Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus. Photograph: Keith Bernstein

There was a flurry of press coverage earlier this month when the young, gay, Catholic, rising star Labour leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell left office suffering from acute ’stress and exhaustion’.

It soon became known that he had earlier checked in briefly to a facility specialising in the treatment of drug and alcohol disorders.  And the politicking now continues in earnest to take a closer look at the decisions he took whilst in office.  Purcell himself is said to have left the country.

I was moved to write about these events in The Scotsman newspaper.  Not about the individual case, but about what it reveals of the culture of politics and the public sector.

Purcell’s fall for me is a reminder that, whatever else was going on in his life,  ’stress and exhaustion’ were entirely predictable symptoms for any person in his role today.  This was not only a story about an individual under pressure, but another sign of a rising trend. (more…)