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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
KaptainKaveman · 27/05/2021 08:51

@70smillie

Cummings is a snake.

Come on Labour. Sort your bloody act out. This lot should be beatable by a bunch of blindfolded frogs.

100% this.

Come on Starmer, seize the fucking day...

MaxNormal · 27/05/2021 08:59

I think he's right that he's not that clever. However I also think he's lying about it because he genuinely believes that he is.

KaptainKaveman · 27/05/2021 08:59

There's an absolutely breathtaking moment in 'East of Eden' (one of the greatest books ever written IMO) where a serial liar - an incredibly convincing and committed deceiver - carefully chooses her moment to tell a single truth, knowing it will wreck lives forever. The DC performance yesterday puts me in mind of that scene.

RedcurrantPuff · 27/05/2021 08:59

@jacks11

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 agree entirely
CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/05/2021 09:12

@MaxNormal

I think he's right that he's not that clever. However I also think he's lying about it because he genuinely believes that he is.
He does come acros as quite a self deluded man. If we had lie detectors then he would pass, he probably believes everything he says, as it will all be a somewhat mangled version of the truth.

That's what real narcissists do!

@KaptainKaveman I could only wish that would be the case, But we all know he won't / can't!

HappydaysArehere · 27/05/2021 09:14

Didn’t he describe the government as “lions led by a donkey”. Also the disparaging reference to “the Prime Minister’s girlfriend” who appears to have a hell of a lot of influence in Downing Street. Just shows how Johnson’s mind works when he apparently was happy to retain Hancock simply because he could always sack him if things got rough. The fall guy is nicely in place. What does come out of listening to Cummings is the realisation is that no 10 is not a well oiled machine but something like a Tudor Royal Court.

FortVictoria · 27/05/2021 09:19

Angela Raynor on Sky News this morning referring to “needless lives lost”. Even our politicians can’t speak English :(

LillianGish · 27/05/2021 09:22

I just feel really sad for Britain, we really deserved better. Me too. I've been away for ten years and no longer recognise the place. I remember my last summer there living in London during the 2012 Olympics - hard to believe it is the same country.

GreyStep · 27/05/2021 09:25

They’re all liers.

There were court cases brought by doctors this week regarding their lying about PPE. Just fucking say “we don’t have enough PPE” at the start, not “you’re all fine take off your masks” when WHO are saying otherwise.

And BJ going into a ducking covid ward and shaking hands? When other countries were already in space suits? We were a fucking joke to the world

RedcurrantPuff · 27/05/2021 09:26

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

But do we deserve better? The majority voted for this, multiple times. As PP said it’s almost as if this government are a football team to many people and I say this as a centre voter swinging between Labour and Tory (and admit to voting for Blair and Cameron.)

This particular government are very strange. Maybe this is how failed states start out??

Exactly

If we deserve better, then vote for it. People get the government they vote for.

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 27/05/2021 09:36

Hancock's role has always to be a human shield for Boris. The only question has been when he would be sacrificed.

I think Boris will want to hang onto him for a bit longer, if he can, so that he can be sacrificed at the moment of maximum public outrage. I'm not sure the public care about Cummings.

TracyBeakerSoYeah · 27/05/2021 09:37

If I remember correctly there was a Sunday Times Article last year that claimed Dominic Cummings allegedly was all for herd immunity & argued that its wasn't worth ruining the economy with a lockdown so let the old people die.
Then changed his mind when he realised how catastrophic that would be.

No 10 refuted that Dominic Cummings had said this & that herd immunity had never been a government strategy.

DC, The Government & the wee donkey all as bad as each other

jasjas1973 · 27/05/2021 09:45

@EwwSprouts

As i said earlier, if you support the Tories, Cummings is a two face lying scumbag.
If you don't, cummings is telling the truth.

But the evidence is there for all to see : Our appalling death rate, 5m on NHS waiting lists, low (by eu standards) hospital survival rates and Care Homes.

Vaccine rollout will save the Tories though and in 30 years time, cabinet papers will be released and no one will care, if they even do now.

FourTeaFallOut · 27/05/2021 09:50

If only we had a minister for social care who was charged with overseeing care homes in this shit show who could have asked some questions and waved a fucking red flag while these Machiavellian idiots left them to rot while simply covering their arses...hey, Helen Whately????

Where the fuck are you in this shit show??

Flimgalos · 27/05/2021 09:59

No idea what is really going on but Cummings is a sly little shit.
If he had any integrity at all he would have resigned and revealed at the time of these accusations.
I wouldn’t trust him to water my house plants.

Bluethrough · 27/05/2021 09:59

@FourTeaFallOut

If only we had a minister for social care who was charged with overseeing care homes in this shit show who could have asked some questions and waved a fucking red flag while these Machiavellian idiots left them to rot while simply covering their arses...hey, Helen Whately????

Where the fuck are you in this shit show??

The Care homes scandal was quite literally murder, deliberately seeding a known deadly infection into places where there was none, just so the NHS doesn't look like its "overwhelmed"

Then lying and saying "we put a protective arm around carehomes" WTF!!!!

Bluethrough · 27/05/2021 10:01

@Flimgalos

No idea what is really going on but Cummings is a sly little shit. If he had any integrity at all he would have resigned and revealed at the time of these accusations. I wouldn’t trust him to water my house plants.
thats silly, if he had resigned, he'd not be able to tell us what went on, as he wouldn't have been there......

He is an advisor, not a minister, he doesn't make policy.

Helendee · 27/05/2021 10:06

@Bluethrough

Whether or not he resigned he could and should have whistle blown. By remaining silent he is as guilty as the rest of them (allegedly).

lottiegarbanzo · 27/05/2021 10:07

Haven't read the whole thread but what I find fascinating is that accusing BJ of prevarication and incompetence is water off a duck's back, to the extent that this testimony appears as a deliberate tactic to strengthen his grip on power.

Helendee · 27/05/2021 10:09

Who would want to be a politician? Every day would feel like the Ides of March.

SirVixofVixHall · 27/05/2021 10:17

Where are the decent politicians ?
It is all so depressing. When the choice was Boris or Jeremy I spoiled my vote.

Bluethrough · 27/05/2021 10:21

[quote Helendee]@Bluethrough

Whether or not he resigned he could and should have whistle blown. By remaining silent he is as guilty as the rest of them (allegedly).[/quote]
But he did resign and he has whistle blown.?
At the height of the pandemic, he would have been accused of dragging the government down, at the very time we all needed topull together.

His problem is he is seen as a liar because of Barnard castle and by remainers as the architect of Brexit.

As i said he is an advisor, don't see him as guilty as the rest of them, he isn't elected.

pommedeterre · 27/05/2021 10:29

When DC talked about a system that asks the electorate to choose between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn being a broken system he was absolutely right. What kind of choice was that going into (f**king) Brexit and then a pandemic?

The lack of credible opposition is hugely responsible for the shit show in power now. Labour needs a complete reboot and really soon. At the moment it just looks like we're stuck with these chumps in power for as far ahead as the mind can go.

Helendee · 27/05/2021 10:32

@Bluethrough

We will have to agree to disagree.

LillianGish · 27/05/2021 10:52

and by remainers as the architect of Brexit The true effects of Brexit are currently being pretty well screened by the Covid debacle. Covid is proving a convenient smokescreen and you could even argue that the s*show described by Cummings was a deliberate policy at some level to keep that smokescreen in place. Led by donkeys was an interesting metaphor for Cummings to choose since it's also the name of a fairly prominent Ant-Brexit campaign group.