The Covid inquiry goes on.
I am under no illusion that Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings, who gave evidence yesterday, are objective witnesses. They might have told the truth as they see it, but they also have their own stories to tell, and their own backsides to cover. No one is ever objective in that situation. The ministers who have yet to give evidence will be no better as witnesses for that very reason, and they face the risk of prosecution, which these advisers likely do not.
So what did we learn from the day, the highlights of which have been summarised in a useful video here from Politics Joe, who I consider to be reliable?
The list of lessons could go on for a long time. I will only offer key thoughts as a result.
First, Johnson really was incapable. It cannot be pretended otherwise. He did not only not have the skillset for this moment, as Lee Cain suggested. He simply did not have any required skillset for the job of prime minister. A person who cannot decide, and usually does so to appease the last person in the room, is always unfit for office. Johnson was that person.
Second, the dogmatists with whom Johnson surrounded himself were also wholly unfit for the tasks demanded of them. None brought management skills or competence with them. Whatever skill sets they might have had were never required in No.10, most especially at that time.
Third, if you need to swear all the time, you have lost the argument. I am not saying I have never sworn. I have. It can be cathartic. But I have also been to companies where the language amongst senior management was persistently of the type that was obviously commonplace in No.10. It was wholly dysfunctional, unthinking and destructive. The mindset that gave rise to it was beyond salvage. The only thing to do with the company was to sell it, which is what happened. In the case of Johnson's government, it should have been replaced by those aware of what was happening. Many bear the responsibility for not calling that out - especially if they appeared at podiums on television to cover for it.
Fourth, the one thing very obviously missing at No.10 was courage. The need to do the right thing simply did not get into the agenda. At best, pragmatism did. In the case of Rishi Sunak, even that was not true: he just cowered, believing that financial markets ruled the roost and that anything he might do would upset them, meaning he was willing to sacrifice people to whatever he thought they demanded.
Fifth, there was no moral compass. If there had been, the vulnerable might have been protected. They were not. It's not possible to be a good leader without a moral compass. It is not clear that there was one anywhere near Downing Street at this time.
Sixth, without the combination of skills and conviction that leadership requires Downing Street failed us in 2020, and afterwards. Tens of thousands of people died as a result.
I hope there will be accountability for that.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
We have been repeatedly warned by the entertainment industry. Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, and presciently The Thick of It come to immediate mind.
Fully agreed.
I’m left with an overwhelming sense that these people in power do not know how real people live anymore. There is such…………….detachment.
Those old people who were ‘going to die anyway’. WTF? These people were loved by people and loved people in return. They contributed to GDP, were doctors, nurses, soldiers who defended us, firemen etc.
We have been treated by Johnson & Co as if we are ants.
What is worrying is that it shows to me at least the artificiality behind how people get into power in this country.
It has more to do with a limited cabals of people, money and shady funding and the manipulation of public sentiment in the media bias than it does about choosing people of character and ability to represent us all.
It is Thatcher’s most enduring and real legacy – a land ran by millionaires made by her policies.
Helen McNamara being sworn in now, the one that Cummings was nastiest about yesterday.
That will be interesting to watch/listen to.
She is coming across as a credible witness from what I am hearing in the backgound whilst working on new parts of the Taxing Wealth Report 2024 – to which I have finally got time to returm.
The main thing that comes across is that there were no plans. The government was winging it. DHSC wanted the lockdown to start as late as possible, she said.
If the lockdown had happened a week earlier 30,000 lives could have been saved.
Two weeks earlier it could have been 40,000.
Staggering
Already known in part – but the deception on the absence of planning is new, I think
And then – just to show that we really are on the way out as a species – Channel 4 is it? – makes Matt Hancock a celebrity and puts him in their reality programmes?
So, we have an incompetent and untrustworthy character ( well dodgy) being effectively rewarded for his behaviour in the public limelight whose actions/inactions probably helped to kill people. The same person who told us that they had put a protective ring around the elderly during Covid!!
A society that cannot tell right from wrong anymore.
That is what we are becoming.
I listened to the totality of Cumming’s evidence. The questioning towards the end tended to focus on style, rather than content. Pervasive swearing in companies is unhelpful. That said, hands up those who have been
a) the advisor to an unstable/erratic PM
b) with a not very good private office
c) with a disfunctional cabinet office
when the country in question faces an existential (health) crisis. I don’t see many hands.
I had business in the 2010s with the Cab Office – the person I spoke to (very senior reporting to Cab min) was deeply critical of its functioning. I doubt if things have changed.
Cummings “Popin” comment was also interesting, a civil service resistant to change – gosh how surprising,blow me over with a feather.
Talking to a senior Commission guy: we were both in agreement that normal gov structures are incapable of addressing existential crisies such as Coivd or slo-mo/fast-mo-climate disaster. (Cummings noted that COBRA was OK for one-off short lived stuff). Thus, given no change, the UK & other govs are primed for failure when something like Covid comes again – note the “when” – we are not dealing with an “if”.
It took some courage to sit there for a couple of hours whilst a KC criticised you for the trivial stuff, whilst skating over core issues – such as the fitness for purpose of the major organs of gov.
Easy enough to criticise Cummings. What is more productive is to ask: given the organs of gov have been exposed as unfit for purpose, what needs to change? Who/what could implement that change?
Agreed
I think the lead counsel, Hugo Keith KC has done an excellent job, because his form of questioning has flushed out the beliefs, and frailties of the witnesses (including their blind-spots and lapses in memory when the questioning turns toward their own failings). I think Keith knows witnesses will generally likely be reluctant to burden themselves with greatest responsibility for major failures; and in spite of claims counsel was too concerned with “trivial stuff”, I think the outline of the “[un]fitness for purpose of the major organs of gov” was aired, from the perspective, knowledge or belief of the witnesses being examined.
