panic attacks. Now, you would think a widespread and important challenge like this would be something we would all talk about. That it would be top of the political agenda. That every leading politician would be obliged to address to it. That we would be falling over each other, as we do, to prove that we had a solution. But that doesn't tend to happen. For far too long leading politicians from all parties, including my own, have maintained an almost complete silence about mental health. Only in emergencies and at the extreme end of conditions do we tend to talk about the issue. Now there will be some people who say that mental health is the kind of subject we can talk about in the good times, but not when the economy is such a priority. In my view, that is the opposite of the truth. Because mental health is an economic challenge holding back prosperity. Because however hard the economic challenges, we cannot forget about people's quality of life. And, finally, if we want a politics that talks directly to the challenges that British people face in their everyday lives, we cannot allow the silence to continue. Taboo And it's not just politics that is too silent. It is a taboo running across our society which infects both our culture and our politics. It is a taboo which not only blights the lives of millions but also puts severe strain on the funding of our NHS and threatens