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Labour might as well tell mentally ill people to 'pull yourselves together'.
Speaking ahead of expected real-term cuts to disability welfare benefits, health secretary Wes Streeting says doctors are ‘over-diagnosing’ mental illness (Metro, Mon).
No matter what this government or anyone else might think, mentally ill people are on benefits because they need to be on benefits.
They won’t get jobs because they can’t – they’re ill. Cutting back or freezing personal independence payments (PIP) to try to force them to find work? You may as well tell them to ‘pull yourselves together’.
All that will happen is that you will drive many more of these people into poverty and ultimately on to the streets, making it even harder for them to get the treatment they need and ultimately making them an even greater burden on the state.
We are living through an epidemic of mental illness. This is the real threat to our economy. The longer we fail to address it, the worse it will get and the only way to deal with it is to treat the mentally ill. And yes, that will cost a lot of money.
But it will cost a lot more money for us to remain as we are, losing a bigger and bigger chunk of our workforce to mental illness. So we will have to speculate to accumulate. Ryan Cooper, London
Workplace flexibility: The missing piece?
‘Enough is enough.’
Labour wants to help people with mental issues get back to work. They are missing a vital piece of the puzzle – the management systems and work environments that push for conformity at any price.
Already we have companies reversing flexibility. Not everyone works well in noisy offices, kowtows to toxic managers or responds to the widespread pressure to be overly sociable. Once we change the entrenched rigidity of our work culture, you will see how many talented and hard-grafting people get back to work.
Some of us have adjusted, feigned and compromised for decades. Enough is enough. Rather than putting companies under the microscope, it seems far easier to offer prescribed ‘support’ at an individual level and then blame the individual if it fails. Ana Beard, High Barnet
Abolishing NHS England: Democracy or power grab?
‘We are being ruled by a government who just 20 per cent of the electorate voted for’
The abolition of NHS England will, the government says, supposedly make the NHS more ‘democratic’ (Metro, Fri). That would be true if we lived in a functioning democracy. As it stands we are being ruled over by a government with an enormous majority despite being voted for by just 20 per cent of the electorate.
Liz Truss wanted to cut back the civil service and make the public sector directly controlled by the government – her government, who no one voted for either.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying a similar thing in the US. It doesn’t work. All you end up with is power concentrated in a few people who no one wanted anyway.
And those people are supposedly ‘outside the establishment’ which means that they don’t have a clue what they’re doing. Rob Slater, Norfolk
Who pays the price for Trump’s economic gamble?
‘Trump is not so much Robin Hood as Robin Hoodlum.’
Trump seems to assume that tariff revenues and Musk’s budget cuts will fund universal, substantial tax breaks.
However, the looming recession could derail these plans, leaving him without the resources to deliver. His strategy rests on shaky economic ground, risking fiscal instability. Even if Trump’s plan works, which is doubtful, tariffs are paid by USconsumers, while Musk’s cuts slash services they rely on.
The irony? Working-class Trump voters would likely face having to fund compensatory tax breaks for the rich while paying more from their weekly budget – which means Trump is not so much Robin Hood as Robin Hoodlum. Henry Page, Greenwich.
Trump’s hypocrisy: the boycott double standard
‘as soon as people choose to boycott Tesla, he cries boycotts are ‘illegal’.’
Donald Trump has spent a lot of time trying to get things banned and people removed from jobs in his attempts to ‘clean up the government’ by removing anything he and his ilk consider ‘woke’ – having diverse employees, empathetic goals, or even just the capability for critical thinking.
Yet as soon as people choose to boycott Tesla in a stand against its owner, Elon Musk, he cries boycotts are ‘illegal’.
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For a man who is desperate to paint himself as a brilliant mind and a successful man, Trump certainly loves to act like a petulant child when the world doesn’t kowtow to his latest ploy. Matthew, Birmingham
Keep music out of the World Cup
‘Music acts get enough exposure at awards’
I see they are planning a half-time concert curated by Chris Martin and Coldplay for next year’s World Cup final in the US (Metro, Fri).
I hope this idea goes away. The Superbowl equivalent is an inflated circus that threatens to overshadow the sport.
Music acts get enough exposure at awards ceremonies. Len, Harrow
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