Thursday, March 02, 2023
What happened in Wales?
The leaking of more than 100,000 official WhatsApp messages by the journalist, Isabel Oakeshott has really put the cat amongst the pigeons with regards to the official Covid inquiry.
Other messages divulged to the Telegraph suggested:
* Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, said teachers were complaining about a lack of PPE in order “to have an excuse not to teach” adding that some teaching unions “really do just hate work”.
* Pupils in English schools were told to wear face masks despite limited evidence of the policy’s efficacy after Johnson was told by Whitty that it was probably “not worth an argument” with Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, on the issue.
* Hancock asked George Osborne, the Conservative ex-chancellor for whom he once worked, for favourable coverage in the Evening Standard newspaper, which Osborne edited at the time.
* Whately, as care minister, warned that restrictions on visitors to care homes at the time were “inhumane”.
* An adviser to Hancock helped send a Covid test to the home of the then leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, in September 2020 – amid a backlog in testing – for one of his children.
It is little wonder that the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group believe that families should be represented at the hearings and be allowed to cross-examine witnesses such as Hancock.
The unspoken question in all this, though, is what about Wales? Did Ministers here receive similar advice, and if so, what did they do with it?
It's just as well that there are cats left to set on these pesky birds, given the most astonishing revelation from the leak, that the UK government considered whether it might have to ask people to exterminate all pet cats during the early days of the Covid pandemic.
Quite apart from the fact that such mass felicide sounds eerily like the plot from Planet of the Apes, it is likely that this decision alone would have caused mass demonstrations and the overthrow of the government. If this is what Tories think of cats then roll on the next General Election when we can vote them all out.
More seriously, one of the most disturbing revelations from the leak is that the official advice to test everyone entering a care home for Covid at the start of the pandemic was ignored by Ministers, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
As the Guardian says, an exchange took place in in April 2020, in which Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, told Hancock that “all [people] going into care homes” should be tested, recommending “segregation whilst awaiting result”. According to another leaked message, Hancock rejected this, telling an aide that such a move “muddies the waters”:
Quite apart from the fact that such mass felicide sounds eerily like the plot from Planet of the Apes, it is likely that this decision alone would have caused mass demonstrations and the overthrow of the government. If this is what Tories think of cats then roll on the next General Election when we can vote them all out.
More seriously, one of the most disturbing revelations from the leak is that the official advice to test everyone entering a care home for Covid at the start of the pandemic was ignored by Ministers, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
As the Guardian says, an exchange took place in in April 2020, in which Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, told Hancock that “all [people] going into care homes” should be tested, recommending “segregation whilst awaiting result”. According to another leaked message, Hancock rejected this, telling an aide that such a move “muddies the waters”:
Other messages divulged to the Telegraph suggested:
* Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, said teachers were complaining about a lack of PPE in order “to have an excuse not to teach” adding that some teaching unions “really do just hate work”.
* Pupils in English schools were told to wear face masks despite limited evidence of the policy’s efficacy after Johnson was told by Whitty that it was probably “not worth an argument” with Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, on the issue.
* Hancock asked George Osborne, the Conservative ex-chancellor for whom he once worked, for favourable coverage in the Evening Standard newspaper, which Osborne edited at the time.
* Whately, as care minister, warned that restrictions on visitors to care homes at the time were “inhumane”.
* An adviser to Hancock helped send a Covid test to the home of the then leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, in September 2020 – amid a backlog in testing – for one of his children.
It is little wonder that the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group believe that families should be represented at the hearings and be allowed to cross-examine witnesses such as Hancock.
The unspoken question in all this, though, is what about Wales? Did Ministers here receive similar advice, and if so, what did they do with it?
The need for a Welsh specific inquiry into Covid has never been more urgent. It is no longer good enough to say we are covered by the UK inquiry, these leaked WhatsApp messages have debunked that argument for good.
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I wonder if all this 'excitement' is to give the Conservatives a 'kick up the backside' re Oakeshotte did not ,allegedly, get paid for helping Hancock with his book whilst will get paid handsomely by the Telegraph to push its sales figures and her career.
This goes along with seeing that she is a Brexiter linked with the equally right wing Reform UK party and Tices partner .A boost for that party?
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This goes along with seeing that she is a Brexiter linked with the equally right wing Reform UK party and Tices partner .A boost for that party?
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