Achieving parity of esteem between mental and physical health in care standards and public attitudes has been attempted for decades. A new publication from POST outlines the history of these efforts, the various ways in which parity is defined and measured, the challenges of achieving this ideal and the strategies that may be employed to that end and is worth reading.

Parity of Esteem for Mental Health – POST Note

 

We came across this excellent review of The Terrace Cafeteria over on ‘The London Review of Breakfasts’ –

‘The Terrace is comfortingly old-fashioned with a Pugin-tiled serving area and a wood-panelled, green-carpeted dining room which overlooks the Thames. According to a friend who went to one, it’s like being in a boarding school refectory…. At 10am [it is] busy with burly builders, fat policemen and thin researchers.’

Read the rest

If you felt like submitting your own reviews of other eating (and drinking) places we’d be happy to publish them – anonymously, if needed – and pay a modest fee for your contribution.

On December 10th, the Hansard Society will be launching its latest publication on the legislative process:The Devil is in the Detail: Parliament and Delegated Legislation.

This latest report opens up the delegated legislation process, exploring how decisions are made about what goes in to primary and what goes in to secondary legislation and who makes them. It looks at the evolution of delegated legislation, how the process works in both Houses of Parliament, and examines a number of legislative case studies that illustrate different aspects of the flaws and defects in the current system.

The authors will outline their findings and set out recommendations for reform of the system before a panel-audience discussion on the key issues and questions that arise in the report.

The launch event takes place at 6:00pm, Wednesday 10th December
Room E, 7 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA

Register here.

The IPSA General Election website is now live.  It contains lots of useful information for MPs standing for re-election, MPs standing down in May, candidates and MP’s members of staff, as well as an easy-to-read election timetable.

Free Parliamentary training opportunity for teachers in your constituency: 3-day Teachers’ Institute: 26^th – 28^th January 2015

Parliament’s Education Service will be hosting a new 3-day Teachers’ Institute residential course in Westminster, 26^th – 28^thJanuary 2015, and applications are now open.  The Teachers’ Institute is a unique professional development opportunity, enabling teachers to experience Parliament in action during an informative, interactive and unforgettable three days based at the Houses of Parliament.

Transport and accommodation costs are covered for all delegates, and applications are welcome from teachers and other professionals working with children aged 7-18 across Citizenship, Politics, Law, History and other related subjects. For more details and an application form, visit www.parliament.uk/teachers-institute

From The Bookseller:

Four “outstanding examples of non-fiction books” make up the shortlist for the 2014 Educational Writers’ Award.

The award, run by the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors (SoA), celebrates educational writing that “inspires creativity and encourages students to read widely and build up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications”.

The books on the shortlist are aimed at children and teenagers aged between 11 and 18.

The shortlist includes Keep Your Cool: How to Deal with Life’s Worries and Stress (Franklin Watts) by Dr Aaron Balick and illustrated by Clotilde Szymanski, which aims to help children deal with issues including bullying, family strife and exam panic.

The judges said the book has “just the right tone and masses of helpful suggestions”.

Mission: Explore FOOD (Can of Worms) by The Geography Collective, illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones, is an “alternative cookbook” with food-related missions to complete, with the idea of turning you into an extreme explorer and guerrilla geographer. The judges said it was a “varied, imaginative, lively inter-disciplinary approach to food, both on the plate and on its way there”.

The Danger Zone: Avoid Being Sir Isaac Newton! (Book House) by Ian Graham and illustrated by David Antram puts the readers in the place of Newton. The judges said it was a “fascinating look at the man behind the theories of gravity, optics and calculus – tantrums, heresy, warts and all”.

The final book on the shortlist is The World in Infographics: Animal Kingdom (Wayland) by Jon Richards & Ed Simkins, which visualises animal life in icons, pictograms and graphics. The judges said the information was “presented through brilliant, easy-to-read infographics”.

This year’s judges are teacher Vanessa Casey; school librarian Aidan Higgins; and author Anne Rooney.

The winner of the 2014 Educational Writers’ Award will be announced at the All Party Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons on Tuesday 2nd December.

The winning author will receive a cheque for £2,000.

The latest MAPSA newsletter can now be read on w4mp.

MAPSA Newsletter

The President of the Republic of Singapore, during his State Visit, will address Members of both Houses of Parliament onTuesday 21 October between 4.30pm – 5.25pm in the Queen’s Robing Room. 

Members, Members’ Staff and Staff of both Houses are also welcome to attend.

No tickets are required; attendees are requested to arrive no later than 4.20pm.

 

We don’t normally advertise political thrillers here on w4mp – well, we don’t get told about them that often – but when it’s written by one our own we think it’s worth a mention.  Two years ago Emma Gray – writing as Emma Greenway –  published her first novel, Party Games, and we gave it a bit of a push. And now she’s done it again, with the sequel, Power Play, available an ebook from October 10;

 

Power Play

Treason is a hanging offence..

As Conservative Party leader Rodney Richmond lies in a coma, his ambitious deputy Colin Scott vows to force unquestioning loyalty to himself on a party which is at breaking point. Dubbed ‘the Führer’ by Labour MPs, his core supporters – including a morally conflicted colleague and an obsessed, ruthless advisor – will do anything to get their man, and themselves, to the top. But there is a threat from within, one so determined they will resort to murder before they see Scott fail, and soon civil war erupts among Scott’s most senior lieutenants.

While the true leader of the so-called ‘resistance’ remains unconscious, their female rising star emerges to challenge Scott’s seemingly unbreakable and brutal authority.

Power Play continues the theme of corrupting power and infighting at the heart of E J Greenway’s first novel, Party Games. It is a wry look at what could happen if a modern day political party, finding itself in Opposition after years in power, embraces a narcissistic maniac who promises to bring it back from the brink at any cost.

Although Power Play is the dramatic sequel to Party Games, it can be read as a stand-alone book.

Where to get it

You can buy the book here on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Play-E-J-Greenway-ebook/dp/B00O75RIZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412593453&sr=8-1&keywords=e+j+greenway+power+play

A bit about Emma

Emma has always loved writing and politics, so she combined the two from an early age and began writing humorous stories at the age of 11, when she penned her first political ‘thriller’, The Plan to Assassinate the Prime Minister.

Now, 24 years later, Emma has worked at Westminster for over 12 years and wanted to capture the fascination of the Westminster village, its excitement and power, through the telling of what is essentially a human drama, set in a closely-knit, somewhat insular ‘pressure cooker’ world. Party Games was her first novel under the pen name E J Greenway in 2012 and in October 2014 the sequel, Power Play, has hit the virtual shelves.

Emma also has a blog and has written for various online publications such as Backbench, Conservative Home and Total Politics.

Emma lived in Liverpool until she was 18 and now lives in Winchester with her husband, two children and a very feisty guinea pig.