Obfuscating by claiming ‘transparency’ – according to Hancock
Hancock, as expected, took to the airwaves yesterday to defend himself against Cummings’ accusation of having lied about testing all elderly patients before they were being discharged from NHS hospitals during the first lockdown last year. It is an incontrovertible fact that these patients, sent back to care homes, died in huge numbers. BJ, allegedly, was outraged when he learned about this. He was at that time in hospital himself.
Hancock’s first ‘refutation’ was in a statement to the HoGhosts. He told the handful of MPs present that it was all untrue and then said: “Every day since I began working on the response to the pandemic I have got up each morning and asked, ‘What must I do to protect life?’, then telling the MPs that “We followed the clinical advice on the appropriate way forward” (paywalled link). There it is again: a covid emperor hiding behind ‘science’, so this and anything else cannot possibly have been his fault.
As an example of unmitigated self-serving twaddle it is without compare. It got worse in his press conference later that afternoon:
“Matt Hancock yesterday admitted that it “wasn’t possible” to test elderly hospital patients discharged into care homes for coronavirus as he sought to defend himself against allegations that he lied. […] Hancock said that his “recollection” of events differed from Cummings’s and said he only promised colleagues that he would “build testing capacity” so all patients could be tested. […] “Because we didn’t have the testing capacity at the start of the pandemic, it wasn’t possible. What I am very proud of is we built that testing capacity, but it took time.” (link, paywalled)
What beautiful example of weaselling out: ‘I only promised’, ‘I didn’t mean it because I couldn’t have meant it’. So Hancock is pure as the driven snow especially since he did what he did to ‘protect life’. It is insufferable that the Westminster Blob, this cabal of politicians, civil serpents and MSM, are turning their lockdown decisions into yet another political game of finger-pointing and self-serving declarations of ‘it wasn’t me, guv’.
Moreover, the statement of yet another ‘health’ figurehead shows the direction which any inquiry will take. If there’s someone to blame it will be us, the people. Government and NHS are innocent:
“At the same press conference, Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of UK Health Security Agency, suggested that outbreaks in care homes could be more to do with staff spreading the virus than hospital discharges. She said: “If you look at the death rates, and bearing in mind the evidence we found from the fact that the discharge from hospitals was actually a very, very tiny proportional cause of cases, what has had a huge impact is the testing, the regular testing of staff and residents.” (paywalled link)
Yes, well – didn’t Hancock just say that there weren’t any tests yet at that time? It is, after all, his ‘defence’. Here’s what he said to the MSM:
“In fact, one of the critical things we did was set the 100,000 target back then to make sure we built that testing capacity and it was very effective in doing so. And then we were able to introduce the policy of testing everybody before going into care homes, but we could only do that once we had the testing capacity which I had to build, because we didn’t have it in this country from the start. We started with a capacity of less than 2,000 in March last year and got to 100,000 tests a day. And we set all of this out at the time in public documents. It’s all a matter of public record.’ (link)
When did “we” get to ‘100,000 tests a day’? Don’t expect to get an answer – not from the covid government, not from the MSM where nobody seems to be able to investigate this ‘public record’ because we’re now in the accustomed territory of ‘Cummings – bad’ so nothing he said should be believed.
Next, here’s how BJ went to help his covid co-emperor. Warning: put your mug or cup or glass down before reading what BJ told the press when visiting a Colchester Hospital yesterday:
“[Johnson] said the situation in care homes – where more than 40,000 deaths were linked to Covid – was ‘tragic’, but added: ‘We did everything we could to protect the NHS and to protect care homes as well. I think it’s important for us to focus on what really matters to the people of this country. […] What people want us to get on with is delivering the road map and trying – cautiously – to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember.’ (link)
Oh – it was ‘a tragedy’, was it? But let’s please not talk about it because “we” all want to get to that promised Freedom Day! Something is a tragedy when it’s unavoidable. I think this ‘tragedy’ was eminently avoidable, not just because some twerp promised something he knew couldn’t be delivered – those 100,000 tests – but because the whole covid government was blinded by the SAGE models and the fear driving Cummings to demand that everything be locked down.
Note the hint by BJ that Freedom Day on June 21st might not happen. It’s the same play with numbers we’ve become so used to. This time it’s that Indian variant, albeit there’s a shamefaced statement that hospital numbers remain flat and an admission by Ms Harries, that ‘health chief’ helping Hancock yesterday, that this rise might be due to more testing and isn’t translating into more hospitalisations and deaths (link, paywalled).
