The ONS yesterday published the latest suicide statistics, now including 2017, downloadable here. Between 4,000 and 5,000 men have committed suicide in the UK every year for the past 37 years, the period covered by the report.
That’s a total of 164,510 men.
A piece by Greg Hurst, Social Affairs Editor, in today’s Times:
The rate of male suicide has fallen to its lowest since records began, with experts saying that a greater focus on men’s mental health was encouraging them to seek help.
There were 4,382 suicides by men last year, a rate of 15.5 deaths per 100,000, a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
This was down from 16 per 100,000 last year and the lowest since the ONS began recording the rate in 1981.
Among women the rate was 4.9 per 100,000, broadly consistent with the pattern over the past decade.
Among the prominent mental health campaigns in recent years is Heads Together, led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex.
Launched in April last year, it brought together mental health charities and celebrities including the former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and Tony Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell — both of whom have experienced depression — to try to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and urge people to seek help.
Prince Harry gave an interview in which he described finally seeking counselling to deal with the “chaos” he had felt for 20 years after the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
There has long been a much higher rate of suicide among men than women, accounting for about three quarters of such deaths. The highest prevalence of suicide is among men aged 45 to 49. It is also high among men aged 80 and older as their health declines. Among women, those aged 50 to 54 have the highest rate of suicide.
There were 5,821 suicides registered in the UK last year, equivalent to 10.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
Ruth Sutherland, chief executive of the Samaritans, said: “It’s encouraging to see the reduction in male suicide. We believe that the focus of suicide prevention in recent years to tackle the higher rates in men has contributed. Added to this, reducing stigma around men’s mental health and encouraging men to open up and ask for help when they are struggling has been beneficial. But one death by suicide is still one too many.
“Suicide is complex and it’s a problem of inequality. It affects the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society, male and female, disproportionately. This is an urgent public health issue, not simply a health or mental health one.”
Over the past 35 years the suicide rate for men peaked at 21.4 deaths per 100,000 in 1988 but has been on a broadly downward trajectory since. There was a smaller peak in 2013, after it rose for three years to reach 17.8 per 100,000.
The figures are likely [J4MB: “certain” would be a more accurate word] to underestimate the total as some coroners are reluctant to record a verdict of suicide to spare relatives additional grief unless there is compelling evidence. [J4MB emphasis. Another source of underestimation is risky behaviour by men in particular, which men know may shorten their lives e.g. excessive alcohol consumption over many years.]
A separate ONS analysis last year showed that, while suicide was the leading cause of death in England in adults [J4MB: “men” would be accurate] below the age of 50, there were big variations by occupation.
High-paid groups including managers, directors and senior officials had the lowest risk. Men in low-skilled jobs had a 44 per cent higher risk than average. Among plasterers and painters and decorators the risk was twice as high and among construction workers it was three times higher.
My thanks to Rod for informing me of this matter. As many of you will know, Alison Tieman recently lost an appeal in connection with her case against Calgary Comics Expo, from which she was evicted in 2015, and later banned from Canadian Comic Book events. Yesterday she published this (video, 41:37).
The legal defence team of Calgary Comics Expo are seeking costs of CAND 174,000. Alison launched a fundraiser for CAND 30,385 to fund an appeal against the judge’s ruling. The fundraiser has two more days to run, and has so far reached almost halfway, at CAND 14,740. Please donate what you can. Thanks.
Our thanks to the indefatigable Ewan Jones for giving us permission to publish on our YouTube channel, his interview (video, 11:22) with Elizabeth Hobson on the second day of the conference, and his interview (video, 18:42) with Mike Buchanan at the end of the third and final day. Unlike Vanessa Feltz, he doesn’t feel the need to occupy 90% of the time with his own views.
We’ve been contacted by a mainstream media outlet which is looking for men who’ve been the focus of false sexual harassment allegations.
If you’re interested, please email me (mike@j4mb.org.uk) with a few details of your experience(s) and I’ll forward your email to the key person behind the project. At this stage, getting in touch is no obligation to appearing in the TV program. If you are interested but concerned about potential ramifications, the production team can advise ways to mitigate these.
This is a great opportunity to give a voice to the wrongly accused.
Daily Mail caption: Politics Live launched this morning (pictured) with a panel of six female MPs and political pundit, including ex Home Secretary Amber Rudd and shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry
Our thanks to Ray for this. The start of the piece:
The BBC‘s new-look daily politics show has sparked a storm of criticism after it launched today with an all-female line-up.
Viewers compared the new Politics Live show to Loose Women and jibed that ‘woke’ producers had pushed their political correctness too far.
But Rob Burley, the editor of the BBC 2 show, hit back at the criticism and said he has ‘literally zero shame about an all-women panel’.
Politics Live launched this morning with a panel of six female MPs and political pundits, including ex Home Secretary Amber Rudd and shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry.
Producers had promised the show, hosted by Jo Coburn throughout the week and by Andrew Neil for PMQs on Wednesday, would be more relaxed and chatty [J4MB emphasis: In plain English, less substantive] than its long-running predecessor The Daily Politics.
