David Lammy is currently in Canada for a two-day G7 summit at the river resort of La Malbaie. He has so far had a meeting with Canada’s foreign affairs minister and has eight sessions in total to attend and will also be doing media today including a podcast interview. He’s been training up for it…
A freedom of information request from Guido has revealed that the Foreign Office has ramped up its ministerial media training – at the taxpayer’s expense. In December Labour said in a written answer that £1,848 had been spent on media training for “junior ministers” like stilted performer Hamish Falconer. The FCDO specifies that figure has risen in the subsequent three months to £4,948 on “media training for Ministers.” No reference to junior there – has Lammy had a few sessions with Leonie Mellinger?
That’s about £1,000 a month since Christmas on media training. This Lammy podcast interview better be good…
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.”