This doesn’t matter, not when Hancock went into his ‘protecting life’ mode, telling the MSM that:
“it was too early now to say… whether we can take the full step four on June 21″, but stressed that he was “desperately” keen to do so if it is safe. “We will make a formal assessment ahead of June 14 as to what step we can take on the 21st, and in that we will be both driven by the data, we will be advised on and guided by the science, and we will be fully transparent both with this House and with the public in those decisions,” (paywalled link)
I wonder if the muzzle- wearing mice who’ve already booked their summer holidays, will rise up in anger when their dreams are thwarted again by the covid emperors who will again take ‘advice’ from and be ‘guided by the science’. I’m not holding my breath though.
We can make an educated guess as to where this is going when we see that the arch modeller, proven wrong so many times, is back in business:
“Prof Neil Ferguson […] warned that the Indian variant was now “the dominant strain” in the UK and said full reopening on June 21 hangs in the balance”.” (paywalled link)
How very predictable! Our freedom hangs even more ‘in the balance’ because, just in time, PHE has found another ‘variant of concern’:
“On Thursday, PHE placed a variant under investigation, with 109 cases detected in the UK of a strain first identified in Thailand, although officials stressed there is no evidence that it causes more severe disease or evades vaccines.” (paywalled link)
Gawd, yes – let’s keep the scaremongering going, let’s keep being concerned, let’s wait for two weeks to see if the latest variant is ‘dangerous. And then another ‘variant’ will be found so we must wait another two weeks – and another – and another, right into the autumn when the NHS will again become ‘overwhelmed.
The ‘end of lockdown’ isn’t going to happen as long as that lot is in power, and never mind their being ever so ‘transparent’ with their models and numbers. Meanwhile, let’s weep crocodile tears about the care home ‘tragedy’, let’s not mention the increasing tragedy, the real tragedy, of avoidable cancer deaths thanks to the covid politics.
Why is there no intrepid MSM ‘journalist’ asking Hancock how he has protected those lives! Are they as dispensable as the lives of the elderly?
KBO!
Photo by eviloars 
What use is PPE ? why dont we all wear binliners instaed of face masks ?
And who has died or tested positive in the pub ? of kung flu that is
Hancock is the Health Minister. So he is RESPONSIBLE for the failure of the N.H.S. to cope adequately with the pandemic. That is the way the system is supposed to work. Fair or not, the buck stops at the Minister in charge.
Sending patients into care homes is just one example of the failure of the N.H.S. to cope with the pandemic.
Many other issues have been raised. Particularly how our basic freedoms have been undermined and our economy trashed.
These also need urgent attention and ruthless action taken against those responsible. None of this will happen of course.
Meanwhile our ‘Leaders’ are preparing to sign up to more of the Global Warming Scam.
I wish I could go back in time to follow how the Government and the National Health Service started to deal with the corona virus outbreak. The first question I will ask is why the NHS did not hols stocks of personal Protection Equipment for its staff. There was a world wide pandemic after the first world was management of the NHS incapable of foreseeing that another pandemic would arise at some unknown date..
Was the senior management incapable of foreseeing that the transfer of elderly patients from hospitals to nursing homes might cause problems. Just what do we pay the senior NHS management to do. If this country has been let down during the existing pandemic it is the senior NHS staff who have questions to answer. Politicians, unless they have had medical training will make mistakes and may take the wrong decision without professional (NHS?) help. At least B Johnson did not become a part of the EU approach to the pandemic. If he had would we have the AstraZenica vaccine. How many lives would have been lost due to the EU’s lack of dynamism. Where would the UK be on the EU’s priority list.
Regardless of many of B.Johnson’s faults I believe that he has acted with sincerity. I think that the other political party leaders would have joined the EU’ approach to the pandemic with disastrous results. B.Johnson can be faulted on his approach to border controls. Regarding the so called terrific light approach for listing countries that can or cannot be visited I prefer the railway colour signal approach. A green means that it is safe to proceed, a yellow means expect a red so caution is required. A red means stop do not proceed.
“Regardless of many of B.Johnson’s faults I believe that he has acted with sincerity…”
I used to be an optimist too.
