To think that Matt Hancock is not looking very well

[insomniasucks]

Just that really. It must be so hard being the Health Secretary during this difficult time. I feel so sorry for him.

Still the people have got what they voted for, so I hope anyone who voted Tory doesn’t have the audacity to complain.

They won't complain though, astonishingly they still think the Tories are doing a great job (see polling) I just don't know what they'd have to do before people stopped voting for them.

@NoMorePoliticsPlease

Pandemic planning and contingency planning etc are difficult jobs but jobs they must be and are. And these jobs fall to the government.
I along with many other people feel absolutely entitled to hold their appalling failures and mistakes to account when it has transpired they chose to ignore all the warnings and the predictions based on professional modelling and capacity / capability analysis. Ie Cygnus 2016. Instead of responding appropriately to this the government decided to continue with savage cuts to the NHS . Then they pissed about with wondering whether to listen to an anarchic lunatic like Cummings or actual experts esteemed leader carried on shaking hands and chuckling. then when the shit really hit the fan they were exposed to be what they really are. A bunch of chumps with links to hedge fund owned and managed care homes, with no procurement or robust commissioning strategies or strategies full stop. All this top show about conference centre hospitals is a disgrace. having to order what turns out to be substandard PPE from Turkey and even then it was late is a disgrace. I did laugh, though at Priti Patel’s proclamations that certain crimes during a national lockdown had abated.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. that doesn’t even drill down into the woeful lack of provision of equipment and equipment across community and acute and tertiary health settings as well as the abandonment of community testing preferring contract trading apps awarded to their mates businesses. It is utterly abysmal. It is - in my view - criminal.

This government are absolutely guilty of gross misconduct and furthermore do not meet the required standard of competence for any aspect of the jobs they are arrogant enough to still believe they can convince us they are doing.

Regardless of this thread, do you honestly believe that if anyone criticises a tory minister or a tory policy that they are left voters

Yes. You have to be a card carrying member of the Tory party, cut you and it bleeds blue, only then can you have an unbiased view of the Tories and be fit to comment.

Preparing for a pandemic is something our government should have been doing. We were overdue for one. It's their job to be prepared.

It is. And they chose to ignore the advice they were given (long before anyone had heard of Covid19).

I totally agree @stophuggingme. This is a disgrace.

@Peregrina, PR exercise or not, those hospitals still perfectly illustrate your point that things happen when there’s the will to do it.

When Matt Hancock goes, I hope he resigns rather than being sacked, and spills the beans on Johnson's insouciance.

I don’t. I hope he’s sacked.

Yes he looks unwell at times. He’s also an arrogant twat. Sadly the latter will not improve with time.

Congrats OP for the different approach. Light the touch paper and .......

I thought he was doing his best, pretty out of his depth but heart in the right place etc.
Then I saw his shocking behaviour in the commons.

I agree he looks unwell though.

Matt lost the prime minister to covid, then a baby, guess Boris still recovering, that is not an easy mantle to bear. Boris for all his charisma was known to be a hands off boss when mayor of London. So nothing has changed. He is not doing daily briefings just churchillian ones once a week. Maybe that is wise. Look at Trump struggling under daily briefings. There really is bugger all to say on a daily basis.

He's an idiot, and I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate my tone. 😂

I think he’s under unimaginable pressure.

I'm sure he is doing his best, the poor dear. Trying to slap down an actual A&E doctor in Parliament just shows how suited he is for the task.

Don't you think he looks tired?

Doctor Who to Harriet Jones

He looked like shit to start with, now he looks even worse. Can't stand the man.

Although he used she not he because The Doctor wouldn't have misgendered anybody.

I don't like him because he's a Tory
I don't like him because he lies (as do all politicians for balance)
I haven't listened to the interview so cannot comment.

But.... What I will say is that he is the only one (bar possibly Raab, who constantly looks like he's about to shit himself) that has actually shown any empathy/emotion during this whole episode.

Could it be he's just a slimy politician and putting on the waterworks? Possibly. I'd like to think not though 🤷‍♀️

Don't you think he looks tired?

Ha ha, yes!

He’s under immense pressure. He’s carrying a lot of weight on his shoulders. Mind you there are a lot of twats on mumsnet who will think he deserves hell because he’s an intolerant and uncaring Tory (whilst failing to recognise the irony).

When someone dared post a few weeks ago something similar about Boris a load of idiots were tripping over their own wokefulness to pile in to say he was faking it, only after sympathy, he deserved everything he got - a few days later he was fighting for his life in intensive care.

I wish people would recognise these people are undoubtedly doing their best, yes mistakes are being made all over the world, different countries have got lucky concerning their infrastructure, some countries are in better positions to ensure harsher lockdowns due to the historical structure of their legal system/police force. But everyone is trying their best based on advice. Trying to balance so many different needs.

With hindsight we should have concentrated on PPE rather than ventilators, but all the reports at the time spoke about concerns of running out of ventilators in Italy. He must feel like shit about this wrong call, but this is great with hindsight. Everything I see they have done reflected the issues that seemed to be arising out of Italy at that time, in many ways we have been lucky that we didn’t need all those things.

I wish people would recognise these people are undoubtedly doing their bes

I am sure they are.
Is their best good enough?
Are the right people in charge with the right skills?

Oh - and it's pretty obvious that they have done well to ramp up the testing but they haven't hit their target - and are they testing who they need to rather than testing anyone just so they can try and hit a target?

I don't think he's mediocre because he's a Tory. I think he's mediocre (as is the entire Cabinet) because he is mediocre.
Rishi Sunak is the only one who seems competent but I want to see how he handles the recession that's likely to come our way.

To be as fair a I can to him, it must be pretty annoying to watch Jeremy Hunt criticising from the sidelines when a lot of the pandemic planning should have been done while he was in charge.