Starmer’s charm offensive to Reform voters hasn’t panned out too well. YouGov has just dropped a poll showing that only 4% of 2024 Reform voters are likely to consider voting for Labour. Despite 56% of Reform voters recognising Labour is trying to appeal to them, 79% say they would never vote for Labour. That’s up from 50% in July….
Nearly half of Britons (48%) say Labour is courting Reform voters, compared to 29% who think that they aren’t trying. Starmer may be treating Reform as the ‘real opposition’ and attempting to woo its voters with talk of an ‘island of strangers’. Though that’s clearly not landing with Reform backers…
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.”
