Helping out again

Shaking the sand off our boots as we return home, we discover that Mitch Winehouse has once again decided that the best way to help his daughter is by keeping her name in the papers and dissecting her troubles once again in public. Today, it's The Sunday Times to whom Mitch grants an audience, offering a perspective on how far Blake's influence runs on his daughter:

“He didn’t coerce her to take drugs in any way. I wish he had. Because if he had she would most likely have said, ‘I don’t wanna do it.’” That said, Mitch does concede that his daughter’s recent compulsion to self-harm “is more to do with Blake. He explained to me that when they’re going into withdrawal, if they cut themselves, it takes away the pain”.

And constantly reading your father's latest weighing-up of your medical condition in the newspapers - what does that do, exactly? Mitch clearly thinks it's helping - or perhaps has run out of ways to help, and so is now just trying anything - but it's not. Does this sort of thing:

“Whatever happens, we won’t be where we are now in two years’ time,” Mitch observes, grimly.

... really help anyone with their recovery? Withdrawing cooperation from the papers wouldn't stop them running the pieces totally, but without more "Father gives it two years" style headlines, they might start to dry up a little.