"A sexist and macho culture"

[Tapasita]

Helen MacNamara, the UK's second-most senior civil servant tells the Covid inquiry a sexist and macho culture meant women's perspectives were being missed in advice and decision-making.

Covid inquiry: Not one day when Covid rules followed in No 10 - top civil servant - BBC News

Well there's a surprise. That's the first thing I thought when I read Dominic Cummings WhatsApp messages which were shown during the enquiry on BBC news; what a vile misogynist he must be to write those things. A group of extremely wealthy and privileged, egotistical men more engaged in playing power games with one another than taking the crisis at hand seriously. I struggle to understand why these types STILL get into the top positions all the time and who on earth votes them in? Even within their own party - what is going on there? I so want to see a culture shift in the way British politics is enacted and delivered, and yet.........it never bloody happens. It's always the same, men in suits, from prestigious backgrounds who end up behaving atrociously. They don't represent me, or my family. They don't give a shiny shit about the general public.

And what is going on with Dominic Cummings in general? He seems like such an unpleasant and untrustworthy character - I don't like the way he turned on the people he helped to place in power. I wish he'd crawl back under his rock and just stop with the venom. I've never really understood what he wanted/wants out of all this.

What a thoroughly unpleasant bunch of people all round - so pleased we had to put up with them during Covid.

They're an absolute shower of shit and I'll be glad to see the back of them.
We'll probably be given another shower of shit to replace them though.

The only thing that surprised me about those messages was that they weren't worse. The British men I work with are nearly all exactly the same, unfortunately. I find it so ugly that I'm considering moving back overseas.

Men like that get into positions of power because British people want them there. It beggars belief that a spoiled, entitled bully with a history of lying and a degree that's useless as far as running a country won such a large majority. But that's what British people like. It's as though there's a natural urge to put a useless rich, spoiled person at the top of the heap.

Also, the Tories have used the exact same strategy that has been a success for the Republicans in the US. They told Boomers that immigrants (not Boomers who retire with decades in front of them and complicated health conditions for the rest of us to pay for) are responsible for problems. They targeted gay people. Those culture war issues don't matter one jot to younger people like me who can't get decent housing and will never be able to afford to own. But to a spoiled Boomer who has it all, they're a reason to vote Tory/Republican.

The shocking state of the UK right now is a modern-day Aesop's fable. There will be older people stuck waiting hours in A&E or at home for an ambulance who chose austerity, thinking that everyone BUT them would miss out. They haven't cared at all as people like me have been unable to get signed up for NHS dental care (ever) and wait years for operations or even to get signed up by a GP (took me three years after I returned from overseas). I wonder how they feel now about voting for a man who said that Covid is nature's way of dealing with the elderly? People chose this.