Latest news with #LisaJones
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'No Work Today': Diehard Nintendo Fans Line Up Early For Switch 2
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. Lisa Jones has been a Nintendo fan since the company's first major console, the NES, launched in the 1980s. 'I've actually had every system, including the Virtual Boy,' she says. So, with Nintendo about to release its newest console, the Switch 2, Jones knew she had to own it on day one. 'I took the day off just to make sure I'd get one,' she told PCMag as she waited outside a Best Buy store, sitting on the concrete while occasionally stretching. Jones was among the diehard Nintendo fans who began lining up outside the store in San Francisco, hoping to snag the console on launch day. The Switch 2 becomes available to consumers at 12 a.m. EST / 9 p.m. PST. But not everyone managed to snag a preorder, prompting some to fall back on the tried-and-true method of lining up in person. 'Yeah, I'm cold,' said Doonie Love, an actor and model who was first in line at the store. He spoke to us with his black hoodie pulled over his head as the San Francisco wind blew by. Love began waiting at about 9 a.m. after failing to secure a preorder, which sold out quickly across retailers weeks ago. Although he's a Nintendo and Pokémon fan, he actually showed up to the Best Buy on a 'whim,' curious to see if people were lining up. 'There's no work today, I just needed something to do,' he said on deciding to wait in line. 'I just called someone to bring a jacket, chair, and burrito," he later added. Others like Brad Reinke were ready to line up. 'I took the day off. Yeah, I was totally prepared to play video games all day,' he told us while sitting in his foldable chair and eating a pasta takeout order from DoorDash. 'We're here all night so I've got to get lunch and dinner in me.' He too is a major Nintendo fan, and also bought the Switch 1 on launch day back in 2017. 'I'm a big collector and I'm probably going to buy everything they have on sale.' he said. While Reinke wasn't able to secure a preorder, he said he enjoys the experience of the 'midnight releases," which attracts other devoted fans. 'There's good company, everyone's here for the same reason, so we all have stuff to talk about,' he said. Meanwhile, another consumer named James Gualtieri was prepared to work remotely while waiting outside the Best Buy, carrying his laptop and a Wi-Fi hotspot. 'I was in a (remote) meeting for half an hour, chatting with folks,' he said. We visited the Best Buy at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, where the line for customers without preorders was relatively small, at about 10 people. As a result, it looked like all the consumers had a strong chance of scoring the console on launch day. But Gualtieri told us Best Buy staff wouldn't commit to confirming if everyone in line would come away with the Switch 2 since the retailer also has to prioritize preorders. 'At the end of the day, it's not the end of the world if I don't get one,' he said after already waiting for two hours. Fortunately, Gualtieri's workplace is located next to the Best Buy store. 'If I can't get one, I'll try to get in line tomorrow morning. I would really love to get one before the weekend,' he said. Meanwhile, others like Jones said it was important to snag a Switch 2 soon, rather than wait, citing the risk of Trump's tariffs raising the price. 'Get it while you can,' she said, noting Microsoft recently increased the price for its Xbox consoles. Best Buy isn't the only location in San Francisco to offer the Switch 2 for tonight's release. Nintendo's official store in the city opened last month and is slated to sell the console as well. But the product will only be available to lucky consumers who were able to snag a preorder, or 'warp pass.' Hours before the sales were set to begin, the store held a prelaunch 'celebration' event, giving fans a chance to demo the Switch 2. The event attracted a long line of over 80 people when it began at 1 p.m. Several Nintendo fans also dressed up for the event, including a consumer named Annie, who cosplayed as the Zelda character, and said 'I came here from Mexico.' "When I was a child I play the Nintendo so much with my friends," Annie added, while also showing off a Zelda tattoo. Another consumer named Greg H. also looked forward to tonight's launch, having scored a warp pass to buy the Switch 2 from the official Nintendo store in San Francisco. 'There is this nostalgic factor of waiting up until midnight to pick up the console,' he said while standing at the prelaunch event with a Nintendo N64 bag. 'There's also a communal aspect, where you meet a lot of people with the same interest.'
