Apologies for having to inflict the photo of that sleaze bag on you  again – but needs must!

 

There’s one story filling today’s pages after The Sun published ‘that’ image yesterday – you know the one: Hancock in a steamy clinch with his ‘aide’. The reactions of the various players inside the Westminster village are utterly amazing – and disturbing.

It’s as if the whole covid empire has gone into hiding. Of course Matt-the-Han (MtH) went into hiding – but so did the PM. So did MtH’s cabinet colleagues. It’s as if the whole cabal of them are incapable of uttering one word of condemnation. Apparently, BJ’s dictum, that he considers the matter ‘closed’, means they’ll now also keep their mouths shut. Perhaps they are all waiting for Mrs Carrie J. to sort out the party line? 

In any case, MtH’s statement ought to be kept for the record – but please have a sickbag handy before reading:

“Mr Hancock […] said: ‘I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter’.” (link)

Aww bless! He’s sorry he sinned against his own rules, but see: he’s working so hard to end covid, therefore this little steamy peccadillo is surely irrelevant! After all, he’s the covid emperor and who if not he himself might be permitted to transgress? Rules, especially covid rules, don’t apply to VIPs. Give the ‘poor man’ some privacy’!

The gullible might think he should be cut some slack, hard-working as he is. Perhaps he was just overcome in a moment of sexual madness. However, The Sun has now published the whole video (link) – it’s definitely ‘adult viewing’ only! – and it shows that MtH actually checks the corridor to see if they’ll be undisturbed before ‘steaming’ ahead. He clearly knew full well what he was doing, ahem: going to do. 

As for the PM, well-known for his own extramarital affairs: he certainly couldn’t sack MtH for something he himself has done on so many occasions, could he! Never forget though that BJ is a political animal and knows how best to get out of sticky situations. So letting ‘a spokesman for BJ’ give the MSM a statement rather than doing so himself means he’s left a nice little escape route open, for himself:

“The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary’s apology and considers the matter closed.’ He added ‘all the correct procedures were followed’ in hiring Gina Coladangelo, who is paid £15,000 for around 15 days work per year.” (link)

No, BJ won’t be so crude and sack MtH but, mark my words, he’ll get various ‘men in grey suits’ to work on yon Matt over the weekend, making him resign voluntarily. After all, the PM couldn’t possibly be seen to follow the outcry of the opposition, demanding that MtH must be fired. BJ could most certainly not be seen to give in to the demands of us plebs, with polls showing that 50% of us, give or take a handful, want him gone (link).

There’s one aspect which is agitating our MSM more than the covid lawbreaking by MtH. It’s the question of security, of how this video was leaked and how it was made in the first place. Apparently, there are ‘no cameras inside a minister’s office’ …:

“The Telegraph understands Mr Hancock had no idea the camera existed when it captured him kissing adviser Gina Coladangelo, and government sources said it was “unheard of” for cameras to be installed in ministers’ offices. It raises the possibility that the camera was deliberately placed by someone with access to his office with the intention of catching the pair cheating on their spouses and breaking Covid rules. It is the first time a Cabinet minister has been filmed in their own office without their knowledge.” (paywalled link)

Funny that. Somehow I cannot believe that in our CCTV-obsessed society ministers’ offices are ‘camera-free’. But if that is indeed the case – who did install that camera? A private detective, trying to get material for a divorce? Or was it China? And nobody noticed? Odd. But see this:

“In a further twist, the Department of Health and Social Care’s offices use CCTV cameras made by the Chinese company Hikvision, which is banned in the US because of national security concerns.” (paywalled link)

So all the material filmed inside MtH’s palace, the DHSC, could be accessed by Peking? It gets even better – and note that the date of that clinch is actually mentioned in passing:

“The DHSC’s security team is conducting an urgent review of security in the building in Victoria Street, central London, where Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo were filmed on May 6, the day of the local elections. It is also in charge of a leak investigation to discover who gave the footage to The Sun newspaper, described by Whitehall insiders as a “massive breach of security”. […] The leak has also triggered a red alert in the Government over who could be spying on the country’s most senior ministers.” (paywalled link)

I wonder if the official security verdict will be that “Xi!” or “Putin!” did it. I would humbly suggest though that there’s a more important inquiry which must be launched, namely into the securities services who clearly cannot have swept those Whitehall offices with sufficient diligence, having failed to discover such hidden cameras. Here’s a delicious thought though: perhaps they knew but didn’t warn ministers they’d be ‘on camera’. After all, one never knowns when some such juice material might come in handy.

And so to the important point of that ‘clinch date’ which took place on the 6th of May. The various MSM commentators in their opinion pieces are fulminating about MtH’s breach not just of his rules but the covid law in place on that day which made ‘indoor gatherings between people from different households’ illegal while, if necessary for work, the 2 metre distance ought to have been observed.

However – the question which should be asked is why this video was released now? Why not at the time when the covid cabal was deciding that we couldn’t have our freedom bacK? Why not earlier, in May? Did the ‘video maker’ sit on it? Did The Sun? We surely deserve to know – not that our ever so diligent covid MSM will try to find out.

Hidden towards the end of their articles some MSM writers hint at a much more valid political reason for BJ to make MtH resign:

“It also emerged that Ms Coladangelo’s brother is an executive at a private healthcare company that has been awarded NHS contracts worth millions of pounds since she became an adviser to the Department of Health.” (paywalled link)

That’s a bit more serious than having an affair and breaking one’s own law. But it’s ‘only money’, after all. Perhaps some analysts might dig a bit deeper for tomorrow’s Sunday editions. However, as long as they are more concerned with speculating about who might replace MtH – the ‘vaccine tsar’, Mr Zahawi, is the front runner – not much will be heard about this. 

While The Times editors rightly point out that this sordid affair might erode public trust in further covid measures (link, paywalled), Fraser Nelson in the DT is desperately trying to keep on the sunny side of both BJ and MtH should he be retained:

“The Hancock story is embarrassing, not devastating. But unless the Prime Minister can supplant this unfortunate affair with his own story – about how he’s going to use the vaccine success to deal with the web of Covid regulations that are no longer needed – then the affair may come to symbolise a government that is losing control.” (paywalled link)

Yeah right: breaking the covid law one has callously enforced – Allison Pearson had a great comment piece yesterday (paywalled link) – is only embarrassing, so move on, peasants! No, we won’t. We’ve lost trust in this government already and they are losing control over us, ever since those G7 images, reinforced by the decision to permit footie VIPs to come and go without needing to observe Hancock’s ‘laws’. 

I close with a battle cry, paraphrasing a comment post I picked up yesterday: “Muzzle wearers are supporting Hancock-the-lawbreaker”. True – so: off with the muzzles and

 

KBO!

 

Photo by UK Prime Minister

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