[Crabcakes]

It must be at the point now where, even with Johnson’s “sack no one then no one can sack me” mentality, keeping Hancock on is untenable.

Also, I wonder if Cummings has any mates on the Whitehall security team…

[MisterMuncher]

Just in case anyone has forgotten; no tory minister finds themself on (or not on) the frontpage of the S*n by accident.

Exactly. That footage came from someone.

It's easy when it's Hancock. The man's a cunt.

It's in the coming days when people start to realise The Sun has Government CCTV set up like Netflix, they can build and spend ammunition as it suits them, and "the people" have given something resembling tacit approval.

If anyone thinks this is isolated or specific, I've a rather nice bridge to sell you.

[Andy McDandy]

Read an interview with Sun hack Jane Moore a few years ago (pre-Leveson) where she said "Never cross a tabloid. We have dirt on everyone,and very long memories."

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Cyclist]

Johnson *can't*sack Handcock over this. If he does then he's admitting his own behaviour is beyond the pale and he should be sacked too.

He's painted himself into a corner.

[Andy McDandy]

Downing street say he's apologised and the PM considers the matter closed.

Thing is, if Johnson fires anyone, he a) has to explain why they deserved the sack while so many others didn't, and b) has a petulant wanker running around the back benches with lots of first hand evidence of what's been going on at the very top.

So the only way he can survive is to make sure everyone is in lockstep. Everyone covers for each other, has dirt on each other, and nobody dares break formation because they will either bring the entire house down or, if doing the dirty on someone else, become exposed themselves. Government by joint venture. A rather sick version of collective ministerial responsibility.

[Crabcakes]

It's mutually assured destruction, only without the nukes. Still, I hope Cummings is enjoying experiencing what it's like to see someone desperately incompetent and sickeningly arrogant who they want to see fired get let off from the other side of the equation. Might make him slightly self-aware that all the lengthy, waffle-filled blogs and attempts to retcon yourself into a foresight-equipped supergenius in the world are worth sodall when you've installed a sociopath into power who has absolutely no scruples.

Which is a pretty fucking thin silver lining, but in the absence of anything else I'll take it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Hancock got stuck in against Neil Ferguson back in the day.

How can he survive?

[Crabcakes]

Hancock got stuck in against Neil Ferguson back in the day.

How can he survive?

Because Johnson has an 80 seat majority. He doesn’t care this might lose him 2 by-elections because he still has plenty of legroom. He doesn’t care if it means people won’t adhere to restrictions now if they have to be brought back in because he’s never really cared anyway, and if anything will delight that it will be easier to blame the public’s bad behaviour for future spikes.

He doesn’t have to do anything, won’t suffer any direct or unmanageable consequences because of it, so won’t lift a finger.

[davidjay]

Or to put it bluntly, because they don't give a fuck.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[satnav]

I can remember a while back Hancock making a big thing about how he had not been back to his constituency for over 7 months. At the time he was trying to suggest this had been a real hardship but it looks now like he was staying in London for other reasons.

[Crabcakes]

At the rate these stories are coming out, it’ll be revealed Hancock is the genetically engineered son of Jimmy Saville and Hitler who has to eat his own bodyweight in kittens every day by tomorrow morning.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha,

Headline writer at the Telegraph not helping much.

Gina Coladangelo: the millionaire lobbyist quietly appointed to top government roles
The woman caught in affair with Matt Hancock first crossed paths with him when they were working on student radio at Oxford University

[Youngian]

Did Gina get the job before or after Hancock fucked her?

[satnav]

Interesting tweet from Beth Rigby Sky News.

Beth Rigby
@BethRigby
·
5h
Fascinating insight from someone who knows PM well on why he won't ask Hancock to resign: Tells me Johnson will try to 'ignore it all' and is 'still sore' about Michael Howard making him resign from shadow cabinet in 2004 for lying about his affair with Petronella Wyatt #hancock

[davidjay]

Of course, if Hancock does go, and I don't think he will, it won't be because he was indirectly responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, or because in a cabinet that runs on corruption and cronyism he's the most corrupt and cronyist. It's because he was caught out shagging.

[Crabcakes]

Interesting tweet from Beth Rigby Sky News.

Beth Rigby
@BethRigby
·
5h
Fascinating insight from someone who knows PM well on why he won't ask Hancock to resign: Tells me Johnson will try to 'ignore it all' and is 'still sore' about Michael Howard making him resign from shadow cabinet in 2004 for lying about his affair with Petronella Wyatt #hancock

Says it all really. It’s still all about him - he’s using Hancock as a proxy for the special treatment he feels he should have had.

He probably thinks this makes him a better leader than Howard as well.

[kreuzberger]

More like he can bring himself to let Cummings "win".

Meanwhile, Delta spreads like wildfire and the bodies keep piling up.

[Youngian]

If this fiasco doesn’t cost the Tories a few points it doesn’t say much for Cummings’s alleged voodoo powers. That’s a satisfying consolation prize.