Starmer’s Director of Strategy Paul Ovenden has resigned this afternoon after the Mail published details about sexually explicit emails concerning Diane Abbott. According to the Mail, Ovenden stood down today following the publication of the 2017 messages in which he recounted a story about “a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ involving Abbott”. He resigned to avoid becoming a “distraction“. A government source tells Guido:
“Paul was one of the most important architects of last year’s landslide election and Keir has relied on him heavily every day since. His loss to the project is monumental”.
Yet another massive resignation from the top…
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.”