Amusing article with serious point
Editor News editor An item in the KM really caught my attention this week - John Nurden describing his experience in the supermarket. It was very amusing and symptomatic of mental health in our nation today. These issues are afflicting every strata of society from top to bottom from the rich to the poor. The causes are easily identified: Stress, stress and more stress on the lives of adults and children. The bewildering complexity of this computerised, android-driven society and the dehumanising consequences outlined in John Nurden’s “Driving Me Crazy” were a great truth.
Consider some of these causes: Insurmountable debt driving people into the hands of the greedy, doorstep lenders and interest rates of £1,500 to £2,000 from widely advertised loans, the ever-present threat of intimidation and the bailiffs and single mothers struggling for survival.
Finally the pressure becomes unbearable and they crack.
These instabilities in society must affect our children, the breakdown of marriages and the support of the nuclear family. Given the pervasive effect of pornography, drugs, alcoholism, as well as internet bullying, self doubt about appearance and even sexual orientation endured by our ‘modern society’, no wonder they are depressed, anxious and suicidal.
Thank God we have so many wonderful people caring for our children. I fear we will need some dramatic changes in society to redress these situations. We cannot wind the clock back to more stable and innocent times. Michael Nash, Chart Sutton. Local Plan by the Conservative planning committee spokesperson is a welcome intervention (Letters KM November 2). His naive candour shines a light on where true blame lies for this depressing blueprint for urban sprawl and gridlock.
Conservatives ran Maidstone council between 2008 and 2014 when the ‘call for sites’ exercise was undertaken, which spawned a raft of controversial developments, such as those in Sutton Road and Hermitage Lane, and saw local landscape protection deleted or diluted.
By the time the Conservatives lost control, largely as a result of public anger at their development choices, the process had gone