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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Matt Hancock is being done up like a Kipper!

275 replies

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 26/05/2021 13:26

This (Cummings testimony) is starting to sound like a proper set up.

People were joking last year that Hancock would be made the fall guy for everything.

OP posts:
LillianGish · 27/05/2021 10:54

And Brexit is the reason Britain is led by donkeys.

HeddaGarbled · 27/05/2021 10:58

Come on Starmer, seize the fucking day

Politically, it’s probably more sensible to let this play out.

Bluethrough · 27/05/2021 11:00

@LillianGish

And Brexit is the reason Britain is led by donkeys.
Very true, the best the tory party had, Grieve, Stewart, Gauk Clarke, people with real world experience, have all gone, some aren't even tory party members.
picturesandpickles · 27/05/2021 11:07

@HeddaGarbled

Come on Starmer, seize the fucking day

Politically, it’s probably more sensible to let this play out.

I agree. The ranks of Tories in the commons right now, singing the praises of the government, should not be interrupted IMO.
Butteredtoast55 · 27/05/2021 11:12

This whole thing is like watching an episode of The Thick of It. Cummings's utter, shameless lying and spinning of deceit to save his own skin and throw others under the bus is almost farcical. I have no doubt that a lot of what he is saying has more truth than not, but playing down his own part in the decisions that were made like he is some kind of innocent stooge is rewriting reality to a spectacular degree.

Tanith · 27/05/2021 11:13

Dominic Cummings has been linked to the collapse of the USSR. I doubt he either wants or needs a UK political job or a seat in the Lords.
Why would he stick around here? He’s doing his best to trash the place for the disaster capitalists.

And yes, I do wonder what else is going on while he’s distracting the UK media with his “revelations”.

Lelliebellieboo · 27/05/2021 11:14

For me, the biggest problem with this government is that they are all career politicians, with no interest in running this country other than their own egos/greed/ambition. Johnson and Gove are prime examples of this.

Somebody once said on here, Johnson never the role of PM. He wanted TO BE prime minister. And he wanted to HAVE BEEN prime minister. He is just too lazy for the bit in between where he had to actually do the work. He wants the status of it, rather than the actual role itself.

I've met Hancock several times. My impression of him has always been "decent guy, deep as a puddle". He's clearly underqualified for the job that he is doing, but I do think at the deep heart of everything, he has genuinely cared and tried his best. In any other time, if there was no pandemic, I don't think he would have fared too badly as a health secretary. But unfortunately, it showed his limitations very quickly and that cannot be forgotten or ignored. He's not as callous as BJ, MG or DC and you could visibly see his relief over the last few months as the vaccine rolled out successfully. But he's way over his head and history will remember him for his fatal incompetence.

But it's genuinely concerning that there is still no decent opposition. I don't dislike Starmer, but he's spent the last year basically saying "I'm not JC". I don't actually know what he stands for, or what his policies are. And until he actually holds the government to account, he's proving to be useless.

I've been politically homeless for years. I live in a Tory constituency that has historically never been anything but. My last few votes have been to the green party, not because I wanted them in, but because I wanted the right to whinge about how shit the Tories are, and I felt I could only complain if I had actually voted.

We need a system where the people who are qualified for the job, get it. Not those who feel that they are entitled to be an MP just because of their social status (Rees-Mogg?!)

CheerfulBunny · 27/05/2021 11:19

@lelliebellieboo Very good summation. Interesting about Hancock.

TeacupDrama · 27/05/2021 11:57

The differences betwen what happened in UK as opposed to France Italy Spain or Belgium are not as wide as sometimes thought, and the differences between England, Wales and Scotland are even less

An enquiry can only judge on what was known at the time with the situation as it was, it is always easy to judge things with benefit of hindsight
The enquiry must also balance the cost of the other harms against covid, loss of life from missed cancer checks people not getting treatment or even to hospital quick enough to treat their heart attack or stroke, diseases that were reversable and now are not sue to late diagnosis, the lockdown decrease in life span and healthy life due to lockdown and poverty etc, mental health issues
It is not as straightforward as if we had had a giant pile of PPE if we shut down a week earlier if we tested more though these are all lines of enquiry
it is was legitimate to enquiry re rapidly acquiring ventilators, no one knew at tthe time that CPAP would be better
An enquiry too soon wothout all the information is as bad as leaving ti too late
The care home fiasco was worse in Scotland and Spain than England other things were marginally better
the whole group of them are liars and misapply statistics for their own benefits, SAGE figures were catastrohically wrong Niall Ferguson gets things wrong over and over and over again
in 10 years time it may be thought that lockdown ultimately did more harm than good we don't know yet

CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/05/2021 12:09

Jesus! The language! A fantasist and a liar!

How the hell do they expect us to believe a word ANY of them say?

If Hancock is that bad then so are all of them, as I can't believe any of the oh so clever, look I am just now telling you the truth sayers were ever clueless or not complicit.