Edinburgh Reporter
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Scotland Hat Walk raises more than £2,500 to help find cure for brain tumours
The Scotland Hat Walk returned to Dunfermline with more than 130 milliners, hatters, and hat enthusiasts donning their finest headwear and raising more than £2,500 to help find a cure for brain tumours. The colourful event made a stylish return to Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline, on Sunday 27 April 2025, marking its second successful year. Founded by milliners Lisa Jones (Off With Her Head Millinery) and Leanne Cairns (Leanne Cairns Millinery), the event welcomed a vibrant crowd of hat lovers, milliners, and supporters for a joyful afternoon of creativity and fundraising, all in support of Brain Tumour Research. Kai Jones Image of Watt Nicol and the Steampunk Ladies. Lisa Jones said: 'Bringing a bigger event to Dunfermline this year was not without its challenges, but everything came together on the day. It was lovely to see the success of the Millinery Exhibition in particular, a wonderful showcase of the amazing talent we have here in Scotland.' The day began with a lively millinery exhibition in The Glen Pavilion, where attendees explored a display of handmade hats and headwear. Scottish milliners and hatters shared their work and chatted with visitors about their creative process and the inspirations behind their designs. At 1pm, the walk officially began, led by Joscelyne Kerr, a 19-year-old astrophysics student from Kinross. Diagnosed with an ultra-rare brain tumour, the first known case of its kind in Scotland, Joscelyne is a passionate supporter of Brain Tumour Research and served as this year's Scotland Hat Walk Ambassador. She was joined on the walk by her mum Ann and sister Evie. Now part of the global World Hat Walk, the event joined more than 50 cities across six continents, united by a single joyful requirement: everyone must wear a hat. Callie Best Dressed Dog and David Bolton Best Dressed Couple Adding to the day's unique atmosphere, Scottish folk singer and comedian Watt Nicol joined the walk as part of his 90 Mega Watt Challenges to mark his 90th birthday. Messages of support were also shared by local MSP, Jenny Gilruth, and singer, Barbara Dickson, who was born in Dunfermline. The event concluded with the Best Dressed Competitions, judged by Alexander Stewart MSP. Prizes were awarded in the categories of Best Dressed Couple, Best Hat (Adult), Best Hat (Kids) and Best Dressed Dog. Leanne Cairns said: 'On just our second year, I cannot believe how far the Scotland Hat Walk has come. We're so grateful to our sponsors, our amazing volunteer team at the newly formed Scotland Hat Association, and everyone who supported us. 'Exceeding last year's fundraising total by more than £1,000 and showcasing such a brilliant range of Scottish millinery talent has been incredibly rewarding.' The Scotland Hat Walk also proudly aligns with the spirit of Wear A Hat Day, Brain Tumour Research's flagship awareness and fundraising campaign. Donations to the cause help support vital initiatives such as the Scottish Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence, a unique collaboration between Brain Tumour Research and The Beatson Cancer Charity. The event was supported by sponsors Cheryl Crawford Dance Studios, where Joscelyne previously trained, Fabhatrix of Edinburgh, and Katherine Elizabeth Millinery and Business Academy. The organising team was joined by fellow milliners Emma Mitchell of Fascinatingly Different, Joss Hindmarch of Joss Designs and Jo Hills of Ginger & Teal. With the newly launched Scotland Hat Association aiming to promote millinery across the country, the team is already making plans for Scotland Hat Walk 2026. Ashley McWilliams, Community Development Manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: 'Events like the Scotland Hat Walk are vital in raising awareness and much-needed funds. Joscelyne's strength and the dedication of the organisers are inspiring, and it is through community-driven events like this that we can move closer to a cure for this devastating disease.' Like this: Like Related
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The Welsh town at the centre of Britain's anxiety epidemic
A willowy blonde woman is pushing a buggy along Rhymney High Street, past boarded up shops, the now defunct solicitor's office, the closed bank branch. Sheep are incongruously grazing on a nearby verge – but this is no rural idyll. 'I hate this place so much, I just want out,' says Lisa Jones, 36, vehemently. 'My daughter Charli is seven months old and this is not a safe environment to bring up a child because of the drugs, the parties and the antisocial behaviour of people living off benefits they have no right to claim. 