Reform deputy says mental health is modern equivalent of ‘back pain’ – and disabled people are ‘swinging the lead’

It’s going to be deeply ironic(and tragic) if the voters disgruntled with Labour over the welfare cuts end up turning to Reform instead.

Spoken like someone who has never been afflicted by either.. People are so god damn ignorant

Richard Tice is a [tax dodging](https://goodlawproject.org/reform-mp-richard-tice-had-millions-squirrelled-away-in-a-tax-haven/) shitgibbon.

Maybe if he paid his fair share rather than hiding his millions offshore where HMRC is unable (and unwilling) to reach it, there wouldn’t be a need to slash welfare payments, and cut essential services like mental health and the NHS to the point where it doesn’t fucking exist anymore.

People taking up the disability hate chant always seem to be toxic individuals and I’ve yet to see a legitimate argument that isn’t founded upon assumptions and opinions, rather than being evidence or science lead. It’s like the covid deniers and antivaxxers have suddenly decided that disabled people don’t exist anymore and everyone has hopped onboard like crabs in a bucket.

Honestly, all of these stories surrounding mental health and/or disability and the comments that have been appearing have made me ashamed of this country and a good number of the people within it.

Holy shit, someone *literally* said this to me earlier? These Reformers are all getting their script from the same place.

Old ways are for old times and even older people.

I say we treat these individuals like they want to treat us.
Push them into slums, make up some rule so they don’t get a vote and blame them for the whole thing.

I’ve heard this analogy before. It seems to suggest that mental health, like back pain, can be understood as a condition people pretend to have. Or at the very least, could continue to work through. I don’t understand this analogy at all.

I’ve never had mental health problems. But I *have* been off sick with lower back pain. The idea that I was pretending, or that I could have worked when it was particularly acute is ridiculous. Some days I had to crawl from the bedroom to the toilet because I couldn’t walk.

I’ve undergone months of physio, and have to do regular stretches and strengthening exercise to keep it from happening again.

Is Reform proposing increased investment in mental health services, or physiotherapy? Or is he suggesting that people should be forced to work when they are in mental health crisis? Or that people with back injuries like mine should get back to work regardless of the very real physical pain they are experiencing?

I really really can’t wait for one of these reform candidates to knock on my door. It’s gonna be a glorious day.

Tell me you’ve never had back pain without saying that you have never had back pain!

I’m a pretty active guy. Run, do martial arts – but I had problems with my spine in my teens so it’s always been a bit weak. I can hit points where I can barely walk and it lasts for weeks. We’re talking waking up with major back spasms where I feel like my spine is going to snap like a dry twig. I’m lucky. It resolves and I can get back to normal life. That can take anywhere from 2 days to 2 months.

I cannot imagine having to just live with that in perpetuity. Dismissing it as just back pain is like dismissing depression as feeling a bit sad.

Fuck these fascist cunts.

Well they know their audience you have to give them that, pensioners primed for rage by decades of tabloid propaganda, without the education level to critically appraise information.

I hope this dude suffers from back pain and mental health issues someday. what a tool

Labours cuts are torture.

Reforms attitude would just be execution

I don’t want to agree with Reform, but it does worry me. I know the importance of mental health from my own family’s troubles with it. But equally I see people swinging the term around like a sword. And anyone can say “my mental health” and how do you prove or disprove it?

It’s sadly why mental health has always been second fiddle to physical health… as you can more easily see physical disability.

It’s a real difficult one. But Reform are divisive tossers, and they are not the ones to have this conversation.

He’s not right, but he’s not wrong either. But he’s right for the wrong reasons. 20 years ago there was a stigma about saying you had mental health issues, but today there isn’t. Maybe the problem isn’t what he things (people claiming when there’s nothing wrong) but the issue was that 20 years ago people said they had a bad back, because that was more understandable and relatable than saying they had a mental health problem (through either toxic masculinity or fear of being locked up)

We’re much more open as a society about our mental health struggles, this isn’t a bad thing, it’s okay to admin that your okay.

They do have a point. People- especially the young it seems – don’t have much resilience and expect any level of hardship to be too much and insurmountable. People on the whole need to toughen up and not expect life to be easy. Or fair. Severe mental illnesses do exist. But having a bit of anxiety isn’t it.

Saying this as someone with both anxiety and a bad back, but not using them as an excuse.

I’m surprised he could find time from his new local constituency in Dubai