Comments

1. bill ball - January 1, 2018 @ 4:31 pm

   Happy new year Al. Hope that 2018 is your most successful year yet.

   Agree that the honours system is a joke. A pat on the head from the ruling class.

   On the loneliness thing, I cannot see it being tackled without restructuring society as a whole.

   Loneliess is about isolation. A housebound pensioner is isolated because he or she has no family nearby & relies on the carer service – both for practical help & an emotional connection to the outside world. Budget cuts mean that is being eroded.

   When we lose our jobs, we are isolated. when we sign on, we are isolated. There is no longer even the community of the dole queue.

   All initiatives on loneliness are to be welcomed, but I cannot help but feel that even the best efforts will be tinkering at the edges of the problem

2. Helen Maddock - January 3, 2018 @ 4:21 pm

   Blue planet, tv at its finest ~ Helen

3. Helen Maddock - January 3, 2018 @ 4:40 pm

   I was really heartened to see Bill Balls comment about social isolation and his clear insight. I have frequently heard people express little interest or compassion as they consider it to be caused by the lonely persons personality or lack of it!

   Some people are naturally introverted and struggle socially due to shyness, deafness or disability and the limitations it can impose. some people leave their home peer groups for foreign climes or simply move away to work.

   A lot of the time people wisely separate from friends who choose the dark path. Your interview with John Rath/Lath made me wonder who his friends are now as prison release is often subject to clauses and promises to stay away from known criminals.

   People in certain occupations are as welcome as a corpse at a funeral and work solo with little contact from others in their profession.

   Parents die and children leave home which all as it should be but can leave those behind socially isolated ~ lonely

   Always check your privilege and please please don’t judge.