Boris and sincerity are polar opposites
Sorry David I think that Johnson and his vacuity is the worst type of all. He is the type that wants to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. He cannot decide or choose for himself because he is incapable of decision making out of ‘fear’ in case he backs the wrong ‘horse’ and looks a fool. But because he is what he is, he simply looks all the more foolish because it shows that he can be ‘driven’ by anyone stronger than himself! Thus the Sage team (including the egregious Ferguson) have him on the hook with their prognoses of doom. He is afraid in case they might be right so he accepts their ‘advice’! There is nothing in BJ’s psyche that flashes any warning light about the fact that so much of SAGE and Co’s funding comes from the likes of Pearly Gates. Taking advice from one A. L. Bliar is madness! Any right thinking ‘proper’ Conservative would keep him at bay with a sharp stick! The worst of BJ’s failings is that he is so weak that he is afraid to sack any of his top team (ie Hancock/Gove et al) in case they turn on him and try to oust him from office! He is also in thrall to his current lady. A really strong leader would not allow himself to become a lapdog! So no……Not sincere, not a leader…….The Buck Stops Here!
Hello Frederica I agree with you about T.Blair.
You have your view and I have mine. Regardless of our views B.Johnson deserves some respect and less of the daily sniggering and put downs that he is receiving. How many of the existing party leaders would have coped with the covid pandemic as well as B.Johnson. I say none, because the existing leaders are pro EU and would have meekly followed the EU line. At least under B.Johnson the UK can be proud of the vaccination success.
How many of the earlier Prime Ministers are faultless. I am awaiting the next step to see if B Johnson will encourage the growth of manufacturing in the UK. The last PM to support British Industry was Ted Heath with Rolls Royce, however Ted Heath took the UK into the EEC and, like most EU supporting MPs, he paid lip service to democracy.
How many times has Sir Kier Starmer backed the wrong horse. He has also taken the “knee” to BLM. Do K.Starmer and BLM know that Africans used to raid the southern coasts of England and Ireland to make slaves of village inhabitants.
The whole process of the pandemic has been a learning curve for all involved. If I were in B.Johnson’s position I would have given a Red or Green classification to all overseas countries for holidays. I would now have had a separate class for business travel. Just think of the protests that would arise from UK subjects wishing to go overseas for holidays. I think that B.Johnson is doing a balancing act and decisions are made on the facts available at the time, you cannot make decisions using tomorrow’s data. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Apart from the higher management the remaining NHS employees are doing a wonderful job and they have sustained it over a long period of time.
David Turgoose, I agree with you on that.
Not so much about B.J. David, but about the N.H.S. For many years the management have only been interested in their own salaries status and perks. All at the cost of the ‘hands on’ staff and equipment.
Arrrggh!!!! Grrrrrr!!!! It is not obvious that there is not a single honest politician in this Country!!! It is also clear that Johnson will protect Hancock and vice versa because these two above all have been prime movers in caving in to ‘the science’. They have to hang together because ‘The Gove Terror’ is just waiting in the wings to take over and complete the transition to full State Tyranny Forever!
In the end it will depend on us all to take a stand and say ‘THIS IS ENOUGH’! The $64000 question is ………Will we?
F – The Gove ‘Terror’ gets a good airing here on ID. However . . .
Betting Odds are a good ‘money where your mouth is’ analysis – see below:
Next PM
Richie Soonak 3/1
Keir Starmer 28/5
Michael Gove 11/1
Jeremy Hunt 16/1
Next Conservative Leader
Richie Soonak 5/2
Michael Gove 8/1
Jeremy Hunt 10/1
Liz Truss 16/1
For my money there is nobody capable of running the country in politics.
What an utterly dismal prospect. Are any of the above capable of either job?
No. The paucity of candidates is truly frightening.
Biscotti. I dont really understand betting odds but I get the drift! I do agree with you that there is no-one within the current crop of ‘ne’er do wells’ that could run a pi$$ up in a brewery never mind steer the ship of State in the right direction! But if you look around the World it appears that pretty much every Country has similarly hapless types. They are all open to financial persuasion it seems and all the while there are evil and unscrupulous billionaires wanting to buy ‘World Domination’ influence, nothing will change! We need a new brand of person to arise and take up the fallen colours!
Sorry I keep finding my spell checker nightmare keeps changing names without me noticing!
Never mind Frederica. You typed pi$$ up in a brewery perfectly. That was the important bit!
Frederica; last para; if we don’t , here’s one of the horrors in store : the Gove terror as you say;
https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stopvaccinepassports
Unlike most, I don’t buy into the view that BoJo is weak or bumbling. I think tall of them are wicked and know exactly what they’re doing.
June 21: as expected already they are trying to weasel out of their promises for our release. I doubt it is anything to do with “the virus”; more likely they have experienced a level of control over us which is unprecedented in the lives of most of us and clearly like it.
Control by virus and/or control by green policies; it is all the same to them.
Jack we always suspected that they would try and weasel out of 21st June release! The dictator gene is prominent in all of them and they have learned to use it to the full! Why would they let go now? Torture and torment becomes a very potent drug I believe!