[Bones McCoy]

Spaffer appearing to justify reduced devolved nation cooperation due to the risk of leaks.

I'll give you a couple of leaks.

1. Fucking useless pork haystack terrified of being shown up by the neighbours.
2. NHS England proved incapable of supplying any scientists to Cobra's specialist symposia.
What they did send were a bunch of kids form various consultancies, whose only solutions were to buy in speculative technology from connections of theirs.
When askes whether NHS England could supply any scientists, they prevaricated before admitting none were available.
NHS Scotland and Wales proceeded alone in the name of operational efficiency.

[kreuzberger]

Another day, another awkward development for Messrs Johnson and possibly Sunak, too.

Per The Guardian;

Penny Mordaunt has told the Covid inquiry that a series of WhatsApp messages with Boris Johnson mysteriously disappeared from her phone, and that Johnson’s then chief of staff ignored 14 attempts by her to arrange a meeting to discuss the matter.

If and when fairies, poltergeists and the forces of malevolent magic are excluded from the equation, there can be only one reason for this and it is criminal.

[Andy McDandy]

Sadly, I fear there are enough people who will be taken in by this "Ooh, what am I like? Can't even program the video, me!" act.

[Bones McCoy]

Sadly, I fear there are enough people who will be taken in by this "Ooh, what am I like? Can't even program the video, me!" act.

It'd be credible if it were Susan Hall.

[Crabcakes]

I think Johnson should be extraordinarily grateful that the Covid affected families and relatives have acted with such dignity. Because given everything that’s transpired and continues to transpire, I think a jury would have trouble convicting anyone who stepped up and caved his pudgy head in.

[davidjay]

Another day, another awkward development for Messrs Johnson and possibly Sunak, too.

Per The Guardian;

Penny Mordaunt has told the Covid inquiry that a series of WhatsApp messages with Boris Johnson mysteriously disappeared from her phone, and that Johnson’s then chief of staff ignored 14 attempts by her to arrange a meeting to discuss the matter.

If and when fairies, poltergeists and the forces of malevolent magic are excluded from the equation, there can be only one reason for this and it is criminal.

How many cabinet ministers is it now that have admitted handling basic technology is beneath them? That alone should cost them an election.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Baroness Hallett has issued her first findings. They are that the government and civil service failed the four nations. Bald and damning, no mitigation.

The Guardian reports:

The former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock have been criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic in a damning first report from the Covid inquiry that calls for a major overhaul in how the government prepares for civil emergencies.

Hunt, who was the health secretary from 2012-18, and Hancock, who took over until 2021, were named by the chair to the inquiry, Heather Hallett, for failing to rectify flaws in contingency planning ahead of the pandemic, which claimed more than 230,000 lives in the UK.

The government had focused largely on the threat of an influenza outbreak despite the fact that coronaviruses in Asia and the Middle East in the preceding years meant “another coronavirus outbreak at a pandemic scale was foreseeable” and to overlook that was “a fundamental error”.

Key flaws in preparedness included:

The UK being prepared for the wrong pandemic: influenza. When Hancock became health secretary in July 2018 his day one briefing said: “Pandemic flu is the government’s highest risk”.
The institutions responsible for emergency planning being “labyrinthine in their complexity”.
The government’s sole pandemic strategy (for flu) being outdated – it was from 2011 – and lacking adaptability.
A failure to appreciate the impact of the pandemic and the response to it on ethnic minority communities, and people in poor health and with other vulnerabilities.
A failure to learn from earlier civil emergency exercises and disease outbreaks.
A “damaging absence of focus” on systems such as test, trace and isolate that could be scaled up.
A lack of adequate leadership in the preceding years, with ministers, untrained in civil contingencies, not being presented with a broad range of scientific opinion. They also failed to sufficiently challenge the advice they got, which in any event was beset by “groupthink”.

Roll on the prosecutions.

[Andy McDandy]

And before I go read up, here's my prediction of the response from those in government at the time:

Terrible business, every death a tragedy, inherited problems, ever changing situation, best we could, unprecedented, very difficult decisions, had to improvise, debt of thanks to our marvellous key workers, unprecedented, vaccine rollout, no help from the EU, fastest out of lockdown, amazing public response, blitz spirit, unprecedented, still ongoing, inappropriate to say more, big calls right, unprecedented.

I'm going to go now (13.27) and check....

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Module 1: The Resilience and Preparedness of the United Kingdom

Despite planning for an influenza (also known as flu) outbreak, our preparedness and
resilience was not adequate for the global pandemic that occurred

Emergency planning was complicated by the many institutions and structures involved

The approach to risk assessment was flawed, resulting in inadequate planning to
manage and prevent risks, and respond to them effectively

The UK government’s outdated pandemic strategy, developed in 2011, was not
flexible enough to adapt when faced with the pandemic in 2020

Emergency planning failed to put enough consideration into existing health and social
inequalities and local authorities and volunteers were not adequately engaged

There was a failure to fully learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks
of disease

There was a lack of attention to the systems that would help test, trace, and isolate.

Policy documents were outdated, involved complicated rules and procedures which
can cause long delays, were full of jargon and were overly complex

Ministers, who are often without specialised training in civil contingencies, did not
receive a broad enough range of scientific advice and often failed to challenge the
advice they did get

Advisers lacked freedom and autonomy to express differing opinions, which led to a
lack of diverse perspectives. Their advice was often undermined by “groupthink” - a
phenomenon by which people in a group tend to think about the same things in the
same way

[Tubby Isaacs]

That really is pretty dreadful.

I still can't believe the slow lockdown, given how badly prepared we were.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Blinkered ideology and fear of the right wing headbangers - like every problem we've had since 2010.

[Youngian]

There’s some good articles out there somewhere as to whose responsible for cutting contingency training; Osborne and Cameron.

Ministers, who are often without specialised training in civil contingencies, did not
receive a broad enough range of scientific advice and often failed to challenge the
advice they did get

[Abernathy]

I dare say that Heather Hallett was obliged to wait until the election was over with before publishing her enquiry’s first report. But what a devastating indictment it is. I think we all knew that the Tories (and to a slightly lesser extent, the SNP and Welsh Labour), had fucked up in lethal proportion, but fuck a duck.

Can you imagine how much worse for the Tories the landslide would have been if Hallett’s report had been published before the short campaign got under way ?