James Cleverly tells Times Radio he is wary of Labour overreach on freedom of speech…
I am cautious, no, I am uncomfortable with some of the calls that I’ve heard more recently, and some of the examples that I’ve seen where people would fear that debate, legitimate debate, and disagreement becomes policed, and that we have some kind of social censorship by the backdoor. Now, I said in response to the terrible incidents in Southport at the start of last week, that we all have a personal duty to think carefully before we disseminate information that we read online. And when I met the social media companies, both on the west coast of America and in New York, I made the point that they also have a duty to make sure that as far as possible, what we see online is truthful. But we also have to be very, very careful that we don’t turn into an oppressive police state. The Labour Party has a long tradition of overreach in terms of freedom of speech and civil liberties and I don’t want to see that happening again.
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.”