Sunak’s answer seems to lie in blaming mental health patients

There was once a dark time in the history of our country when people who had survived a suicide attempt were put in prison. But now we live in more enlightened times. Or do we?

Maybe we can put this down to the heat being generated by a forthcoming general election, or is there really an appetite to blame depression on the depressed, anxiety on the anxious and even suicide on the suicidal?

If what we read around ”sicknote culture” is true, it would appear that discussions around welfare reform are focusing largely on reducing benefits to sufferers, rather than building up what many who work in the mental health services regard as a woefully under-resourced sector.

Is this really the direction this country should be considering at a time when cases of poor mental health are at an unprecedented level?

How should we tackle the fact that suicide statistics in the UK have recently risen again and that at best, the figures have stagnated for more than 15 years? Some no doubt believe that we should blame it on the sick and vulnerable and bring back the criminal status.

As a charity, we are urging MPs of all parties to make their own position clear on this by answering the following simple question: do they recognise the dire state of mental health provision in this country and support efforts to improve it – or do they believe the answer lies in blaming the patients?

Mike McCarthy

Chair and co-founder, Baton of Hope UK

It is utterly offensive for Sunak to claim the PIP reforms are not about saving money but are morally right. This is a party and PM that has created a new atmosphere of hostility towards the disabled, especially those with mental illness.

He is so delusional he doesn’t see that years of treating mental illness as unimportant plus a decade of austerity is responsible for the mental health crisis we currently have in this country.

And now, inciting disability hatred will be Sunak’s legacy.

Richard Whiteside

Halifax

So, just when Rishi Sunak thought he was having a good run-up to this week’s local elections, along came Dr Dan Poulter to throw a spanner in the works by announcing his defection to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Like many others who have turned to Starmer’s Labour Party in the last two years, Dr Poulter had a point. Hence, within hours of Dr Poulter joining Labour, a group of Tory MPs plotting to oust Sunak said they would offer junior doctors a 10 to 12 per cent pay increase from their big magic money tree.

Yet thankfully, just like those of us who have already switched our allegiance to Labour, people can nowadays see through Tory lies for what they are worth – as was the case with other NHS staff, the money doesn’t end up in their pockets but more likely goes into some long-term pension scheme instead.

In the meantime, having already crashed the economy under Liz Truss at a cost of £45bn, instead of having a wealth tax on billionaires, the likes of whom have both bankrolled the Tory treasure chest and benefited from the non dom tax status, they instead target vulnerable people who struggle to get on in life.

But what do you expect from a Conservative Party who for 14 years have protected the richest one per cent at the expense of the rest?

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

Now the long, torturous and impossible-to-police Northern Irish border is in the news again: this time because of potential migrant crossings which the UK refuses to see as its problem.

Brexit is clearly the reason for the huge increase in migrants crossing the Channel in small boats (as the UK also exited the Dublin Agreement to return migrants to their last EU country).

Yet it is something that the population of Northern Ireland voted against. It seems to me that the seemingly inevitable reunification of Ireland would resolve such a problem…

Why not just simplify matters and call a vote now, thus settling all these problems?

Katharine Powell

Neston

Surely we are underplaying Russia’s evil intentions, which probably include taking over or annexing parts of other countries surrounding its border?

Russia is fast becoming a rogue, pariah state led by an imperialistic madman. Vladimir Putin has had almost free rein during his leadership of Russia, causing untold trouble in many countries, not least Ukraine.

It’s clear Putin has no fear in waging war anywhere he chooses, disrupting travel safety measures and behaving like a deranged despot. He must be dissuaded from this form of governance and encouraged to live in harmony with other countries. But the truth is that he has come too far now to renounce his intention to control the whole of Ukraine by force.

The outcome of his decision, to wage war on Ukraine, may embolden other countries to do the same with their neighbours. Where will he strike next?

Keith Poole

Basingstoke