Matt Hancock not only a donkey but sexist and deeply unpleasant

[Theduchessstill]

So following on from the thread last week about his ''donkiness/ineptitude' he gives us this appalling response to Dr Rosena Allin-Kahn today:

twitter.com/DrRosena/status/1257644583158251522

What a disgusting way to speak to someone who is actually working as a Dr in A & E during this crisis. Nasty, lacking in empathy, just wrong.Just when you think these people can't sink any lower they do just that.

It doesn't really get people on side when you adopt the how dare you speak out of turn, woman, stance, does it?

Yep. Awful. She spoke very calmly and the only ‘tone’ I could detect was one of frustration and sadness.
He was very flustered and did himself no favours there at all.

I don’t know if I’m missing something, but a (Oxbridge-educated, highly intelligent) friend of mine said they think it WAS an unpleasant tone.
I read the headline and was waiting for the unpleasantness, but I couldn’t see a single thing wrong with what she said.

Disgusting

He is an absolute dick head. Him and the rest of this fecking awful government. They will never admit they have fucked up this whole country. Highest death toll in Europe and Raab is trying to stumble through his excuses.

Utterly pathetic. And terrifying.

An organisation somewhere is missing a middle manager with questionable interpersonal skills.

a (Oxbridge-educated, highly intelligent) friend of mine said they think it WAS an unpleasant tone

In my experience lots of Oxbridge educated folks struggle a little with interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. See our government.

Agreed there was nothing even wrong with her tone. I mean, it would be a shitty response evn if she had shown a bit of anger/emotion imo, given the circumstances. but she sounded completely calm and professional to me. Although it's often criticised when MPs make a lot of noise, I think it would have been good had there been a full house and her party could have voiced their support for her. Like happened when David Cameron did the 'clam down, dear,' thing.

baby I feel the problem with many oxbridge folk is that they find a Tooting accent an unpleasant tone.

I think the fact it was an empty house emphasises Hancock trying to patronise and bully her even more. She looked competent and professional. He looked rattled and pompous.

'Tone' could have been a reference to Labour attempting to make political capital out of deaths. In fact, I'm sure he'll now claim that's what he meant.

There was fuck all wrong with her tone, he just felt threatened and didn't like her challenging him as it would mean holding his hands up an and admitting everything she said was true.

He'll be up all night thinking of an excuse

I bet he's got a picture of Maggie Thatcher above his bed.

He told her it wasn't true that many front line workers feel the government is to blame for the numbers of deaths! He knows it is true because he was confronted by someone's grieving son just last week. Makes me so angry. How can he be so dismissive and arrogant?

He really is a knob.

Well judging by the comments on that tweet his tone policing has gone down like a bowl of warm sick with the general public. Only scrolled down a few tweets and already saw Sue Perkins and Nigella Lawson having a pop. What a knobhead.

pfrench & Pesty true. I wasn’t sure if I was going mad - DH was on the phone to his GP friend last night who was saying exactly the same as her.
But according to Hancock her calm, measured speech was unpleasant and it was all lies.
Wow.

So he cracked

I feel the problem with many oxbridge folk is that they find a Tooting accent an unpleasant tone

I'm ex-Oxbridge with a South London accent and can confirm the accuracy of this statement.

To be honest, I think she used very emotive language to make sweeping generalisations that do not reflect the opinions of all frontline workers. It is a very different tone from that taken by the new Labour shadow cabinet to date, who I think have largely been working with government, rather than being combative. Matt Hancock is basically burnt out. Taking the blame for everything in the entire country that might be deemed at all medical, even if it has nothing to do with him, is probably making him is overly-sensitive to suggestions that he is 'tearing families apart in grief'. I think a lot of us would find it hard not to feel defensive if we were doing our best and had that criticism levelled at us.

Sorry, I was expecting to hear her say pertinent, insightful things and hear him being sexist. But I didn't. I didn't think she expressed what she wanted to raise in a way that gave it any gravitas. It was more like a reader dialling in from Take a Break magazine. An attempt to pull at the heart strings when we already know people are dying. He has clearly got tired of everybody trying to hold him personally to account, when he must think that he'd like to see them do better. He has had testing, ventilators, PPE, additional hospitals and care homes on his plate for 2 months all at various stages of extreme emergency.

I'm also disappointed to see him called a donkey in the OP. He's clearly working very hard. Personal attacks aren't helpful. #bekind after Caroline Flack didn't last long. It's good to remember that there's a person being discussed.

OP - was the last thread that called him a donkey yours? I notice the Daily Mail really have it in for him too. Particularly him out of all current cabinet members.

Fuming at that clip. Would he have said that to a man? I imagine not. He’ll be under pressure to apologise hopefully.