Are Liam Norton’s relatives concerned about his mental wellbeing? If not, they should be. Norton is a spokesman for Insulate Britain. He’s been a constant on UK radio and tv news in the last few weeks. He doesn’t look or sound well.
Of course, I’m not qualified to diagnose mental illness and I’m not in any way taking a cheap shot at Norton. I’ve had a good laugh at his (and his colleagues) expense on The Richie Allen Show lately, but I think someone should be looking out for him.
Every other day since the eco-campaign group Insulate Britain first blighted the lives of the nation’s motorists, Liam Norton has popped up on national media, each appearance more bizarre than the preceding one.
Insulate Britain wants the government to spend billions on a national home insulation programme so that homes won’t use as much energy in Winter. They say that if this doesn’t happen, the climate will breakdown leading to societal collapse and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
It’s so preposterous that even I can’t find the words to do it justice. But people like Liam Norton actually believe it. Either that, or he’s an excellent actor. I think he might be struggling with a sort of religious mania.
An old friend of mine lost his first wife to suicide. She suffered with something that was known as religious-mania. These days they call it hyperreligiosity. He told me how his wife was consumed by the idea that we (humans) were all terribly wicked and that the end of the world was imminent. She was frenzied and would verbally abuse random strangers and implore them to repent.
Liam Norton has been going on national television and radio and telling the presenters (and the viewers) that we are complicit in the destruction of the Earth. He says that we are playing a dangerous game and that history will remember those of us who didn’t act, as traitors. He means it.
His Extinction Rebellion pal Roger Hallam has suggested that journalists who don’t join his band of climate warriors, will probably hang. Here, I have to be blunt. I believe these people are ill. They should be sectioned and evaluated.
Sectioned, for anyone who doesn’t live in the UK, means that when a person is deemed to be suffering from mental illness, they can be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility to be assessed. It’s a legal process.
This isn’t going on my highlight reel. I take no pleasure in suggesting that someone is unwell and needs to be evaluated. I’m calling it as I see it.
There’s something else to consider. Children are listening to Liam Norton and Roger Hallam as they rant their apocalyptic prophesies on tv and radio. They are largely unchallenged by the interviewers. Talk Radio’s Julia Hartley-Brewer is a notable exception.
I don’t want children to hear the nonsensical ravings of men who seem to be suffering some form of hyperreligiosity. Children are terrified enough as it is.
“The injunction is just an attempt to use fear to intimidate us and it won’t work”.
Insulate Britain spokesperson Liam Norton tells @rachaelvenables their campaign will continue despite the risk of jail. pic.twitter.com/Jr6343Fno2
— LBC (@LBC) October 12, 2021