Florie Deva / 19 November 2024 / Categories: People, Politicians, Opinions, Bodies & Groups, Government

David Cameron

I want to take you back to 2010 for this snoop. I was working for a psychotherapist who was looking at the concept of “happiness” and how it might be a factor when looking at individual success stories in life and visa versa.

He was extremely sure mental wellbeing was if not the most important thing for human beings economic success it was a critical factor. The idea you are ineffective when you are depressed.

So when David Cameron the then prime minister announced he was thinking along the same lines, he said: "It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general wellbeing." my boss was over the moon and enlisted my help to compose a letter and then a series of follow up letters in response. He was sharing an idea to introduce “happiness coaching” into prisons to change the way inmates thought, while incarcerated resolving conflicts in prisons and giving inmates a greater opportunity for a better more fulfilling life when released.

The long and short of the story, we didn’t actually get anywhere. Everything we presented as running parallel to Mr. Cameron’s ideas as reflected in the media were fobbed off.

I remember thinking at the time this just doesn’t make any sense. The government appeared to be saying one thing through the media but when we were basically mirroring the work the government said needed doing, we were getting closed door responses that didn’t make sense.

The absolute kicker came when instead of writing back, we tried phoning, I tried 3 or 4 times but couldn’t get put through to the signatory on the letters.

The whole thing just seemed weird and fishy. Most people would have just dropped it. However the psychotherapist I was working for did really believe he could make a difference, his passion, particularly in Prisons, his program offered to the government for free he believed would and could turn around the prison system in the UK and rehabilitate prisoners with Happiness.

Sounds a bit mad I know, I’ve seen the work, work.

He was so convinced he was on the right track he asked me to go a step further and turn up to track down the civil servant I had been receiving correspondence from but was unable to communicate with.

What I am going to tell you now I cannot prove, you’ll just have to take my word for it, and because of this I have not exercised my right to vote since.

The named person on the government correspondence, was made up. They did not exist. And you can make of this what you will.