'I'm not well. I suffer from arthritis, hip dysplasia and lupus, but I am having to go to a tribunal to get enough money to live on, while neighbours on my street milk the system and make our lives a misery.' Like every other town here in the South Wales Valleys, regimented terraces of former miners' cottages slope downwards off the main road. And beyond them rise up the hills which were once an economic powerhouse of rich coal seams, iron works and steel mills. But they are gone, as is, it seems, the community spirit and the life – some would say soul – of once-bustling Rhymney. In their wake all that remains is worklessness, addiction – and the unsettling label of the most anxious place not just in Wales but in Britain. According to official figures, here in the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney one in 30 people – some 2,289 in total – is claiming benefits for anxiety. As the Government seeks to slash the UK's stratospheric welfare spending – the benefits bill for people of working age has soared to almost £118 billion each year, a real-terms increase of 46 per cent over the last five years alone – Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has homed in on the Personal Independence Payment, known as PiP, which she believes has been awarded too freely. The benefit is awarded to those aged 16 and above with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and is intended to assist those who experience difficulties with daily living or mobility with their costs. (The standard rate is £73.90 per week for living expenses, and £29.20 for mobility support.) Alongside claimants suffering from debilitating conditions such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, there are a great many others citing more nebulous 'depression' and 'anxiety' as grounds to receive such support. While PiP can be received by those in work, the vast majority of claimants are jobless. Figures show mental ill health is now the most common cause of work-limiting conditions among those aged 44 years and younger. 'There's actually a phrase round here; 'off on a Pip trip', to describe when someone gets their money and goes on a minibreak,' says Robert Andrew, 75, a company director and owner of various businesses in the hospitality sector. 'Claiming benefits is easier than working and they get more money for it – apart from factory work there are no jobs around here. Maybe that's why people say they are suffering from anxiety?' It's a weekday lunchtime and Andrew stands behind the bar of his Royal Arms Hotel, where a pint of Carling costs £3.20; the average price in the UK is nudging £5. The only drinkers are a man who pays for his pint of Strongbow with carefully-counted small change and a tiny baby being fed a bottle by his mother, who just came in to pass the time. 'This is a dying trade,' says Andrew. 'I close most nights. The country is a mess and Wales has been forgotten. Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil was the last in the UK and it closed in 2023 with nothing to replace the jobs that were lost. The Government brought in an emergency bill to save Scunthorpe steelworks – but nobody lifted a finger to help Port Talbot's Tata Steelworks last year. I feel like we're doomed.' He's not the only one. Strolling down the street in the sunshine with friends, factory worker Libby Lewis, 18, is determined to escape. 'I'm working to get some money together but ultimately I'm joining the army to get away from Rhymney,' she says. 'I want to make something of myself and this is not the place to do it.' As we speak, the musky scent of cannabis drifts across the air from a passing car. One of Lewis's friends, aged 17, agrees that the only way to succeed is to leave. 'I am an optimistic person, I kept applying for job after job until I got one,' says the teenager, who works part time while studying for the Welsh Baccalaureate. 'Rhymney is depressing now; when I was little there was a cake shop and a butcher's on the high street. Today there's nothing; it's the hottest day of the year and the streets and parks are empty. People – even those my age – just sit at home being depressed and anxious because they can't see a future. 'Those who do leave the house only want to cause trouble; windows get egged or smashed, bins get stolen. Not so long ago a bus broke down near the community centre and a 14-year-old jumped on board and drove it off.' After that incident in 2023, residents met with police. Patrols were increased, dispersal orders issued and pledges made to clamp down on antisocial behaviour. But locals say the situation is no better. Living in an atmosphere of low level lawlessness would certainly constitute a worry by any standards. 'I wouldn't dream of walking down the high street at night,' says Julie Williams, 61, a retired civil servant. 