About an hour ago I was interviewed (over the phone) for about 10 minutes by Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London, in connection with an article by Maureen Lipman in today’s Times (below). The station has already supplied the audio file, we’ll post it on our YouTube channel later today.
Women celebrities who dress like prostitutes but complain about male attention are to blame for “confusing” men, Maureen Lipman has claimed.
The actress said that the #MeToo movement was “going too far” in vilifying men for incidents that took place decades ago when standards of behaviour were different.
“We mustn’t wipe out men,” she told Radio Times. “I know men have brutalised women over centuries, but I don’t think the message we’re giving out with #MeToo is right.”
Lipman, 72, is not the first well-known woman to express misgivings about the backlash against inappropriate male behaviour. She said that women celebrities who appeared in public in “all this bondage clothing — dressed a bit like a prostitute would have dressed” were sending mixed messages. “Young female pop stars, for example, are saying: ‘It’s my body, and I’m empowered to show it to you’. But then: ‘Don’t touch it, don’t come near it, don’t flirt with it.’ That is a bit of a shame because flirting is some of the best fun you’ve ever had in your life. We’re batting our eyelids and clenching our teeth at the same time. That is confusing.”
Lipman also indicated some sympathy for Roman Polanski, the film director who fled the US after pleading guilty to the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Polanski, 85, has never served time in jail, but Lipman, who starred in his 2002 film The Pianist, said that his decades-long exile in Europe was “probably enough” punishment. She also suggested that the circumstances of Polanski’s crime during a “photoshoot” at the Los Angeles home of the actor Jack Nicholson, were not considered so problematic in the era in which they occurred.
“We’ve got to stop judging everybody now on the mores of then,” Lipman said. “In the Sixties it was plausible for a young girl to be brought to Jack Nicholson’s house and left with Roman Polanski. It wasn’t an unusual thing.”
She made it clear that she supported the progress made in encouraging sexual abuse victims to come forward but said that #MeToo was leading to “kneejerk” and “all-inclusive” condemnation of men for relatively minor historical offences.
Lipman is perhaps best known for playing the Jewish grandmother Beatrice Bellman in a series of British Telecom adverts. She has just signed to play Evelyn Plummer, an “outspoken battleaxe”, in Coronation Street.
She ended her long-standing support for the Labour Party in 2014 and has repeatedly criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s record on antisemitism.
In her Radio Times interview, the actress implied that the low profile adopted by Mr Corbyn’s Mexican wife, Laura Álvarez, reflected a broader marginalisation of women by political leaders. “Where’s Mrs Corbyn? She’s a Mexican in a peaked cap following two paces behind . . . Is he hiding her?” she said. “Where is Mrs Putin? Where has she gone? Can you trust a man like that? Trump grabs pussy as a way of saying, ‘How do you do, madam?’ We know that; he’s a misogynist and a vulgarian. And he’s on the third Mrs Trump, who hates him.”
In January, 100 prominent French women signed an open letter claiming that seduction was being criminalised by the #MeToo campaign. Mary Beard, the classicist, has spoken of the tendency to “cherry pick” isolated incidents of misbehaviour out of context, urging the movement to focus on the protection of women working now rather than past misconduct.
We should not be surprised that following the description of autism as resulting from extreme male-pattern brain “wiring”, it occurs 4-5 times more often in boys than in girls. If the gender ratio were reversed, would the expulsion of autistic children by schools receive greater attention? Surely it would. A tip of the hat to Paul Morgan-Bentley, Head of Investigations at The Times, for his piece published two days ago:
Charities say that schools are causing irreversible harm to children with autism after a rise in the number that have been expelled.
Almost 4,500 pupils with autism, some as young as five, were excluded in 2015-16, more than twice as many as four years earlier. The figures were obtained by Ambitious about Autism, one of several groups saying that excluding children on the autistic spectrum causes them long-term harm.
This week The Times reported an increase in the number of children aged ten and under excluded from school,including 58 five-year-olds this year. Children of this age excluded in recent years include a girl who hit a teaching assistant and a boy who attacked a teacher with a hockey stick. Often they have conditions such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Thousands of poorly performing pupils are also being excluded in the run-up to GCSEs in an attempt by schools to “game” league tables.
Many who are expelled are sent to pupil referral units, which some experts say are recruiting grounds for gangs.
Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of Ambitious about Autism, said: “Our evidence suggests that it is currently too easy for schools to ‘off roll’ pupils with impunity. Many children with autism suffer long-lasting anxiety as a result of being pushed out of school.”
The data uncovered by her charity shows that 2,831 children with autistic spectrum disorder were given permanent or fixed-period exclusions in 2011-12. By 2015-16, the latest year for which figures are available, the number was 4,485. Autistic children account for just over 1 per cent of pupils but 2.5 per cent of exclusions.
Ms Lasota said that schools expelling children should be accountable for their grades after they leave. “This could incentivise schools to support children with autism and reset the balance away from exclusion and back to inclusion,” she said.
