Matt Hancock is being done up like a Kipper!

[JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil]

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.

@WeAreTheHeroes

He re-writing history to suit his own narrative, the one where he is a good guy trying to do his best and everyone else is incompetent and doesn't care. I know some will say they are incompetent and don't care!

I listened to him and he actually said he and the govt, officials, civil servants let the country down and failed us all.

There was no re writing of history because we know they fucked up PPE (half of the emergency supplies out of date) Excercise Cygnus was ignored, Care homes, the lockdown, both in March 2020 and winter '20.
We saw Hancock pretend to cry on TV and we know Carrie and Boris munched their way through 38k of organic take-aways and wine (in 7 months)
We know what these people are like but still vote for them.

However, 1/2 the country supports the tories, that won't change, any inquiry (if there is one) will report long after the next GE, so its all one long pointless whitewash.

Cummings trip to Barnard Castle is a weird one, isn't there a new vaccine plant to be built there?

The more I think about this, the more I think Cummings thinks he was single-handedly responsible for the Brexit vote and Boris's election success and feels he wasn't treated/rewarded appropriately for this - he feels under-appreciated. Having fallen out with Boris with seemingly nowhere for his political career to go, this is his attempt to raise his profile, etc.

Matt Hancock's turn today.......I wonder what tone he'll adopt?

jasjas1973 - he is re-writing history because he never spoke up at the time and was happy enough to continue in his role through everything. It's only now after he's fallen out with Boris and been given the boot that he's acting as though he's the only honest person close to the govt to admit the failings. And he's still bloody lying about Barnard Castle.

@OrchestraOfWankery

Matt Hancock's turn today.......I wonder what tone he'll adopt?

Hopefully a better one than in his doorstep interview with the Beeb yesterday when he said he'd been working saving lives.

Cummings was central to the whole government stance and machinery. He’s just out to create as much FUD as he can because he got summarily thrown out on his ear. He was also universally despised by just about everybody.

Such a public display of disloyalty and bile will make him pretty much unemployable.

He’ll be remembered for Barnard Castle ( changing his story again just reiterates his duplicity ) and the dress sense of a Sunday morning hangover. The very essence of a grubby Malcolm Tucker.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

Everyone knew he would be out of his depth when he got that job. But he over estimated his abilities ,was so keen to please and smarm up to Johnson and Cummings. Plus he is a former Remainer.

The perfect patsy.

Yep. This.

He’s just out to create as much FUD as he can because he got summarily thrown out on his ear. He was also universally despised by just about everybody

The problem for the government is, however, that much of what he said yesterday is backed up by others. Also they stoutly defended his truthfulness when he was in office. They can't have it both ways.

Loved a quip on Twitter yesterday saying he’s been saving lives the same was as Jeff Bezos was delivering parcels.

@Lightswitchesoffatnight

What is Cummings up to? He’s made himself unemployable now, who would offer a snake like that a job?

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 seems to forget he was part of the team swell when all this happened

To be fair, that's one thing you can't accuse him off. The whole session was predicated on the fact that he was central to that team.

I think Matt Hancock will come out fighting. All those who thought Dom Cummings was a great dad last year will call him a liar and they will circle the wagons. This government is like Teflon...nothing sticks!

The more I think about this, the more I think Cummings thinks he was single-handedly responsible for the Brexit vote and Boris's election success

Would either have happened without his input ?

Who knows - but it's not all down to him. He had to sell his ideas to others and have everyone on board.

@Tavannach

*Remember the very lovely photo op of DC with his little box of belongings after leaving No.10?*

A nice example of the pitiful photo ops Johnson encourages.
I remember reading at the time that Cummings didn’t have an office at no. 10. His office was elsewhere. So whose stuff was Dom nicking?
It just doesn’t work - the narrative behind this man who was sacked a month before he was due to leave is too contrived.

Maybe the box was full of the evidence he's going to use against Johnson?

Seriously, for all people are saying he's a liar, why should we believe him, I'm quite sure he was bright enough to make sure the squirrelled away the incriminating texts, emails, messages etc. Johnson is too lazy to cover his tracks properly.