'Even if my dog, Cynog, was with me. There are people hanging around I wouldn't want to go near.' But do safety concerns necessarily equate with a clinical diagnosis of anxiety? Given the air of gloom and despondency I encounter, it's genuinely hard to argue the exact point at which an 'ordinary' – which is to say, perfectly understandable emotional response to a bleak situation – tips over into a deeper sense of hopelessness. Wales has previously recorded higher levels of anxiety among its population than other parts of the UK. A study by the Mental Health Foundation charity in 2023 revealed that six in 10 adults living in the country had experienced anxiety that interfered with their daily lives in the previous two weeks. Throughout the UK, meanwhile, of the almost 11 million working-age adults who don't have a job, 2.8 million are signed off with long-term sickness. While no-one disputes that there are people who cannot and perhaps may never be able to work, when it comes to anxiety and depression, studies have shown that interventions to help people secure stable employment do improve symptoms of depression and quality of life. The link between employment and mental health was acknowledged by National Mental Health Director Claire Murdoch last year. 'As part of treating people's mental illness, the NHS supports people to achieve their goals, including getting back to work, with research showing that employment can help improve symptoms of anxiety or depression,' she said. Four out of five GPs (84 per cent) are worried that the stresses and strains of everyday life are being too readily labelled as medical problems, according to research carried out earlier this year for the Centre for Social Justice think tank. And for consultant neuropsychiatrist Alastair Santhouse, author of the recently-published No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis, the current trend means that if someone says they have a mental disorder, 'they will almost invariably find a professional to endorse it.' 'Anxiety I always think of as a threat event, in other words a future threat over which you don't have control, or believe that you don't have control,' says Santhouse. 'When that becomes a diagnosable anxiety disorder, it can be a complex decision. Anxiety disorders can share a boundary with normal worry, and, of course, the worries may be realistic. 'Undoubtedly in all cases individuals are suffering, but by reducing suffering to a diagnostic label, and entering a treatment pathway often involving psychotropic medication, for many people this misses the wider issues that need addressing.' By 'psychotrophic medication' he means antidepressants, mood stabilisers and anti-anxiety drugs. By 'wider issues', look no further than the shuttered desolation of Rhymney. It is not alone in its pain. Just a 12-minute drive away is the town of Ebbw Vale, which for 200 years relied on the heavy industries of coal and iron that emerged there in the late 18th century and then on its steelworks. But by the late 1990s a collapse of the international steel market led to the eventual closure of the Ebbw Vale steelworks in 2002. It had employed 14,000 people at its peak. When the works shut down, 850 jobs were lost. Those secure jobs have not been replaced and the consequences of the closure are still being felt. Sir Keir Starmer's government may be determined to find £5 billion worth of savings, but in truth there is no quick fix. Simply removing people's access to PiP will not solve the myriad problems facing those who live in the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney. 'I think estimates that 20 per cent of GPs' time is spent dealing with anxiety is far short of the mark,' says Rowena Christmas, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Wales and herself a working GP. 'People come in ostensibly with joint pain but then you discover their anxiety levels are incredibly high. It's present in patients across the board and we need to get upstream and stop it from developing, rather than just prescribing medication. Unemployment brings with it a great deal of stress and we would very much support anything that helps people take up healthier habits as a way of reducing their anxiety levels so they can get back into work again.' Resources must be channelled towards provision of group activities that get people out of the house and into social situations to boost their mood and build their confidence, Christmas argues. She cites group gardening projects, group walking and even singing as powerful ways of effecting change. 'I sing in a choir myself and I have lost count of the number of people who were on antidepressants when they joined and then, within months, are off them permanently because their mental health has improved so much,' she says. 'If we can get people to take part in voluntary work that would be great, too. Helping others has a tremendously positive effect and when they feel ready to look for paid work, they will have something to put on their CV that demonstrates their reliability.' Back in Rhymney's deserted high street even this modest ambition seems out of reach; by all accounts St David's Community Centre is crying out for helpers. The malaise here goes deeper than economic inactivity; the long term unemployed need carrots as well as sticks. The Government's Get Britain Working white paper, published at the end of last year, announced a £240 million trailblazing package of personalised services for jobseekers, souped-up job centres and improved NHS waiting times. The question is this; will a trail be blazed to the isolated towns of the South Wales Valleys, safeguarding their future? Or will the decline continue? All governments are judged on results; what happens in Rhymney will be a bellwether of Labour's commitment to genuinely radical reform.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Welsh town at the centre of Britain's anxiety epidemic
