THERE IS a great line in Breaking Bad where streetwise Jesse explains to Walter White that sometimes you don’t need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer, and adds ‘you know what I’m saying’. I thought of the distinction when I read that Prince Harry was on a mental health panel, if you know what I’m saying.
Mental fitness is perfect for Harry, because it’s about feelings and feelings are invisible, and so it’s easy to be an expert and you won’t kill anyone. Psychology used to be the study of human behaviour – seen and measurable. Now it’s awash with feelings.
Impossible to measure feelings, have gained a foothold. And feelings can be magic words. Feelings can get you a lighter sentence (Your honour, she was really making me angry, or, I’m sad my dad wasn’t proud of me, or, I’m anxious about the future). And feelings are big business. Like rats in a city, you’re probably no more than a metre away from a mental health slogan that someone is paid to write asking ‘Are you okay? Are you sure? And then it’s hard not to think, wait a minute, am I okay?
Mentally ill people need support, but they usually give some behavioural indications that all is not well.
Mental illness isn’t having feelings. It’s usually behavioural and visible. Anger management would be better called ‘stop hitting people management’. You don’t get joy management. And the new feelings realm is terrifying for parents. No longer is it enough to worry about that which is seeable. Ah, you might argue, you never know what’s going on underneath, what if it’s just a calm exterior?
That’s true. If I see a well kept house with manicured lawn, there may still be real darkness within. But it’s improbable and I wouldn’t base public spending on it. And public spending on mental ‘health’ is growing exponentially and no one seems to suggest that maybe the more jobs being created from the ‘crisis’ based on what is often invisible is maybe better spent elsewhere.
But maybe if you can’t beat them join them. Feelings are important to recognise. I recognised intense rage when I read that Keir Starmer who seems to have spent his life being in the right time at the right place has made a profit on his London home of 1.4 million in twenty years. His house has earnt more than most ‘workers’ and if Right Time Right Place makes a right move, he could be sitting with 1.4 million in his pocket as unearned and yet untaxed money.
His Deputy Angela Rayner has employed a photographer who, if he works for 20 years in his role, will take home 1.4 million over 20 years. Alongside other disadvantages of partying with Angela Rayner, he will need to pay tax on it.
But hard choices need to be made, Sir Right Time Right Place tells us.
Hard Choices are unlikely to include taxing homeowners who have won the property lottery. Good luck to the winners, but shouldn’t they pay some tax? Wait, I’m having feelings. You can tell because I’m banging my head on the table.
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Photos by Antonioguillem from Adobe Stock
