No worries Dave. In England, they naturally never mentioned it at all, so your post was the first I heard of it.
What's your gun situation over there? Do all of your police carry them, or just a few? They're trying to give every cop here a taser now, because of the "war on terror". All that's gonna mean is more people get shocked when the police don't like their tone. Although they aren't as dangerous as guns, keep using them and people are gonna die. Stupid really, because what's a taser gonna do against a gun, anyway? I've got a feeling the cops are using it as an excuse to tool up because we've had a lot of protests about insane cutbacks lately. I think they're worried people are about to fight back against wage cuts, house price increases, hospital privatisations, etc. All while the rich get richer. In the age of the internet, it's getting harder to lie to people.
I've definitely noticed a no-shit approach from our police lately. Sadly that extends to the mentally ill too.
Ah, anyway, I hope you're doing fairly well yourself. I'm not doing too badly, but you know what they say. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and I'm wearing bacon underpants.
@ Gyspy: Ah, Abbott. We hear a lot about him! I hear he was on his last legs recently. Seems he's held onto his job... for now. We've got our own elections in May. That's gonna be interesting. The odds are predicting a conservative win, which is crazy seeing as they plan to cut everything to the actual bone: welfare, hospital services, community projects. Problem is, all of our social parties are just jokes. They're self-servers who just so happen to pat themselves on the back pretending they're do-gooders.
I do really feel for the people having their breakdowns now. Mine was 5 years ago, and I feel I caught the very last bit of functioning healthcare. All of the outpatient centres that helped me so very much have closed, and mental health funding in general has been sliced. The charities that helped me get back on my feet have gone under, and even getting a doctors appointment these days can take forever.
I don't know how the new people cope in such a horrible, vulnerable period in their lives. I can only see suicide rates and instances like this increasing really. Mental illness doesn't just go away, it progressively worsens. Sad.