Britain’s Mental Health Getting Worse? Society is Falling Apart!

The news should have grabbed our attention, but surprisingly, it was barely mentioned here. A recent map of mental wellbeing from the Global Mind Project shows that out of 71 countries, the UK and South Africa have the most people struggling with mental distress.

The UK also has the second worst overall mental health, just above Uzbekistan. Mental wellbeing in the UK has dropped more than in any other similar country. How did this not make headlines?

More importantly, why has this happened? The Global Mind Project blames smartphones and ultra-processed food. While these factors may play a role, they aren’t unique to the UK. I believe part of the reason is that life here is clearly getting worse.

There was a time when people in the UK believed in several promises: that economic growth would benefit everyone, everyone would have a good home, boring jobs would decrease, and work would become more interesting.

We expected greater economic security and more free time, better education for all social classes, constant improvements in healthcare & health, a cleaner & greener environment & better governance & democratic engagement.

We could have achieved all these things. A lot of money has flowed through this country. Science and technology have made great strides; health and labor-saving technologies have improved significantly; we know how to build good homes, treat sewage, and improve democracy.

Instead, almost everything has deteriorated (literally, in the case of our rivers). The five giant evils identified by William Beveridge in 1942, who helped design the welfare state, have returned with a vengeance.

He called them “want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness.” Today, these translate to poverty, poor health, lack of education, terrible housing, crumbling infrastructure, and bad jobs or unemployment.

As they come roaring back, these five evils have brought along new problems: environmental chaos, extreme political dysfunction, impunity for the powerful,    cruelty towards the powerless, and    state-sponsored culture wars    to distract us from the real issues.

There is a reason for these broken promises and dysfunctions, and it explains why the UK suffers more than similar nations. It’s called neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism is an ideology that views competition as our defining trait. It argues that our wellbeing is best achieved through economic choices rather than political ones. According to neoliberalism, the market, if left alone, will naturally decide who succeeds and who doesn’t.

Anything that hinders this “natural order” of winners and losers—like taxes, wealth redistribution, welfare, public housing, publicly funded services, regulations, trade unions, protests, and political power—should be gradually removed. This ideology has dominated life in the UK for 45 years, more so than in any similar nation.

Yet, it is rarely discussed or properly identified in public. When people on the left try to explain our situation, they often use terms like Thatcherism, austerity, laissez-faire economics, supply-side economics, neoclassical economics, or libertarianism.

These terms are either inadequate, misleading, or incorrect. Neoliberalism is a distinct ideology, named by its leading thinkers in 1938. Its development has been funded since the 1940s by some of the richest people on Earth.

They built its persuasive infrastructure so that, in the late 1970s, when Keynesianism faced challenges, neoliberalism could fill the ideological gap.

Neoliberalism is how capital solves its biggest problem—democracy. Unlike classical liberalism or laissez-faire, which existed before most adults could vote, neoliberalism uses state to enforce its unpopular policies consistently.

Neoliberalism’s greatest success is convincing us, as Margaret Thatcher said, “there is no alternative.” In reality, it is an alternative to the much better lives we could have had. In the book by filmmaker Peter Hutchison, “The Invisible Doctrine,” we aim to expose this ideology and its harmful impacts and show how it can be overthrown for a better world.

The peak of neoliberalism was Liz Truss’s 49-day meltdown, where she tried to fully implement neoliberal policies. However, this extreme case is just a part of what we’ve endured since 1979.

Labour softened some aspects but still accepted privatised public services, restricted protests, deregulated commerce, and let the financial sector engage in reckless schemes. They even expanded the private finance initiative, leading to crises in hospitals, schools, prisons, and other services.

Despite all the chaos it has caused, neoliberalism still dominates. Labour, under shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, remains committed to austerity and deregulation. Many in government believe neoliberalism hasn’t gone far enough. This is promoted by figures like Truss and Mark Littlewood through their “Popular Conservatism” group.

How have successive governments maintained this? By promising a better future. They say if we keep working harder, we’ll eventually have the public services, economic security, and leisure time we want. But this day never comes. Strong public services and economic security were never the goal; keeping us working harder for capital is.

Interestingly, when environmentalists suggest sacrifices today for future prosperity, the same government ministers claim voters won’t accept delayed gratification. This inconsistency reveals the deceit in UK governance.

So, they keep us waiting. The endless promises and constant disappointments wear us down. Given this, it’s no wonder we rank poorly in mental health.