A willowy blonde woman is pushing a buggy along Rhymney High Street, past boarded up shops, the now defunct solicitor's office, the closed bank branch. Sheep are incongruously grazing on a nearby verge – but this is no rural idyll. 'I hate this place so much, I just want out,' says Lisa Jones, 36, vehemently. 'My daughter Charli is seven months old and this is not a safe environment to bring up a child because of the drugs, the parties and the antisocial behaviour of people living off benefits they have no right to claim. 'I'm not well. I suffer from arthritis, hip dysplasia and lupus, but I am having to go to a tribunal to get enough money to live on, while neighbours on my street milk the system and make our lives a misery.' Resident of Rhymney, Lisa Jones, doesn't want to raise her seven-month-old child in the town - Jay Williams Like every other town here in the South Wales Valleys, regimented terraces of former miners' cottages slope downwards off the main road. And beyond them rise up the hills which were once an economic powerhouse of rich coal seams, iron works and steel mills. But they are gone, as is, it seems, the community spirit and the life – some would say soul – of once-bustling Rhymney. In their wake all that remains is worklessness, addiction – and the unsettling label of the most anxious place not just in Wales but in Britain. According to official figures, here in the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney one in 30 people – some 2,289 in total – is claiming benefits for anxiety. Sheep wander a deserted street in Rhymney - Jay Williams As the Government seeks to slash the UK's stratospheric welfare spending – the benefits bill for people of working age has soared to almost £118 billion each year, a real-terms increase of 46 per cent over the last five years alone – Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has homed in on the Personal Independence Payment, known as PiP, which she believes has been awarded too freely. The benefit is awarded to those aged 16 and above with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and is intended to assist those who experience difficulties with daily living or mobility with their costs. (The standard rate is £73.90 per week for living expenses, and £29.20 for mobility support.) Alongside claimants suffering from debilitating conditions such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, there are a great many others citing more nebulous 'depression' and 'anxiety' as grounds to receive such support. While PiP can be received by those in work, the vast majority of claimants are jobless. Figures show mental ill health is now the most common cause of work-limiting conditions among those aged 44 years and younger. 'There's actually a phrase round here; 'off on a Pip trip', to describe when someone gets their money and goes on a minibreak,' says Robert Andrew, 75, a company director and owner of various businesses in the hospitality sector. 'Claiming benefits is easier than working and they get more money for it – apart from factory work there are no jobs around here. Maybe that's why people say they are suffering from anxiety?' It's a weekday lunchtime and Andrew stands behind the bar of his Royal Arms Hotel, where a pint of Carling costs £3.20; the average price in the UK is nudging £5. The only drinkers are a man who pays for his pint of Strongbow with carefully-counted small change and a tiny baby being fed a bottle by his mother, who just came in to pass the time. Publican Robert Andrew says he is forced to close most evenings due to a lack of trade - Jay Williams 'This is a dying trade,' says Andrew. 'I close most nights. The country is a mess and Wales has been forgotten. Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil was the last in the UK and it closed in 2023 with nothing to replace the jobs that were lost. The Government brought in an emergency bill to save Scunthorpe steelworks – but nobody lifted a finger to help Port Talbot's Tata Steelworks last year. I feel like we're doomed.' He's not the only one. Strolling down the street in the sunshine with friends, factory worker Libby Lewis, 18, is determined to escape. 'I'm working to get some money together but ultimately I'm joining the army to get away from Rhymney,' she says. 'I want to make something of myself and this is not the place to do it.' Factory worker Libby Lewis is just one of the many young adults who wants to flee Rhymney - Jay Williams As we speak, the musky scent of cannabis drifts across the air from a passing car. One of Lewis's friends, aged 17, agrees that the only way to succeed is to leave. 