From the Heywood Advertizer:
The places listed below are the 10 saddest in all England.
1. Middlesbrough £7.58
2. Gateshead, Tyne & Wear £7.29
3. Redcar & Cleveland £7.11
4. Newcastle £7.04
5. Suffolk £6.90
6. North Tyneside £6.81
7. Heywood, Middleton, Rochdale £6.73
8=Blackpool £6.71
8=Hastings & Rother £6.71
10. Norfolk £6.64
The money is the amount spent on antidepressants per person, each year.
I'm not entirely sure how Heywood (#7) made the list. At one point, quite recently, it was reputed to have the highest number of bars per head of population in the UK ("73 public houses 'one on nearly every corner of each major street' and at some intersections four pubs were competing for business". The Wishing Well, the best pub in town, is the only one I know of founded and operated by a practicing Baptist minister.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heywoodadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/526662_mike_huck?related_link
Wait... if they are taking so many anti-depressants, aren't they "happy"?
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, this explains a few things ;).
"For 40 years Mike has steadfastly supported individuals and organisations throughout the town. Mike has helped a lot of people in the town while a lot of young bands get to play at the Wishing Well."
ReplyDeleteLapin, that's a fine article on Mike Huck. He is a true Heywood Hero.
Is it OK to blab that you are a Heywood homeboy?
So, Klady, I should put up the Smiley, then?
Needless to say, British Baptists are not to be confused with stateside Baptists. Much more sensible.
ReplyDeleteThe anti-depressant prices seem awfully low. I say, do they have national health care or something over there? A monthly co-payment here could easily exceed the annual tab in the UK. Or are we more depressed than folks in NE England? Oh, that's right, they don't have our president.
Both sound like plausible stories to me, Paul; I have little idea of the general U S Healthcare system. I haven't touched the stuff myself since 1998; all mine is picked by my crazy Uncle.
ReplyDeletePaul, we are subsidizing the UK's antidepressants, because the Bush maladministration will not permit negotiating prices with the drug companies.
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, when you get to Medicare, or socialized medicine, it's not bad at all. You're VA, aren't you?
Yes, Mimi, I noticed that the pharmaceutical companies write the laws governing them, as is true in other areas that need regulating. What a scandal. And what a price we pay (literally and figuratively) for such behavior.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it seems, cheaper drugs for animals than for their owners. My animal doctor (brother of the former local diocesan, for the info. of those who are true freaks for things Episcopalian) put my dog Angie, who was having seizures, on Phenobarbital, to prevent the fits. (When you're from Heywood, even your dog's on happy pills!) The cost, at the same pharmacy where I fill my own prescriptions? Just over $10.00 for 60 doses.
ReplyDeletePaul, one day I'll tell the story of how my former Congressman, Billy Tauzin, let the drug companies write the obscene Medicare drug bill.
ReplyDeleteLapin, maybe we should ask the vets to serve as our family doctors.
Oddly enough the vet, during my visit last week, told me that when he was a kid, during WWII, his local vet had saved several human lives. Penicillin, then in short supply, was more easily available to animal doctors, on the grounds that they were helping maintain the food supply, than to physicians. The vet had supplied penicillin to physicians who could not get it for seriously ill humans.
ReplyDeleteOdd Wikipedia fact of the day (where do they dig up this stuff??): "A moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria market in 1941 was found to contain the best and highest quality penicillin after a world-wide search."
The walking encyclopedia strikes again!
ReplyDeleteJust a little Brit perspective here, albeit a little late. I'm not at all surprised by the list but I would like to know the top ten.
ReplyDeleteD.P.
...I would like to know the top ten.
ReplyDeleteDP, the top ten what?
Sorry, G.M. The happiest ten.
ReplyDeleteIt was the pain pills, wasn't it? I hope that your pain is easing. Prayers for you. You Brits are having a rough time of it.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't have the top ten happiest places. How would one judge? By low use of antidepressants?