Dominic Cummings Covid evidence

[Newtonianmechanics]

Is anyone going to watch this man give evidence today?

Apparently there is a vigil in Barnard Castle ahead of this.

The shopping trolleys emoji seems to mean they think Carrie was controlling Boris from the last few days. Wonder if this will feature.

Yes shocking to hear this description of how the ordinary working of the civil service was disrupted by this government - too much in the hands of dimwitted and self-interested politicians during this crisis.

Appreciate Helen McNamara was fined and implicated in Downing Street parties, but this testimony is still very important about how Downing St was(n't) functioning.

That was a fascinating answer just there from HM, in response to a question from the Chair. HM said she would normally be secure that questions/requests from SPADs were coming on behalf of the Prime Minister, and this kept everything anchored constitutionally.

And she felt that during this era, this stopped happening - that SPADs were operating separately from PM instructions.

Professor David Halpern (President, Behavioual Insights Team or 'Nudge Unit') up, being taken through his evidence by another inquiry KC.

He worked for the govt under Cameron onwards. Public health, behavior.

We don't know whether shorter/less restrictive lockdowns in Wales/Scotland would have led to more deaths. Your bias may lead you to assume something but we do not know.

Re-arguing as to whether the UK lockdowns were correct is not the key issue of this part of the inquiry. What we are watching is the description of the chaos, toxicity, indecision and inadequate understanding at the heart of government.

I think we should have locked down earlier. But I just wish we'd had a decent PM and a proper government.

Johnson's view that the elderly should accept their fate is disgusting.

Presumably if you are not in favour of a harsher approach to restrictions, then you are would want the government to make better decisions more promptly guided by the scientific evidence and not newspaper owners?

Decisions such as taking some steps in preparation for a pandemic in January and February of 2020 and by the beginning of March steps to reduce the spread of covid?

Yes interesting

I would not want a lockdown approach of Drakeford or Sturgeon. Or any country where schools were closed longer due to union pressure - See specific US states

If you hold Wales and Scotland as better examples of what to do I disagree.

Save the Children did a recent report which stated what I thought throughout the pandemic. A couple of years later but I’m glad I was not far off.

It is such a mess - the SPADS were taking the politicians' role (deciding, requesting) while the politicians were taking the civil service role (suggesting policy like herd immunity)?!!

If you want schools closed for the minimum amount of time, then presumably you like many are a critic of the Eat out to Help out scheme which contributed significantly to schools being closed in 2021?
Presumably also if you want schools to be closed for as short a time as possible you are in favour of the early introduction of some restrictions so that schools remaining open could be prioritised?

McNamara has explained well that the complete failure of the Tories to listen to civil servants meant the increased harms like DV and abuse were not mitigated/prevented.

Johnson's government was exceedingly careless with pretty much all citizens - but especially the most vulnerable.

Still, it was good to hear again that grouse moors were well protected.

Throwing in random words of Latin looks to me like somebody desperately trying to look cleverer than he is. Then there are the terrible ghost-written history books of course. There was also all that stuff about David Cameron etc being “girly swots”.

I suspect he isn’t actually all that bright, and has a bit of an inferiority complex about it. He’s not an idiot, obviously, he got into Oxford. But not the secret slapdash genius he makes himself out to be. I imagine going to Oxford and being next to genuinely very clever people was an experience he didn’t much like.

I’d recommend catching up on More or Less and Sir David Spiegelhalter. It’s likely all available online.

He covered it and the number of days the next peak was brought forward was a few days.

But overall I’d keep schools open as Sweden did and not harm the economy so much.

If you want schools closed for the minimum amount of time you'd want ventilation in schools, masks, non-school restrictions to protect schooling, vaccines for teachers and children...

But we witnessed that those who said they wanted schools open mostly just would have accepted twice as many deaths because they leant towards COVID denial, not COVID management.

McNamara saying at top of govt, little idea about experience of children in state schools.

Re debate on schools closing in 2021: "It was a narrowed perspective... wasn't enough thinking about the children who might not have the same privileges as the people in Whitehall."

She also made the point that the state should make decisions based on all the knowledge the state has about people's lives.

The civil service/academia/sector experts would have known what would happen around domestic violence, child abuse - but the political set up excluded these voices from any planning.

Well I feel quite annoyed my posts weren’t read on this at the time.

It was obvious but went down like a lead balloon as lockdown was favoured.

The structure wasn’t right, tf it’s finally being said.

Yes - that's what the legally required Equality Impact Assessments should and would have picked up. But the civil service seems to have given up on them not just around the pandemic response, but in many other areas of social policy that affect women & children.

They called many women c*nts then said they used that with men as well. They are misogynists. Even saying Carrie controlled him. That's an excuse. Disgusting. All of them.

Schools couldn't stay open as they were hugely over crowded. Lots of teachers over 50. They should have had some in and some at home. And the old and the vulnerable should have stayed in.

It was madness keeping young people in. But no one would have complied.

You seem to favour the original Johnson stay open, herd immunity approach, so you also wish we'd had more deaths presumably.

What McNamara was saying was we could and should have mitigated the DV/abuse issues in lockdown.

The fact the Tories wasted so much time dithering ate up the planning time.

The Tories cut the civil service headcount and then shut them out as much as possible.

I'm not sure they 'gave up' but rather were shouting at people with their fingers in their ears.

My main statements are we need to assess risk v damage

And the structure wasn’t best for recognising damage.

Hence Save the Children advising a permanent oversight for children. Something I said at the time not years later.

Fix the structure and also weigh up risks and damage

It's Dermot Keating KC questioning Prof David Halpern btw.

Talking about the use of the words 'cocoon' and 'cocooning'. My subtitles are showing it as 'cocaine'. Thanks, BBC.

Can you be more specific on which episodes or articles to catch up on? There are a lot.

Freudian typo.

I was wondering about that statement over Hat Mancocks "nuclear confidence".