Latest post of the previous page:
I may need to don armour after saying this , but there are bits of what Clarkson says that I agree with, and I think Miliband is plain wrong. Perhaps we should look at the message, not the messenger?I think Clarkson is correct that jumping in front of a train is a pretty selfish way to end one's life. (I also concede that, when someone is suffering from, say, depression, this sort of selfishness is a manifestation of the illness, and arises more from thoughtlessness than an intent to disrupt the lives of other people. However, it is still selfish.) A friend, with whom I have had drinks-and-quiz most weeks for several years often travels back from working in London; several times a year his train is delayed by "jumpers". However, I mention this only to highlight how relatively frequent it is, not because I think the delay to the journeys of thousands of people is the most important issue here.
The father of a former pupil of mine is a train driver. He was off work for months, receiving counselling and therapy, after having hit a "jumper". He still has occasional nightmares. From what I understand, it is something that many train drivers fear and there are lines that have higher incidences of suicide than others, which drivers hope not to be rota'd on. Then there is the emergency services. A human being that has been hit by tons of fast-travelling metal no longer looks like a human being (same applies to high-speed car crashes). Decapitations and limb amputations are commonplace; internal organs can be ripped off their "tubes". They don't always find all the bits. This is the reality of the situation. I don't think anybody enjoys having to deal with the aftermath of this sort of thing. Perhaps more concern should be shown for these people?
Miliband was jumping on a populist anti-Clarkson bandwagon. Clarkson made no comment at all about people who are mentally ill; he commented on dead people who had committed suicide. They obviously had been mentally ill before they killed themselves but, harsh as it may seem, once they are dead it is a fait accompli and it is too late to do anything about it. The time to address the issue of mental illness, from the perspective of both treatment and public attitudes to it, is when people are alive. As far as I can see, Clarkson made no reference at all to that.