to what end ?
Would it cost the UK govenment much more money to fund Bio chemical research into ME instead of the route they are taking now ?
Do the govenment see this illness as being so wide spread in potential, that they simply believe that they cannot afford to help
people with ME with benefits ?
There is clearly an agenda for this silly article's publication, and all the many others ive encountered of its ilk (the radio 4 coverage was pretty much the
same as this, one sided and an abomination to journalism).
As i mentioned earlier, nobody who is effected by ME, either directly or knows somebody who is ill will take this article seriously, but, we are still
very much in isolation in terms of help and understanding, and this kind of article not only damages our chances of future recovery here in the uk,
but every ME patient the world over.
If anyone know's of any good online reading into the matter of denial by govenments, cover up,s, anything that speaks of the greed of human nature
in relation to dealing with ME, id love to read them.

 

[redo]

He thrives in the spotlight, that's for sure. He's saying:
*) The patients are aggressive and hostile.
**) I care so much for these patients I have done CBT research for years, but they don't understand it's for their own good yet.

If he really did care for the patients, I am surprised at how little it costs him to ridicule his "own" group.

I think this whole CBT catastrophe could have been avoided if the medical community was more dialogue friendly. Listen to their patients. If they feel this is pretty much like standing across someone with a broken leg trying to heal them with CBT, than that should be taken into account for the people pushing this treatment.

 

[Enid]

Hi Andrew - this is a good site for all sorts of nonesense that has been going on in the UK. Emeritus Professor Malcolm Hooper and Margaret Williams (years of advocacy) know all the history too.

http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/

 

[AndrewB]

Hi Andrew - this is a good site for all sorts of nonesense that has been going on in the UK. Emeritus Professor Malcolm Hooper and Margaret Williams (years of advocacy) know all the history too.

http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/

thanks Enid, i'll give that a read right now i think