The health conscious, work-out world of the 1990s could in fact be doing more damage to people because of the guilt it instills in those who seek a modicum of physical pleasure through eating, drinking or just lolling about.
Research into the “pleasure pathways” of the brain has found that happy people are healthier and live longer, even if they do not always follow the advice of the diet planners and fitness freaks.Professor David Warburton, director of the Human Psychopharmacology Group at Reading University, said depriving people of simple pleasures by making them feel guilty helps to create the psychological climate in which depression can flourish.Professor Warburton said research into anti-anxiety drugs and anti-depressants has shown that a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, a cigarette, some sugar or a few pieces of chocolate make people calmer, more relaxed and generally happier.”This is not surprising because these products have a mild pharmacological action on the pleasure pathways in the brain.”It is known that the same pathways are common for all pleasures from food to music, because pleasure in all activities is lost by people with depression.”Depressed people, he says, are more likely to become ill from disorders ranging from infections to heart disease and cancer, “while medical evidence shows that happier people live longer”. The Isle of Skye loses its romantic island status today when the Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth, opens the pounds 30m bridge connecting it to the mainland. Mr Forsyth is sharing the ribbon-cutting ceremony with children from the local Loch Duich primary school.
The project has been dogged by controversy – and only partly because it renders redundant the musical image of Skye as a place accessible only by bonny boats speeding over the sea “like a bird on the wing”.Conservationists voiced fears for its effect on wildlife, and islanders complained about the toll charges, which are pounds 5.20 for a car in high season.The 570-metre bridge was built mainly with private money, with the construction firms recouping the outlay from toll charges before handing the bridge into public ownership next century.. Supporters, wearing bow ties and dark suits can be regularly spotted around London, selling copies of the movement’s newspaper, the Final Call.Million Man March, page 17Leading article, page 20.

“It’s a fairly cynical manoeuvre to have it there at the site of one of the worst places of black and white violence in Britain ever,” he said.He said the board would be monitoring the rally for signs of anti-semitism. “If the British group follows the lead of the Americans we will certainly have our concerns,” he added.The Nation of Islam is led in Britain by Wayne X, 36, of London, a self- employed graphic artist, who preaches the gospel of black self-help. However, he said it was “very important” that he attend what is billed as the biggest protest march since the Sixties to engage them in dialogue.”If I don’t go along, and give free range to the Nation of Islam in my constituency, then I’m not doing my job,” he said.The militant Islamic group has already sparked outrage in the US where the black leader Louis Farrakhan is said to have described ews and other ethnic groups as “bloodsuckers”.Mr Farrakhan denies charges of racism and anti-semitism, but yesterday the Board of Deputies of British ews accused the group of trying to gain “cheap political capital”.Spokesman Mike Whine condemned the decision to hold the British march on Broadwater Farm. “If it were my rally I wouldn’t have gone to Broadwater Farm,” he said. “Last week I was there with community leaders and we were talking about the unity of the Farm.”Speaking on yesterday’s Radio 4 Sunday programme, Mr Grant said that the Nation of Islam addressed young unemployed black people, so “of course this is fertile ground for them to work on”. But yesterday he expressed doubts about the decision to hold it in the racially sensitive area. A thousand black men and women are expected to gather for today’s show of political strength, timed to coincide with the Million Man March of black men in Washington in the United States.
Organised as a recruitment drive by the Nation of Islam, it will be held at the site of the Tottenham riots in which Constable Keith Blakelock was killed.Bernie Grant, the Labour MP for Tottenham, has been persuaded by the radical black organisation to speak at the rally.

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The main speaker at Britain’s biggest black power rally to date, due to take place today, has expressed concern over plans to hold it at Broadwater Farm estate, scene of the riots in Tottenham, north London, 10 years ago. And there are grave doubts whether the 1997 deadline for forming the tri-service college can now be met.”Everything is being considered – from constructing a new building from scratch to using another existing building,” said another official.”There is a body of opinion which argues that refurbishing Camberley is simply not cost-effective.”However, the Ministry of Defence is still determined to try and put all three staff colleges together.”The problem is you have to spend to save and at the moment the MoD is faced with costs they don’t want to face,” said the official.. Defence chiefs have been forced to review plans to form a single tri- service staff college at Camberley, Surrey, bringing the Army, Royal Navy and RAF together under one roof because of huge costs.
Detailed studies into the cost of refurbishing the existing Army Staff College have disclosed that “tens of millions of pounds” will be needed to carry out the work.The cost is substantially more than predicted in initial studies, raising fears that savings might not be seen until well into the next century.”There is a lot of teeth-sucking going on about the scale of the costs involved in the refurbishment of Camberley,” said a senior defence source.Alternative sites to Camberley are now under consideration to see whether greater savings can be made. Controversial plans to sell the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in south-east London – one of Britain’s great architectural treasures – have hit a major obstacle, it was disclosed yesterday. The trustees have spent four years and over half a million pounds developing this scheme and are satisfied that it best meets the primary objective of improving access to and circulation within the museum while enhancing the historic buildings.”. The third report on environmental services “exhibited ignorance of design details” and its author failed to contact the museum. The author of a fourth report on disabled access made no contact with the museum and failed to note that the museum had appointed a disabled persons liaison officer.Sir Robert says: “The trustees of the NMM have been given no inkling that their application was likely to be rejected and have not any stage been informed in writing of the nature of the NHMF reservations.

Sir Robert says this “undermines the credibility of the report”.A second report on the interior was largely complimentary, but the author raised issues which were already being addressed and made no attempt to contact the museum or the designers. The memorial fund based its decision on four reports, but Sir Robert says that in the view of the museum’s trustees, “these reports are superficial and in some cases ignorant and prejudiced”.The architects for the scheme, Building Design Partnership, were dismissed in a report on the architecture of the project as having “special expertise for large scale commercial complexes, regional shopping centres and transport buildings…” But it failed to mention that BDP were the architects for the refurbishment of the Round Tower, Windsor Castle, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal Opera House. It was thought that it would be approved by the National Heritage Memorial Fund without delay, but in July it was rejected. It had been approved by English Heritage; had listed buildings consent byGreenwich council; clearance from the Treasury’s economic appraisal; was given exemption from the Government’s private funding initiative, normally requiring all big capital projects to seek private money; and outline approval by the Department of National Heritage.Application for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund was made in January.