The Churchill statue
Churchill Statue Backed
Updated: 10:39, Saturday March 11, 2006
A mental health charity has defended its decision to create a statue of Winston Churchill wearing a straitjacket.
The statue of Churchill, who suffered from depression, was unveiled in the centre of Norwich as part of a continuing campaign by the charity Rethink.
There has been widespread criticism of the statue, with Churchill's grandson, Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, telling The Sun: "It's not only insulting, it's pathetic.
"This is probably a good cause in search of publicity and they have let some idiot ruin their case. It is grossly offensive to Sir Winston and his millions of admirers."
A Rethink spokesman countered: "We believe that destroying the stigma that surrounds mental illness is a matter of national priority.
"We also believe that it is the joint responsibility of the media, Government and the public to achieve this aim, by portraying a more positive image of people with mental illness."
Rethink said Churchill was chosen because, despite depression, he was able to become Prime Minister and lead Britain to victory in the Second World War.
The charity said it wanted the statue to illustrate how discrimination surrounding depression and other mental illness acted like a straitjacket on sufferers.
Rethink said it had decided to focus its latest campaign on Norwich because there were more anti-depressant drugs prescribed in the city than anywhere else in central or eastern England.
Norwich also has a higher suicide rate than the national average and a higher rate of people self harming.
Rethink director of campaigns Paul Corry added:"We did not intend the statue to be offensive in any way.
"The message we want to portray is that it is possible to recover from mental illness and overcome it and be successful - because Churchill is an example of someone who was able to do that."
