Westminstenders: Magical Thinking

[RedToothBrush]

This week has seen reports of the government editing footage of Johnson to avoid embarrassing questions about the early government response.

We've been asked to accept that the rules were different to what we were told to excuse the law breaking behaviour of a senior government advisor. As Johnson said he was being a responsible father (as if Johnson knows what this is) and it wasn't as if he was visiting a lover (this Johnson would know all about). Let's be honest Johnson is the master of brazening out controversy.

We also have the ERG complaining they were lied to by Gove about the new Withdrawal Agreement and the border in the Irish Sea which surprises precisely no one else.

They appear to be a little upset by the Cummings debarkable too.

One of my concerns with Test, Trace & Isolate (or Test & Protect in Scotland) is that it could be used as a form of abuse and/or coercive control.

Malicious people could claim contact with those that they want to inconvenience/wish ill - or worse, an abusive partner could claim symptoms in order to keep their partner officially socially isolated.

The speed of getting test results back will be key in avoiding/mitigating this risk of abuse. But BJ's response to the Liaison Committee didn't inspire confidence.

I've kept myself away from MN's enjoyable distractions today, but have the WM discussed Emily Maitlis being reprimanded/ removed from newsnight? Because of allegedly breaking impartiality rules. Though it was fine for Andrew Neil to call Johnson a coward...

I posted a link to the BBC article "explaining" its impartiality decision with a early evening DrBlackbird - but I think that there were so many things at which to be outraged at the time , it probably got overlooked

As one of my friends on FB said, "...funny how the BBC can hold her to account for telling the truth, yet support a government run by liars, cheats and vagabonds."

And not surprised to see my MP remaining resoundingly silent on teD issue.

@prettybird

I posted a link to the BBC article "explaining" its impartiality decision with a early evening DrBlackbird - but I think that there were so many things at which to be outraged at the time , it probably got overlooked

As one of my friends on FB said, "...funny how the BBC can hold her to account for telling the truth, yet support a government run by liars, cheats and vagabonds."

We know they're running scared of Dom who has them in his sights, but it feels like there's an added gender issue at work here.

Removing Emily Maitliss shows just how rattled they are, for all that they are trying to brazen it out.

“It is your civic duty,” said Hancock. “This will be voluntary at first because we trust everyone to do the right thing, but we can quickly make it mandatory if that’s what it takes.Do it for the people you love. Do it for the community. Do it for the NHS and do it for all the frontline workers who have done so much and gone out every day to put themselves at risk to keep you and your family safe.”

He can't be serious... he thinks this is the tone to take after the whole DC debacle?

Two weeks on ssp would be a struggle for many and I imagine most would want to avoid it.

What's to stop malicious contact naming?

Maitliss stood down for one edition of Newsnight?

So the BBC can spend months and months giving airtime to non MP radio presenter Farage and his xenophobic propaganda? That's balanced coverage ?
However one comment - just one speech calling out Dom's Barney castle for what it was is unbalanced?

Confused you won't be after this episode of ...( 1970's Soap satire reference.)

Cummings saga is an international hit - probably it's the safety of laughing at someone else's idiots in charge

Even Dublin airport working in a Cummings joke:

Love that Dublin Airport joke.

Well, this is all rather worrying. Obviously the virus, but also the fact that we seem to have a government that refuses to be held accountable.
Watching Johnson being questioned at the Liaison Committee, and these two clips of Gove. (Here it is again Louise, in case you haven’t watched yet.)

They’e avoiding or shutting down questions. Giving false, silly or waffly answers. Blaming the media. Refusing to take responsibility. Repeatedly asserting that the country just wants to move on. (Patently untrue.) Playing up their ‘successes’.

We’ve not had responses from our Tory MP yet. It seems like they all think it’ll blow over. It’ll be a mark of right-thinking Tory MPs how they react to this. There must be many deeply uncomfortable Tory voters.

We’re in very dangerous waters.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ICDyGBpA2M

mobile.twitter.com/KayBurley/status/1265194124740870145

Nick giving Matt a hard time over DC on the today show right now, will he be accused of impartiality next?

I agree Hester and the jokes on us.

Even if they were capable of clarity, ministers can no longer give clear rules or answers to questions on anything
in case they accidentally incriminate Cummings.

And without clear rules that are applied to everyone, any strategy such as isolation of the infected, just collapses

Yes Dirtystreetpie, Hancock completely ignored the questions again.
They’ve obviously agreed this as a shutting-down strategy.

Agreed TruthTwisters Cummings is probably laughing.

Suggestion that track and trace system not ready to go:

mobile.twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1265719286200438786

So if you catch Covid, are you obliged to hand over the private contact details/ phone numbers of your recently-seen friends etc? Privacy issues?

Thanks Hester
Can’t see too much wrong with the Gove response to Kay Burley on Bishop Baines. It’s very abrupt and it doesn’t look good for Gove, but if that’s what he thinks, that’s what he should say. Having looked at Baines’ blog he’s clearly got no love for Gove, Cummings or Boris. His response to Nick Ferrari was laughably bad.

Didn’t think Johnson performed well at Liaison Committee. I would say though that ‘not answering the question’ and ‘not providing the answer that the questionner wants’ are entirely different things.

In this World Gone Mad, I am starting to warm to Kay Burley.

Now she's got Hancock sniggering at the thought of 40,000 dead bodies:

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-matt-hancock-warns-self-isolating-could-be-mandatory-as-he-laughs-off-dominic-cummings-row-11996005

Practical question: if I've been in contact with random people in the park/neighbourhood (it's amazing the number of random people we have got to "know" on our daily walks and have chatted to from a distance of 2m) or on public transport....I won't know their names let alone their mobile numbers or email addresses

Privacy Matters @privacymatters
🙇‍♂️ here’s the @NHSEngland Test and Trace privacy notice. “This privacy notice explains what personal identifiable information is collected by this service” PII 🤦‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

“the NHS Test and Trace needs to collect personal identifiable information.”

The information collected on people with coronavirus or those with symptoms includes their:

full name
date of birth
home postcode and house number
telephone number
email address

The information collected on the contacts of people with coronavirus includes, where available, their:

full name
home postcode and house number
telephone number
email address

^“The personal identifiable information collected by the NHS Test and Trace is protected in several ways.”

prettybird, I am assuming unless you are very overfriendly, you haven't spent 15 minutes less then 2 metres from them?

The problem will arise when those people who rammed themselves next to strangers at Durdle Door etc. test positive.. obviously they believe they have schools sorted with their bubbles but secondary schools , fi they have years 10 and 12 back in any way, have been told they don't need to have the bubbles.

A Doctor has just contacted Sky news, tried to log in to track and trace and it's crashed.

I mean test and trace has crashed.

Body language experts would have a field day with that Gove LBC interview. They would conclude he was lying. Nose rubbing, eyes flicking upwards and left, a leaked snigger , the pauses and the fillers....

Cummings did at least manage his body language reasonably well, but more easily done when you have rehearsed your fibs.