It’s fair to say that Nick Clegg in particular, and the Lib Dems in general, have not spent the years of the current coalition government ingratiating themselves to many in the UK.

And while his pledge to set down national waiting time standards for patients with mental health conditions may not be enough to return him to the crest of the wave of popularity he rode in the build up to the 2010 General Election, it seems a pretty sensible policy to put forward. In fact, it seems like a policy that should have been put into effect by all the parties a long time ago.

As a newspaper we frequently report on the tragic proceedings heard at coroner’s court – and all too often mental health problems of one sort or another lead to the worst case scenario of suicide. Of course it is always open to debate how preventable some of these cases are – sometimes people spend a long time spiralling to the point where they take such extreme action, while at others it happens with alarming speed.

And how many of these cases could have been prevented by timelier intervention from the health services is, of course, completely open to debate and probably unknowable in many cases. But surely it is not unreasonable to suggest that for some of these people, faster treatment or therapy could have made a difference.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, says that currently one in ten people have to wait more than a year to access talking therapy – which seems ridiculous given that the time is surely of the essence in all too many cases.

Many conditions – such as aneroxia or self harming, for instance, will lead sufferers to require physical treatment anyway. So why shouldn’t the root problems be treated in more equitable terms and timeframes as physical health problems? Prevention is famously better than cure, and the earlier any ailment can be diagnosed and treated, the better for everyone in the long run.

Certainly for families left wondering what, if anything, they could have done to help loved ones who may have been lost to them.

A ticking time bomb is a ticking time bomb, after all – whether a heart problem or acute depression.

And this is far from a new phenomenon. A century ago people didn’t understand what shellshock truly was – now few would suggest that post traumatic stress disorder suffered by war veterans (and, of course, many other people) is not a perfectly valid ailment that needed treatment.

The stigma surrounding mental health may be fading, but there is still some way to go. The best way of removing it is, as with stigmas generally, by dragging the problem out of the shadows as fully as possible – and surely giving it a national spotlight like this is a good way to start.

Of course, at the moment this is a Lib Dem policy which Nick Clegg has pledged will be front and centre of the party’s next manifesto – and things are not necessarily looking too good for them at the next General Election. But surely, party politics aside, this is a cause that is well worth taking up by all sides.