At a swanky party in Mayfair last night celebrating Matthew Goodwin’s substack reaching 30,000 subscribers, the academic revealed his plan to launch a new political party. Is there anyone not intending to feast on the Tory corpse?
Goodwin said that when he gets 100,000 subscribers he’ll launch his party. He’s currently gaining subscribers at a rate of 2,000 per week – which times a launch nicely for after the general election. He says: “People are utterly sick of the big parties and desperately looking for an alternative. I want to allow the people, themselves, to provide that alternative.” Talk among guests was that Goodwin already has £15 million committed in funding – Guido notes that billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel was also in London last night…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”