'I am an optimistic person, I kept applying for job after job until I got one,' says the teenager, who works part time while studying for the Welsh Baccalaureate. 'Rhymney is depressing now; when I was little there was a cake shop and a butcher's on the high street. Today there's nothing; it's the hottest day of the year and the streets and parks are empty. People – even those my age – just sit at home being depressed and anxious because they can't see a future. The once bustling high street in Rhymney is now full of boarded up shops - Jay Williams 'Those who do leave the house only want to cause trouble; windows get egged or smashed, bins get stolen. Not so long ago a bus broke down near the community centre and a 14-year-old jumped on board and drove it off.' After that incident in 2023, residents met with police. Patrols were increased, dispersal orders issued and pledges made to clamp down on antisocial behaviour. But locals say the situation is no better. Living in an atmosphere of low level lawlessness would certainly constitute a worry by any standards. 'I wouldn't dream of walking down the high street at night,' says Julie Williams, 61, a retired civil servant. 'Even if my dog, Cynog, was with me. There are people hanging around I wouldn't want to go near.' But do safety concerns necessarily equate with a clinical diagnosis of anxiety? Given the air of gloom and despondency I encounter, it's genuinely hard to argue the exact point at which an 'ordinary' – which is to say, perfectly understandable emotional response to a bleak situation – tips over into a deeper sense of hopelessness. Wales has previously recorded higher levels of anxiety among its population than other parts of the UK. A study by the Mental Health Foundation charity in 2023 revealed that six in 10 adults living in the country had experienced anxiety that interfered with their daily lives in the previous two weeks. Throughout the UK, meanwhile, of the almost 11 million working-age adults who don't have a job, 2.8 million are signed off with long-term sickness. While no-one disputes that there are people who cannot and perhaps may never be able to work, when it comes to anxiety and depression, studies have shown that interventions to help people secure stable employment do improve symptoms of depression and quality of life. The link between employment and mental health was acknowledged by National Mental Health Director Claire Murdoch last year. 'As part of treating people's mental illness, the NHS supports people to achieve their goals, including getting back to work, with research showing that employment can help improve symptoms of anxiety or depression,' she said. Four out of five GPs (84 per cent) are worried that the stresses and strains of everyday life are being too readily labelled as medical problems, according to research carried out earlier this year for the Centre for Social Justice think tank. And for consultant neuropsychiatrist Alastair Santhouse, author of the recently-published No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis, the current trend means that if someone says they have a mental disorder, 'they will almost invariably find a professional to endorse it.' 'Anxiety I always think of as a threat event, in other words a future threat over which you don't have control, or believe that you don't have control,' says Santhouse. 'When that becomes a diagnosable anxiety disorder, it can be a complex decision. Anxiety disorders can share a boundary with normal worry, and, of course, the worries may be realistic. 'Undoubtedly in all cases individuals are suffering, but by reducing suffering to a diagnostic label, and entering a treatment pathway often involving psychotropic medication, for many people this misses the wider issues that need addressing.' By 'psychotrophic medication' he means antidepressants, mood stabilisers and anti-anxiety drugs. By 'wider issues', look no further than the shuttered desolation of Rhymney. It is not alone in its pain. Just a 12-minute drive away is the town of Ebbw Vale, which for 200 years relied on the heavy industries of coal and iron that emerged there in the late 18th century and then on its steelworks. But by the late 1990s a collapse of the international steel market led to the eventual closure of the Ebbw Vale steelworks in 2002. It had employed 14,000 people at its peak. When the works shut down, 850 jobs were lost. Those secure jobs have not been replaced and the consequences of the closure are still being felt. Sir Keir Starmer's government may be determined to find £5 billion worth of savings, but in truth there is no quick fix. Simply removing people's access to PiP will not solve the myriad problems facing those who live in the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney. 'I think estimates that 20 per cent of GPs' time is spent dealing with anxiety is far short of the mark,' says Rowena Christmas, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Wales and herself a working GP. 