Matt Haig

Dear @andy.burnham, The current legislation regarding suicide in the UK is inadequate and out of date. As you know, our most significant legislation in this area dates from 1961. The Suicide Act of that year was an incredible landmark bill which helped reduce stigma, by decriminalising the act of taking one’s life. It also made it an offence to actively assist someone else’s death. Now, this second part of the act is where the inadequacies lie. Leaving aside the whole assisted dying debate, there is a significant failing to address, say, the reckless damaging of people’s mental health via the media at times where the coverage goes beyond the national interest into bullying. Yes there have been updates for the modern age - most recently within the Online Safety Act in 2023 but the problem remains. The blame is only laid on people who go out of their way to literally and directly tell someone to end their life. But we all know that isn’t where blame ends. Just as the drink-driver who doesn’t mean to kill has to face the consequences of their actions we need something equivalent here. In Norway and Sweden for instance journalists aren’t allowed to harass people who are grieving, or mentally vulnerable. So there are precedents. The ability right now for UK journalists to face zero consequences for politically motivated campaigns against vulnerable individuals, often in minority groups, is a massive blight on the UK’s moral standing. A bigger point here is that an update in the suicide law would also update our understanding of mental health. Just as the 1961 law was a massive step forward, a new law could show to all that as with our physical safety our mental safety is not ours alone to protect. Our minds and wellbeing is influenced by the actions of others. And when those actions are negative, deliberate, disproportionate and prolonged there should be consequences. As with drink driving, phone driving, passive smoking, or recklessly transmitting an infection, this is a public safety issue. Many people have died in the UK from mental harassment campaigns. I am sure you will agree that we can’t risk more lives. It’s not 1961 any more. Thank you.

Love to the family and friends of Jason Arday. Shame on the media that excessively pursues minorities and the mentally vulnerable to push agendas.

Wouldn’t be summer in Ibiza without a trip to the hospital but time was running out so Andrea chopped her thumb with a chopping knife and so now we are sorted

I was going to be cynical. I had been trying for 48 hours to find the last remaining eclipse glasses on the island, going into pharmacy after pharmacy and saying ‘tienes gafas para el eclipse?’ in my terrible accent. We went to San Antonio. Not my favourite place, Witnessed my first fist fight EVER on this island. (Even in the 90s no part of Ibiza was Magaluf.) Listened to some naff music. The sun was covered with cloud for a while. The crowd was 80 percent North European embarrassing themselves to the locals. But then it happened. The sun disappeared behind the moon. And then became a circle of light and the air became a kind of green blue gold I have never seen. And then the light burst through the other side to remind us that, through it all, there is always the sun and we love it. And it was emotional. And beer boys wiped their eyes. And for a few seconds the world held a fragile magic. I briefly remembered a Victor Hugo quote but it has gone again. Anyway. Hope you had a good one.

They are pathetic little men trying to bury their feelings and address their own wounds by turning humanity into a calculable information market they can control. It is now revolutionary to FEEL