The National Autistic Society said that an “unacceptably high” number of autistic children were excluded and that this could “hold back their learning and emotional development, in some cases resulting in social isolation and mental health problems, and damage their long-term prospects”.
Jane Harris, of the charity, said: “Every autistic child is different but many become overwhelmed in school — by bright lights, loud noises or other children’s unpredictable behaviour. They can end up behaving in ways that seem naughty or disruptive to others when actually they are overwhelmed or distressed. Good schools give autistic children quiet spaces to retreat to when things become too much and use different communication techniques to reduce their anxiety.”
Schools have justified excluding autistic children under a rule that allowed them to do so when pupils had a “tendency to physical abuse”. Last month a judge ruled in favour of a boy aged 13 with autism who was excluded in 2016 after he punched a teaching assistant and hit her with a ruler.
Jon Spiers, chief executive of Autistica, a charity that funds research, said: “Behaviour that challenges is often an indication of anxiety, pain or distress which the autistic person is unable to express and should be viewed as a symptom of something more profound, not a reason to remove a child from mainstream education.”
Mencap said that children with any special educational needs are six times more likely to be excluded than others. James Robinson, from the charity, said: “This can lead to a whole host of negative outcomes in terms of their education, health and social care. Unfortunately, behaviours are often approached in a reactive way — at the point when a child is at risk of exclusion — rather than as part of a proactive and preventative approach.”
The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, are investigating exclusion rates. The DfE said that schools “must consider the underlying causes of poor behaviour before excluding a pupil”.
Caption in Sunday Times: Ashima from India, one of the new more diverse characters in the series MATTLE INC/PA
A piece by Nadeem Badshah in yesterday’s Sunday Times:
Once he was content to spend his days with the Fat Controller and James the Red Engine. Now Thomas the Tank Engine is to diversify his circle of acquaintances in a politically correct makeover made with the United Nations.
The 73-year-old children’s franchise is being relaunched with an inclusive, gender-balanced, multicultural set of characters. Starting on Monday, the Thomas series will see the locomotive leave his home on the fictional island of Sodor to travel to China, India and Australia and broaden his horizons. It is being renamed Thomas and Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! and marks the first collaboration between a children’s television programme and the UN to promote its sustainable development goals.
The plethora of changes include a new theme tune, a faster-paced format, more humour and music along with fantasy elements and dream sequences, according to producers. The team behind the new incarnation say it “will deepen the brand’s engagement with girls, who represent over 40 per cent of the show’s viewership, and provide a strong message of gender equality to the young audience”. The Steam Team, the core group of trains, will now comprise three male and three female characters. Long-running favourites Percy, Gordon, James and Emily will be joined by Nia and Rebecca.
The series will also feature new characters from around the world including Ashima from India, Yong Bao from China and Shane from Australia.
New female characters include Isla, an Australian flying doctor plane, Noor Jehan, a royal express engine from India, Hong-Mei, a No 1 blue tank engine from China, and female railway controller Charubala, from India. Formerly narrated by the ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, the new Channel 5 version will have Thomas talking directly to his young viewers.
Ian McCue, the senior producer, said: “The show has undergone an evolution to remain relevant for the next generation of parents and children.”
Thomas the Tank Engine was created by the Rev Wilbert Awdry as part of his Railway Series of books, which have become a global brand including television programmes, films, toys and live attractions.
His granddaughter, Claire Chambers, 43, said yesterday: “If the gender- balanced Steam Team encourages more girls to maintain an interest then that can only be a good thing.”
Caption in The Times: Kathy Staff’s Nora Batty from Last of the Summer Wine was no-nonsense
A piece by Chris Smyth, Health Editor, in today’s Times:
It’s enough to make Nora Batty reach for her broomstick: the counsellors’ and therapists’ professional body has issued guidelines suggesting that women are emotional and concerned with their appearance — unless they are from the north of England.
Guidance on gender, sexual and relationship diversity issued by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) said that northern women, by contrast, are aggressive and strong. It was accused of using “ludicrous” stereotypes to define men and women.
The guidance says: “It is important not to assume, for example, that being a woman necessarily involves being able to bear children, or having XX sex chromosomes, or breasts. Being a woman in a British cultural context often means adhering to social norms of femininity, such as being nurturing, caring, social, emotional, vulnerable, and concerned with appearance.”
However, it added that “not all women adhere to all these things”, citing women on the autistic spectrum who might struggle to express emotions and adding: “In some northern working-class contexts femininity is associated with strength and aggression.”
After Twitter users joked about being “trans northern”, Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, wrote: “This is ludicrous and dangerous. Particularly citing autistic women as a first example of what’s not a typical ‘empathetic/concerned with appearance’ woman which further entrenches ‘difference’. This is the damage that leaves so many needing counselling.”
Last night, the reference to northernness had been edited out. The BACP said: “We, of course, apologise if anyone is offended by the content in this guide. This is not something that we would ever intend to do.”
The guidance, written by Meg-John Barker, an “activist-academic” at the Open University, adds that “being a man in a British cultural context often means adhering to social norms of masculinity, such as being competitive, ambitious, and caring about their work”.
Justice for Men & Boys 