A couple of thoughts from somewhere other than Manchester - on what matters and mental illness

I'm sat in the Earl of Doncaster Hotel (a fine art deco building in Donny) and have decided - nothing better to do you see - to post a couple of comments about politics that aren't informed by the hothouse of a party conference.

The first thought relates to the point at which the rather occult discussions around politics that we all know and love actually impinge on the public consciousness. As conceited politicians, wannabe politicians, hangers-on and anoraks we tend to assume that everyone out there takes the same degree of interest in politics and - more importantly - sees the same things as important. I'm pretty sure this isn't true - ordinary folk care not one jot about the niceties of governance, the endless titttle-tattle of political gossip or the semantic deconstruction of the party leader's speech. Such people - and that's most out there - see the party conferences as needless posing rather than as serving any useful purpose. But they also get a feel for politics from the coverage - not the content but the body language, the questions asked of political leaders and the confidence with which the leaders present their great thoughts.

What we see, hear and feel about the conferences is far more important than the content of speeches, the decisions made or the who's up and who's down gossip.

The second thought more significant. Yet again we have seen the manner in which, as a society, we stigmatise mental illness. I don't like Gordon Brown, he's a self-important, bullying and rather nasty man. But if he has a mental illness and is taking medication to manage that illness he is no different to other politicians - or indeed anyone else - taking pills to control a heart condition, an over-active thyroid or chronic arthritis. Yet we act as if Gordon being a little depressed is a big deal. It's not so long as he faces up to it and gets treatment. But of course we're assured he isn't ill and doesn't need pills.

Is it not time to start changing how we view mental illness - to address the discrimination against the mentally ill in the same way we have done for women, gays and the disabled?