Olly Robbins has just now been confirmed as new Permanent Under-Secretary at the FCDO. The Sue Gray ally missed out on the prized CabSec gig…
The arch-remainer will replace Philip Barton who is stepping down. Lammy says Robbins is “exactly the person” to help him “rewire the FCDO to act as the international delivery arm of this government’s missions.” Will the Cabinet Office EU surrender unit, made up in large part of FCDO officials, soon fall into his control? Co-conspirators will remember Robbins’ May-era Brexit shenanigans well, including completely trashing May’s public line on no-deal. Did he ever get that Belgian citizenship off Guy Verhofstadt then?
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.”