THE hardest thing for me was explaining it to my young daughter. The person who had jumped on the tracks at my railway station, which some trains pass at high speed, must have been in a state of angst beyond anything that I’ve experienced. Suicide is harrowing not only for the family, but also for those who were at the scene. As passers-by, my daughter and I were affected too.
The normally quiet road outside the station was filled with emergency vehicles: four fire engines, several police cars, and then a private ambulance arrived, presumably to take away the body. One man, perhaps a witness on the platform, was in tears, comforted by a policewoman.
That’s the third suicide at or near my station in the last few weeks. This way out is traumatising to the train driver, and results in the line being closed for two or three hours.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the suicide rate in 2024 rose slightly from the previous year to 11.4 per 100,000 (17.6 male, 5.7 female). However, there has been a sharp rise in ambulance callouts for suicidal people, according to the Samaritans, increasing by a fifth last year. I would not be surprised if the suicide rate has risen this year.
I know enough about mental health, having spent much of my career in the field, to be cautious in blaming any particular factor for suicide. Each person who kills himself or herself has his or her unique circumstances. Yet I can’t help perceiving this spate of local suicides as occurring in a broader cultural despair.
The government led by Sir Keir Starmer has made it clear that it does not care about ordinary British people and their concerns: the callously punitive reaction to the Southport protests last year, the censorship regime and police arresting people for merely posting an opinion online, extortionate taxes and withdrawal of benefits, flooding the country with migrants and spending taxpayers’ money on causes that defy common sense.
Walking around town, I sense a pervasive gloom about the present and future. We strive to keep our heads above water, to feed our families and give our children a positive start in life. But there are dark forces at work, far above the instrumental level of Starmer and the preceding Tory administration.
People are made to feel that they don’t count. And some, seeing no light at the end of the tunnel in Starmer’s tyranny, are deciding to subtract themselves from the census.
This article appeared on Niall McCrae’s substack on October 9, 2025, and is republished by kind permission.
