In the dying days of the last Conservative government, the culmination of 14 years of social and economic vandalism, Rishi Sunak and his ministers lashed out, usually at easy targets. Migrants and the LGBTQ community were popular, easy and frequent targets, scapegoats for the Tories’ failure. As they began to run out of barrels to scrape, Sunak spoke of a “mental health culture” that has “gone too far”. His secretary of state for work and pensions, Mel Stride, added that the reason for rising inactivity due to mental health was people “convincing themselves they have some kind of serious mental health condition as opposed to the normal anxieties of life”. Translate this into “pull yourself together, everyone feels a bit low sometimes, you’re just a skiver.” It was sick-making.
We have been here before. My loyal reader will know that I have written ad nauseam on the subject of mental health because both Sunak and Stride’s warped views have been and remain widely held. Indeed, I have long argued that no one talks about a dreadful disease like cancer quite so flippantly and dismissively. No matter how much we hear about the new found enlightenment of The Great British Public and how we should talk about our issues and our demons, instead of keeping things bottled-up, the way some people talk you would think us mental folk are just making it all up.
Last week, as you will see from an edition of the Times, a senior Labour figure, though not a member of the current Labour government is has to be said, doubles down on the assertions of Sunak and Stride, concluding that we are all, indeed, making it up.
Alan Milburn, for it is he, is always referred to as one of the “great thinkers” of modern day Labour. I think those who operate in business-speak might call it “blue sky thinking”. Either way, he’s one of those blokes who it is said says the things that maybe most Labour MPs and maybe many members, daren’t speak out loud. I call bullshit.
“Anxiety is normal,” says Milburn. “Depression is normal.” Oh, okay then. Talking about the circa one million people aged between 18 and 24 who are NEETS he adds: “There’s a difference between a diagnosis and a disorder. And okay some people might have anxiety or depression but it doesn’t mean that therefore you should not be written off for not being able to work.” Hmm. Not sure about that, especially the bit about the diagnosis and disorder bit, but let’s dive deeper again. Here, Milburn bangs on about the effects to the economy because so many people are not in work. This, entirely unsaid, is exactly what he means. This is detailed and utterly cynical politician-speak.
The real key to the Times story is revealed in one sentence: “Nearly a third of NEETS are signed for for sickness or disability, the majority citing (my emphasis) mental health or autism as their main condition.” Many a reader will take from that simple, apparently throwaway, line that actually those people are saying that they have mental health issues or autism, not that they have received a diagnosis from a health professional. I go back to my cancer analogy here. No one would say that someone was signed off for citing sickness or disability citing cancer. Suffering from, perhaps, but never merely citing. The author of the Times article knew exactly what he was doing when he used those words.
It is a simple fact that the number of people suffering from mental health conditions is rising. I am no expert but I can see it in my own life by way of the people I meet along the way. The reasons are many and they are often deep and profound. And thanks to the mismanagement of the Conservative governments from 2010 to 2024, NHS mental health care has been ravaged to the extent that only those with severe conditions receive adequate treatment, and even then not always. It is surely not a coincidence that the dramatic rise in poverty across the UK has impacted mental health figures.
If anxiety is “normal”, if depression is “normal”, as Milburn suggests, then he must also be saying that the rise in cases of suicide among the mentally ill is normal, too? And that people’s lives being utterly ravaged and ruined by poor mental health; that’s normal?
These cynical attitudes will never change until we recognise that mental health and physical health are equally important and it is hard to function fully if one or the other is impaired. The attitudes of ill-meaning politicians, and here I mean specifically the likes of Sunak and Stride, helps no one and if anything sets the cause of mental health back even further.
There is no “mental health culture” any more than there is a cancer culture. The only so called culture at work here is culture wars, stirred up and exploited by politicians and pound shop media polemicists.
If anxiety (and depression) is causing “a lost generation on benefits”, then let’s address the causes and treat the symptoms because if there are a lot of people on benefits with mental health illness, the pennies they are given will not make them any better. Sheer poverty, the facts show, will make people more ill.
As with so many other newspapers and media outlets, The Times hates you, in one way or another. The tone and content of this article indicates that it certainly hates young people with anxiety and depression. Be sure it will be someone else tomorrow. Bear that in mind next time you part with your hard-earned cash and line Rupert Murdoch’s pockets. Just say no.