Each witness, however provides an incomplete and personal perspective, not a comprehensive picture. The inquiry is a much broader exploration, and should perhaps be thought of more as a jigsaw, that slowly builds an overall picture from the written evidence and witness examinations over 6+ Modules. it is not writing the conclusions now. Module 2 is not over. There is a long, long way to go. I think it does not help to be impatient for the denouement. Even so, even now the reputation of Government, individual politicians, Downing Street, the Cabinet System, the Civil Service, and the British system and their self-esteem have been reduced to tatters. British confidence in being ‘the best’ was mere hubris. The system is an antiquated shell that has assuredly lost the confidence of the only people who still believed in it; the British electorate that has paid such a heavy price for the Covid disaster; visited upon them in excess by the failings of Government, that will not be forgotten by the many, many families which suffered.
Where I was slightly surprised at the questioning, was of Martin Reynolds (PPS to the PM). Reynolds explained his role, which included being, effectively the line manager responsible for Imran Shafi and other civil servants working for Johnson. Reynolds seemed to reduce his own senior role to what seemed to me little more than a diary-organiser and digital postman; and seems to have taken little responsibility for managing his staff, or reviewing their work, or problems. This may be a misunderstanding on my part, but counsel chose not to explore the opportunity to develop it, which surprised me.
In response to Mr Warren – fair points wrt a jig saw puzzle. Extract from an article I wrote (below) – which begs the question given your points – will the KC question Sunak? Will he put it to him that there were options other than bonds? I’m not a betting man – but I would bet that this will not happen. Reportage & commentary on the enquiry is far too focused on “naughty stuff” rather than systemic failings.
“One example was Cumming’s sitting in on a meeting between the PM and the finance minister (Sunak). The latter was arguing that bond markets and their reactions to government financial action to mitigate covid impacts were more important than mitigation. Fact: Sunak used to work for Goldman Sachs a company that makes significant money from bond markets. That the finance minister knew there were other options (e.g. the Bank of England issuing money to the government) was never considered by the KC. The KC could have asked “were other options considered, what was actually said?”. Had this line of questioning been pursued it would have unpicked much of the English governments actions with respect to austerity (2010 – 2015) and the growing destitution in England. That this never happened is revealing in terms of minds sets and the trajectory of the enquiry which seems to be more about identifying culprits rather than systemic failures”
I have an adult autistic son who lives in a supported living setting with 24/7 support. We followed all the rules. Covid restrictions completely changed his life and he hasn’t recovered. I feel angry. Sunak was a party goer and is now PM. Grrrr
‘The restrictions’?
It is worrying that the BBC is highlighting people who focus only on the ‘damage’ lockdown caused to their loved ones – rather than the absence of effective testing and checks to stop covid getting into care homes from hospitals etc. Many died.
Did your son get covid? was he tested? Has he got Long Covid – because it can cause damage to multiple organs through the body – brain, heart etc.
Otherwise is it mental changes due to being too isolated etc.?
Sorry if you dont want to engage on this – but blanket blaming ‘lockdown’ is not appropriate.
As I read it the imapct of isolation caused the harm – as it did to so many
It suited some – and I admit I have not gone back to being as socially active as I was before lockdown, maming it a life changing event for me, and that was before long-Covid hit.
Lockdown was indeed life changing. Had forgotten Richard you had long covid.
Here we are still taking some precautions and have deeply regretted the vastly reduced contact with family and friends.
Some countries who had very effective ways of reducing the spread of infection, managed without ‘lockdowns’ partly because they had experienced the earlier SARS virus.
If there had been a proper contingency plan for a pandemic, with proper test and trace and protective clothing, etc etc lockdown could have been much shorter etc etc.
Basically – and its still the case – we have to reduce the number of infected cases down to as low as possible – people are still going to hospital and dying. Need clean air at work and schools etc etc and vaccines for all.
Govt is still culling the vulnerable.
If only we made clean air a right.
But then, we are close to abandoning the commitment to clear water being so.
I have a 21 year old autistic grandson. He and his family had covid last Christmas.
I was thinking today that his behaviour definitely changed since lockdown.
The first lockdown was on his 18th birthday, so everything had to be cancelled.
He has problems with social mixing, but would he have had them anyway? How does anyone know.
He volunteers at the local hospice but is looking for an apprenticeship. However, if there are too many people in the cafe he doesn’t like going in there. He prefers to stay in the kitchen and do the washing up. One problem with this volunteering is that he doesn’t mix much with people his own age.
There’s a council group that was supposed to be helping him with getting work. The funding runs out at the end of the year, and he’s only just started. He has functional maths and English, so has what he needs to start an apprenticeship. It actually sounds as bad as the government, nobody knowing who is responsible for what so the students fall through the cracks.
I had covid quite badly, ended up on oxygen for three weeks on a covid ward. That was two years ago and I have long covid. I very rarely mix with anyone apart from my family. I live in a row of four bungalows and the other three have all moved in over the last two years. None of us have been in each other’s houses.
I’m going out tomorrow to watch Jamie Driscoll. No idea how I will cope, but my son and his wife are going, too, and taking me. From the meetings I have seen people are quite spread out.
Thanks for sharing
Good luck
And why not wear a mask? They still work.
I always have a mask on me, and wear it if I feel the need.
It’s in a masonic hall in the nearest small town, about ten minutes drive away, so I don’t imagine there will be many people there. He’s having meetings in every town, large and small, in the north east. He’s going to be worn out by next May.
It’s the logistics of wearing a mask, glasses and hearing aids that gets me.
Good for him
Go well….