If he is to be thrown under the bus I would like him to take them all with him. Sadly but suspect he has the vestiges of a nice guy remaining and will protest his innocence without resorting to Cummings levels of hyperbole.

tinytemper66 · 27/05/2021 12:10

It is ok ...all the Tory MPs licked his arse! Normal service has resumed and all criticism brushed away!

OrangePowder · 27/05/2021 12:22

I agree Starmer is a huge disappointment. On the face of it he really should be electable. Well presented, educated enough to be credible but from an "ordinary" background, speaks well. FGS give the man some policies, not as PP says, just not being Jeremy who the same lot gave us in the first place

Serpenta · 27/05/2021 12:34

But it's genuinely concerning that there is still no decent opposition. I don't dislike Starmer, but he's spent the last year basically saying "I'm not JC". I don't actually know what he stands for, or what his policies are. And until he actually holds the government to account, he's proving to be useless.

Agree completely. And as well as Starmer all the Labour MPs meek as church mice constantly apologising because so many (Tory) voters are still Corbyn fixated. Grow a spine, stop apologising, and stand for something!

the80sweregreat · 27/05/2021 12:35

The tories get rid of their terrible leaders ( they have done historically) The Labour Party keep them on.
It needs a shake up, badly!

Excitablemuch · 27/05/2021 13:01

But he has evidence of him speaking up- not publicly but in meetings about strategy. It does show he perhaps wasn’t as powerful as we thought he was!

newnortherner111 · 27/05/2021 13:04

@Lelliebellieboo I agree with you in a way. Have considered Matt Hancock to be a decent person overpromoted and out of his depth, as opposed to being a nasty human being such as Boris Johnson or Priti Patel.

newnortherner111 · 27/05/2021 13:08

@TeacupDrama impacts on other diseases and illness and on mental health would have been a lot less if there had been prompt action in March and again in September and December. As the periods of restrictions and postponements of medical treatments would have been less. I estimate at least a month less of 'tier 4' or equivalent restrictions.

Management and closure of borders to all but those moving freight and goods would have helped even more, and also I expect led to a greater adherence to restrictions and guidance.

Lelliebellieboo · 27/05/2021 13:13

[quote newnortherner111]@Lelliebellieboo I agree with you in a way. Have considered Matt Hancock to be a decent person overpromoted and out of his depth, as opposed to being a nasty human being such as Boris Johnson or Priti Patel.[/quote]
exactly. I see Hanocks shortfalls based upon incompetence, not malicious sociopathy. I don't think any health minister would have managed this situation well - he essentially inherited an archaic organisation that hasn't been fit for purpose for decades.

Priti Patel, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson are utterly vile through and through. No redeeming features in any of them.

Tavannach · 27/05/2021 13:20

He's probably got a best selling book or two ready to go. And his business investments are probably more than enough to finance him for the rest of his life.

He’s set up a new technology consultancy
He’s always had links to technology and artificial intelligence, sometimes pretty dubious ones.

Bluethrough · 27/05/2021 13:29

Anyone who doubts Cummings should have listened to R4's lunch time news, a woman whose job it is to procure/advise on PPE said that she told Govt in Dec 2019 to buy all the PPE they can get.. she was ignored, only in March did the Govt respond.
NHS workers were ringing her up in tears, with their own credit cards, begging to buy PPE

Care home owner, who lost 60% of residents, said no testing evening in the summer of 2020.

NAO said there was such demand PPE stocks were negliable but Hancock said NAO states there was never a national shortage but they never said that....

Hancock told us all he had achieved 100,000 tests done by end of April, in fact it was 82,000, the rest were tests sent out but not used.

Then look at how they handled the borders and the Indian variant? so even if you excuse earlier failings, they fucked this up too, inc not keeping red list passengers separate at Heathrow.

User135644 · 27/05/2021 13:37

That Sky News clip where he runs away is hilarious.

PixieDust28 · 27/05/2021 13:50

@TheBobJog

Matt Hancock this morning
Is he crying?
CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/05/2021 14:42

I came back to offload my thoughts, but @Lelliebellieboo beat me to it... everything she said (except for meeting MH) Smile

jasjas1973 · 27/05/2021 14:54

I see Hanocks shortfalls based upon incompetence, not malicious sociopathy. I don't think any health minister would have managed this situation well - he essentially inherited an archaic organisation that hasn't been fit for purpose for decades

I ve always been prepared to accept that in the early days of the pandemic, any govt would be out of their depth, so mistakes are made....
But then came the Autumn, rising rates, LD fiasco, Xmas, Schools, keeping the India UK border open.. even now!

So i think if Hancock and others, really were decent people, out of their depth, they'd step aside but they haven't so i think they are just power hungry sociopaths

CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/05/2021 15:04

i think they are just power hungry sociopaths To be fair, that is in the job description, as an Essential Quality these days!

Maybe we, the Great Unwashed, will start looking at out politicians and expect something different now...

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