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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Dido Harding - should she be given greater responsibilities?

121 replies

Mumratheevergiving · 17/08/2020 21:19

So the Government are busy blaming Public Health England and Ofqual for the recent disastrous handling of health and education (despite these being agencies they created, instructed and oversee!) They are now ditching PHE and have given the job of heading up the replacement agency ‘National Institute for Health Protection’ to Dido Harding the conservative peer who is currently heading up the utter shambles that is our track and trace system

So:
YABU Dido Harding is the right person for the job, we’re in safe hands with her at the helm

YANBU Dido Harding’s appointment is political cronyism and her track record is not good enough

OP posts:
ancientgran · 19/08/2020 16:07

I ask people to do these important, big jobs who I think are best qualified to do it. That would be fine if we thought Matt Hancock was capable of making a reasonable decision about who might be best qualified to do it.

RaspberryRuff · 19/08/2020 16:10

I knew nothing about her and hadn’t even heard of her until track and test. I assumed she had some sort of health background. Horrifying that she doesn’t

DGRossetti · 19/08/2020 16:12

You know what really hurts ?

I've just had to spend 3 hours completing an application, personality test and aptitude test for a role with 0% of the responsibility and probably 10% of the salary that Dear Old Dido has managed to trouser for 0% of that effort.

I really feel for parents of children who are trying to square "work hard, and get good grades and you'll do well" with what they've seen and experienced these past few days. I wouldn't like to explain it. Certainly not without the words "fucking" and "shitshow" featuring a lot.

latticechaos · 19/08/2020 16:19

@RaspberryRuff

I knew nothing about her and hadn’t even heard of her until track and test. I assumed she had some sort of health background. Horrifying that she doesn’t
I think it sounds like you're a bit hung up on people knowing about health.

IMO a former jockey will have valuable insights and new ideas to offer.

napmeistergeneral · 19/08/2020 16:24

DGRossetti yes I think that is what infuriates so many people. In contrast to ordinary people who have to go through all sorts to get quite ordinary jobs, there seems to be no process here other than "oh Matt thinks she'll be quite good at it". Remember, Cameron wanted to be PM because he thought he'd be "quite good at it" and look at where that hubris has led us to.

And if it's true that she's not being paid then honestly I think that's worse. This is a serious job in a serious time - who cares that it's interim, she's presiding over a crucial stage during a delicate time and we need someone who can be held to account. What is she? A volunteer? Does that mean that if she fucks up (agian) she can just flit off with a "byeee it wasn't really a job anyway!".

Unelected, unqualified mates of mates like Cummings and Dido need to be properly accountable to us, the public, whose collcetive health you're dicking about with. I'd like to see that start with some transparency about how they are going to recruit the permanent head of this new body.

Clavinova · 19/08/2020 16:40

Mumratheevergiving
Or perhaps these suppliers that were issued contracts for PPE by OUR Gov:

Just reading the correspondence regarding PestFix in the Good Law Project link;

3rd July: We received a response from Osborne Clark, who are instructed on behalf of PestFix:

"Our client considers that the claim has been brought on the basis of multiple factual misapprehensions on the part of your clients and is in any event wholly without merit."

"Our client’s position is that of an established and respected company that has stepped up to assist DHSC and the National Health Service at a time of unprecedented global crisis."...

Background
"Our client has supplied a broad range of products to more than fifteen NHS Trusts over the last eleven years. (As noted at paragraph 21 of the DHSC Response, some NHS Trusts choose to source PPE themselves rather than work through SSCL.) On every occasion, the products supplied by our client have met the rigorous safety standards required of them: our client is thus an established and reliable source of supplies to the NHS. In the introductory paragraphs to the PAP Letter, you have suggested that our client has never supplied products to be used by the NHS.This is simply untrue–it is an assertion by your clients based on wrong assumptions" ...

"Our client is highly experienced in sourcing PPE and is well placed to ensure that the PPE it purchases and supplies is specified correctly for the required use"...

"The products supplied by our clients for the protection of users of airborne chemicals are of extremely high quality, and subject to numerous rigorous safety standards and routine checks"...

"In mid to late March 2020...our client was contacted by multiple public bodies, including NHS trusts, with requests for the supply of PPE."

