Picture: EPA
The Liberal Democrats have made a poor start to their new role in government, having to issue two public apologies for language used by senior party figures that was offensive to people with mental health difficulties.
The Liberal Democrats have made a poor start to their new role in government, having to issue two public apologies for language used by senior party figures that was offensive to people with mental health difficulties.
The Lib Dem peer, Lord Jones of Cheltenham, has said sorry for upsetting anyone after being challenged by the mental health magazine, One in Four, about his reference in a radio interview to a ‘looney list’ and for suggesting that people with mental health difficulties should not be out on the streets.
This followed a gaffe by party leader and new deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, when he made a reference to ‘nutters’ in the second of the televised leaders’ debates. He has apologised and said he did not intend his words to be derogatory.
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme on Friday 14th May about the recent knife attack on Labour MP Stephen Timms, Lord Jones, formerly Nigel Jones, MP, recalled a similar attack in his own constituency offices 10 years ago in which he was injured and a member of his staff killed by a man wielding a samurai sword. He told radio listeners: “We did have what we called our looney list which had a dozen people on it who we thought might be a little difficult.” He said of the man who had attacked him: “We subsequently learned that he had a mental health problem and we hope that’s cleared up now because he’s out on the streets.”
When questioned by One in Four about the appropriateness of his words, Lord Jones said that in the interview the memories of that horrible day in January 2000 came back to haunt him. “No I do not think that people with mental health problems are ‘loonies,’” he said. “During my time as MP for Cheltenham, I was for many years a patron of the Gloucestershire Association for Mental Health and have campaigned for better services in the community for those with mental health difficulties.
Pressed further about why a public figure who represents himself as a campaigner in an area where stigma is a problem uses such language, Lord Jones told One in Four it was the stress of the moment: “The horror returned in full force. I suspect, unless one has experienced what I did, the reawakened torment and distress make normal, restrained speech difficult to utter.”
During the second of the TV debates between the three party leaders, Nick Clegg described the Conservative group in the European Parliament as, “Nutters, anti-Semites, people who deny climate change exists and homophobes.” He was picked up for that by Stand to Reason, the service user-led mental health charity, and he apologised for any offence caused.
Mr Clegg was a signatory to an agreement by all main party leaders not to use derogatory or stigmatising language related to mental health issues in their campaigns. In a letter to Stand to Reason he said: “I am acutely aware that the stigma of mental health causes great distress to many people and my use of language that could be considered derogatory was entirely unintentional.”
The editor of One in Four, Mark Brown, said: “It shows how far we still have to go if we call someone a ‘nutter’ when we think they’re wrong.” On the words of Lord Jones he said: “We shouldn’t let our worry about particular cases colour our view of people with mental difficulties as a whole. The majority of violent crime isn’t committed by people who have got mental health difficulties.”
Jonathan Naess, director of Stand to Reason, said: “’Nutter’ may well be everyday language. But it is in truth an insult based on disparaging and deriding people with mental health problems. If you’ve ever suffered from mental illness or you have a loved one who’s been affected, you know it’s no laughing matter. It’s not okay to joke about someone in a wheelchair, so what’s so funny about mental illness?”
A party spokesperson told One in Four, “The Liberal Democrats recognise that the language recently used by party spokespeople could be seen as derogatory and offensive. On both occasions the people involved have rightly apologised. The Liberal Democrats will continue to call for more support for mental health services and for our members to support any effort to change attitudes to mental health.”
Mark Brown
from: One in Four www.oneinfourmag.org
