It’s interesting - if you keep up with Big Brother you may be aware by now that one of the housemates, Shahbaz Chaudhry, has left the house amid a mental-health kerfuffle.

It was quite clear during the first few days of the programme that he was not strong enough to survive the highly stressful environment he would encounter.

Now the Mental Health Foundation are complaining that he was ever let in. Full story here.

I believe there have been three complaints so far - Shahbaz with his unstable state, Pete with his Tourettes syndrome and a less-substantiated one regarding Nikki and anorexia.

I think these foundations are basically good for looking out for the vulnerable and supporting their interests - however it should be noted that each one of the contestants has put themselves forward for the show, and are free to leave at any time.

There is an element of consent - the contestant has consented to enter the house and have some of their rights taken out of their control. There is an escape - they just say the word and they can leave. On top of that, the housemates are vetted by psychologists before they go in to hopefully ensure they will cope with the situations which will arise.

This is actually quite a lot more welfare care than the harsh world outside will normally afford them, and I think that the producers should not be seen to have failed if they let an unstable person in the house - more that their safeguards, which they don’t have to provide, were not quite as good as they could have been, or were circumvented.

Consider white-water rafting. Sure, you can wear a hard hat and a life jacket, but you’re still throwing yourself down a dangerous river full of rocks in a glorified inner-tube. The individual must accept some responsibility for their actions and decisions.

Oh… and I think Pete is great. A really positive character and he has to be doing good for Tourettes sufferers everwhere. I often hear people express that Tourettes isn’t real, and is just a good excuse to swear. Well, I challenge you to watch him for an hour or two, seeing the amount of energy he expends on his problem, and then say that he’s making it up. It’s quite clear he doesn’t want to be ticking all the time, but fortunately has come to terms with it sufficiently to function in the real (or fake) world.