^"During March 2020, being mindful of the potential crisis in PPE supply facing the NHS and wanting to use its experience and contacts to help, our client’s directors began intensive efforts
for building a supply-chain which would be able to procure large quantities of medical-grade PPE from China. In building that supply chain, our client drew upon its Company Director’s established business network in the Far East. Our client also drew upon the Company Director’s personal contacts, including his wife (a veterinary surgeon) and her extended family who are based in China. In circumstances where the difficulties with air travel made it difficult for make visits to China, these family members were able to visit and negotiate directly with factories producing compliant products, in order to secure production space that might fulfil the requirements for PPE supplies including for use in health and social care settings."^

"The rapid establishment of our client’s PPE-focussed supply chain in China was built upon–and was possible only by reason of–the company's experience in sourcing high quality products from factories in China for supply in the UK since 2011"...

^"Your clients appear also to have no concern with respect to the damage being caused to our client's reputation as a result of the ongoing social media campaign being waged on the basis of inaccuracies, for generating ‘crowdfunded’ donations to fund the litigation.The true object of the campaign and the litigation appears to be political, namely to level criticisms at the current government.
The harm to our client’s reputation is simply ‘collateral damage’.This is very unfair to our client, especially in light of its having stepped up to help the NHS at a critical time"^ ...

"For all these reasons, the claim that your clients have issued is factually and legally baseless"...

RaspberryRuff · 19/08/2020 16:50

Sorry @latticechaos. My bad

DGRossetti · 19/08/2020 16:58

DGRossetti yes I think that is what infuriates so many people. In contrast to ordinary people who have to go through all sorts to get quite ordinary jobs, there seems to be no process here other than "oh Matt thinks she'll be quite good at it". Remember, Cameron wanted to be PM because he thought he'd be "quite good at it" and look at where that hubris has led us to.

Even my first job - where the worst that could happen was a dud CD being burned - paid more than a nurse got. Despite the fact a nurse is responsible for peoples lives.

If we paid people for the real responsibility they had, then a lot of directors would get fuck all, and nurses, policemen, firemen, paramedics, lifeguards (...) would be on the megabucks.

Eve · 19/08/2020 17:59

At University with David Cameron apparently.

BBC not impressed either:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53824374

'But since entering public service, some suggest she has benefited from a web of professional, educational, social and marital connections that have reignited claims of cronyism at the top of the Conservative Party'

DGRossetti · 19/08/2020 18:01

At University with David Cameron apparently.

So there is a very real possibility that she got the gig by blackmail of some description, since it's universally accepted (less one) that she in now way got it through competence.

evensong11 · 19/08/2020 18:16

Her lack of knowledge of a basic bit of detail and a fundamental one when at TalkTalk is enough to disqualify her alone.

I'd prefer a health body to be headed by a health professional.

DGRossetti · 19/08/2020 18:17

@evensong11

Her lack of knowledge of a basic bit of detail and a fundamental one when at TalkTalk is enough to disqualify her alone.

I'd prefer a health body to be headed by a health professional.

A homicidal maniac with an axe could probably do better.
latticechaos · 19/08/2020 19:51

@evensong11

Her lack of knowledge of a basic bit of detail and a fundamental one when at TalkTalk is enough to disqualify her alone.

I'd prefer a health body to be headed by a health professional.

I almost can't bear to think about it. It is just dreadful.

I don't want to sound all hyperbolic but I feel like there'll be nothing left standing by the time the 2024 election comes around.

CherryPavlova · 19/08/2020 20:05

As bad is the fact that lots of PHE employees found out by reading the national press that their jobs were going. Scandalous.

StealthPolarBear · 19/08/2020 20:14

The bar majority. But the good news is it doesn't seem like jobs are going, lots of shuffling. Work needs doing.

StealthPolarBear · 19/08/2020 20:16

But I agree it was presented as if everyone would be out of a job at end of week.

StealthPolarBear · 19/08/2020 20:16

Vast majority not bar!

HeronLanyon · 19/08/2020 20:17

No
YANBU
Really unhappy about this.

Newjez · 19/08/2020 20:22

In my last company a project team blew 30 million building a website that didn't work.

So they gave them a second chance and they blew 100 million on an application that didn't work.

So, they stopped giving them chances.

How many times can you fail?

Newjez · 19/08/2020 20:23

Oh, and who are the 2% voting for?

Dildo and her mum?

DGRossetti · 19/08/2020 20:50

In my last company a project team blew 30 million building a website that didn't work.

I really cannot begin to imagine any website costing that much. What was it supposed to do ?

Mind you Birmingham (my council) spunked £2 million on it's proprietary website which is basically a crap CMS. I could have delivered twice the functionality with any number of FOSS packages.

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