'People come in ostensibly with joint pain but then you discover their anxiety levels are incredibly high. It's present in patients across the board and we need to get upstream and stop it from developing, rather than just prescribing medication. Unemployment brings with it a great deal of stress and we would very much support anything that helps people take up healthier habits as a way of reducing their anxiety levels so they can get back into work again.' Resources must be channelled towards provision of group activities that get people out of the house and into social situations to boost their mood and build their confidence, Christmas argues. She cites group gardening projects, group walking and even singing as powerful ways of effecting change. 'I sing in a choir myself and I have lost count of the number of people who were on antidepressants when they joined and then, within months, are off them permanently because their mental health has improved so much,' she says. 'If we can get people to take part in voluntary work that would be great, too. Helping others has a tremendously positive effect and when they feel ready to look for paid work, they will have something to put on their CV that demonstrates their reliability.' St David's Community Centre in Rhymney could be a great resource for locals but has a shortage of volunteers - Jay Williams Back in Rhymney's deserted high street even this modest ambition seems out of reach; by all accounts St David's Community Centre is crying out for helpers. The malaise here goes deeper than economic inactivity; the long term unemployed need carrots as well as sticks. The Government's Get Britain Working white paper, published at the end of last year, announced a £240 million trailblazing package of personalised services for jobseekers, souped-up job centres and improved NHS waiting times. The question is this; will a trail be blazed to the isolated towns of the South Wales Valleys, safeguarding their future? Or will the decline continue? All governments are judged on results; what happens in Rhymney will be a bellwether of Labour's commitment to genuinely radical reform. Additional reporting by Ben Butcher Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Boston Globe
29-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Every Rhode Islander should care about RIPTA's $32.6m budget gap
Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up First and foremost, fully funding RIPTA is a catalyst for economic growth. Public transit connects workers to jobs, students to educational institutions and social activities, and consumers to local businesses. Visitors to our state may expect a vibrant public transit system that lets them explore the sights without the hassle of renting a car or navigating unfamiliar driving customs. When people can reliably commute without the burden of car ownership, they have more disposable income to spend within the community. Additionally, businesses thrive when their employees have dependable and affordable means of getting to work. Advertisement Moreover, a fully funded transit system promotes equity. RIPTA is a lifeline for low-income individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities who rely on public transit for essential activities like medical appointments and grocery shopping. Ensuring that these populations have access to affordable and efficient transportation is a matter of social justice that benefits the overall cohesion of our society. Advertisement As climate-conscious citizens, we recognize the role RIPTA plays in Increased public transit options contribute to public health and safety. Reduced traffic leads to fewer accidents and less air pollution, which can improve respiratory health. Furthermore, reliable transportation options can help combat social isolation, particularly for seniors and individuals with disabilities who might otherwise be homebound. Investing in public transit is an investment in the future. As Rhode Island seeks to attract young professionals and new businesses, a modern and efficient transit system is a significant draw. Cities and states with strong public transit systems are more competitive in the job market and are seen as more livable and sustainable. A well-funded public transit system is essential for the economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and social equity of our state. Fully funding RIPTA is not just about helping those who ride the bus today — it's about building a more resilient and connected Rhode Island for everyone. We urge policymakers to acknowledge the broader benefits of public transit and allocate the $32.6 million needed to maintain RIPTA's current service levels. Additionally, we encourage them to increase funding in the coming years, allowing RIPTA to grow into a public transit system that all Rhode Islanders can take pride in. Advertisement Lisa Jones, Kisa Takesue, and Liza Berkin are members of the Women's Fund of Rhode Island policy and advocacy committee, and the .