@WeAreTheHeroes

jasjas1973 - he is re-writing history because he never spoke up at the time and was happy enough to continue in his role through everything. It's only now after he's fallen out with Boris and been given the boot that he's acting as though he's the only honest person close to the govt to admit the failings. And he's still bloody lying about Barnard Castle.

Of course he should have spoken up at the time, though he says he tried to put the structures in place to control Johnson.

To me, he seems to be exposing incompetence at the highest level, what his motives are don't matter, its whether he is telling the truth and so far, too much rings true.

BUT i don't think this will dent Johnsons popularity, if you don't support the Cons, this just reinforces your views, if you re a tory, DC is lying & re writing history.

Prof of social psychology from St Andrews on BBC breakfast now says DC lied yesterday about lockdown evidence and decisions and there is plenty of documentation in the public domain to show it.

And 'very surprising' DC claimed not to understand how SAGE etc interacted. And notes DC was not under oath yesterday.

I don't pretend to know al the details but Hancock always seemed to me like a decent bloke doing an impossible job with a good level of compassion, if not always competence.

Re the PPE, I imagine2 a situation where I desperately needed some equipment for my work and a friend told me they could source it for me. Under the kind of pressure that existed at the time, I suspect I might have bitten their arm off without asking too many questions, assuming that as a friend the deal would be fair.

@EwwSprouts

Prof of social psychology from St Andrews on BBC breakfast now says DC lied yesterday about lockdown evidence and decisions and there is plenty of documentation in the public domain to show it.

Really? Ex SAGE members are saying that DC is on the money... what evidence? other than what govt has said.

The modelling done shows a LD a week earlier would have saved 10s of '000s of lives at that point in time and then there is (sorry to keep going back to this) the Care Homes scandal, what happened is undeniable, Hancock lied and thats backed up by CH's up and down the country and the relatives of those who died.

I don’t feel bad for Hancock at all, the lot of them are as bowler of shit and should be able to be booted out for gross incompetence, as would happen to any of us if we were so bad at our jobs

But hey this is what people voted for and will still vote for, a government who can’t even do the very basics of keeping its citizens alive. Inexplicable.

Re the PPE, I imagine2 a situation where I desperately needed some equipment for my work and a friend told me they could source it for me. Under the kind of pressure that existed at the time, I suspect I might have bitten their arm off without asking too many questions, assuming that as a friend the deal would be fair

Govt ran down the stocks of PPE by approx 50% despite a pandemic supposedly was the no1 threat facing the country.

No one in their right minds gives a contract for PPE to companies with zero experience of PPE, whilst at the same time, ignoring companies with proven track records, who then sell to EU instead.

Does Cummings have an axe to grind? Absolutely. Do I think he is 100% trustworthy? No.

However, I do think there is quite a lot of truth in some of the statements he made yesterday and if we discount it all as “disgruntled ex-employee” it plays into the politicians hands.

After all, when Hancock gives evidence he will also have his own agenda. Same stands for any minister up to and including the Prime Minister. Hancock will be trying to except his neck. Boris wants to be the next Churchill but lacks the necessary personal qualities and is no more honest and trustworthy than Cummings.

There are some serious questions to be answered about decisions made and actions taken by this government. It is clear that there was a significant delay between realising that the “herd immunity” idea was wrong and lockdown plans being put into place, for instance. Then there was the free for all (well if you are a friend or acquaintance of a minister government). It is clear that they were doling out million pounds worth of contracts to cronies, companies they and their families have invested in and in one reported case to the father of someone a minister met at a funeral and then recommended to supply PPE- many of which had zero experience in the field and much of what they supplied was usable. At the same time, companies with experience and ability to manufacture or procure PPE could not get a response to their offers, in part because they did not have the ear of a minister. It stinks to high heaven, IMHO.

I don’t think we should let a personal dislike of Cummings prevent us from looking at his evidence seriously- with a healthy degree of scepticism.

I’ll be very glad to see that snivelling weasel out on his arse. Everytime he claims he’s been “saving lives” I want a big ACME anvil to land on him.

jasjas I think Prof sat on one of the other groups that also advised? Said there were documents and minutes. He also agreed lots done that could have been done much better. He wasn't trying to defend Hancock particularly but he was pretty clear he thought DC was bare faced lying yesterday.