Labour Party staff have pleaded for members not to speak to any journalists at an Ed Miliband event tonight. What could legions of party members do to derail the ‘real Prime Minister’s’ event?
The Energy Secretary will be the special guest at the launch of the Southwark Labour 2026 manifesto this evening at a venue in East Dulwich. Also in attendance will be council leader Sarah King and housing minister/Miliband ally Miatta Fahnbulleh, who is MP for Peckham…
An email from party organisers to attendees has warned Labour members off daring to speak to assembled hacks:
“You will be asked to show your Labour Party membership number and/or photo ID for security reasons. The press will be at the launch, but please do not talk to them. We will be taking photos and video of the whole event which will be used in political campaign materials – if you do not want to feature in the photos, please let [RECACTED] know and we will make arrangements. If you could arrive at 6.30pm and we will get our campaign off to a flying start.”
If approached by a journalist remember the three steps: stop, drop, and roll…
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.”