Thread by @garius

A serious thing that has been bugging me since last night's Leadership debate:

I don't think Jeremy Hunt understands how time and memory actually work in the real world.

On AT LEAST two occasions, Jeremy Hunt brought up that he used to be Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Not was ASKED about his time as SoS Health. But ACTIVELY brought it up. It was bizarre. I commented on it at the time:

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1141065544273145856

Now let's not beat about the bush here. Jeremy Hunt was, hands down, one of the WORST SoS Healths that the country has suffered since the birth of the Welfare State.

Wanna know how bad? His Wikipedia index of shame HAS FIVE SUBSECTIONS ON THE NHS

Jeremy Hunt is a man who is almost UNIVERSALLY loathed by anyone who has either worked in the NHS for the last eight years, dated or married someone from the NHS, had a family member who worked in the NHS or - quite frankly - had a CONVERSATION with someone who worked in the NHS.

Jeremy Hunt was so hated as SoSH that Matt 'The App' Hancock, is STILL riding a wave of 'Well at least he's not Jeremy Hunt' EIGHTEEN MONTHS into the job.

This despite some rapid and impressive work on his own Wikipedia wall of shame (he's not reached index level yet).

Back-of-the-fag packet:

The NHS is the 5th biggest employer IN THE WORLD. 1.5 million people. Let's treble that for family/partners then add on another 1.5 mil for friends.

Conservatively (pun intended) that's SIX MILLION who Hunt shouldn't remind about what he did to the NHS.

That's BEFORE we include everyone directly affected by the shit he pulled at the NHS. Jeremy Hunt caused DOCTORS to go on STRIKE.

We kinda all noticed that Jeremy. And we remember.

So why do it? Why did Jeremy Hunt VOLUNTARILY remind us all, twice, that he was one of the worst SoS Healths of all time?

The only reason I can think of is that he no longer understands the difference between what we could call 'real time', and 'Westminster Time'

Real time, is what happens to most of us (unsurprisingly) in our jobs every day.

When we screw up, the memory of that remains and so do the consequences. How long depends on the severity of the fuck up.

If the fuck up is MAJOR enough then it DOESN'T fade. If you're lucky, you work in a sector that's large enough that - if you get a new job at a different company - no one will know or find out.

If it's a small sector, or the same company though, then you're kinda screwed.

Now to a certain extent, that has applied in Westminster too. Traditionally, fuck up as a minister and you're sent to the back benches. If you're lucky, once a suitable time has passed people forget.

(Not always. Ask Disgraced Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox about that)

The theory is, that gives the public time to forget what you did, and you then get a job a few years down the line with a blank slate.

(We can argue about whether this is STILL true in the age of Social Media and easy access to information online, but that's another debate).

The other option has always been to do what Jeremy Hunt did (and Grayling at Justice): move to a different post.

Both, in terms of 'Westminster Time' reset both the political memory on whether you're shit at your job or not (allegedly).

Which I mean, whatever. If that's how some MPs want Westminster time to work then fine. But they do at least normally accept that REGULAR TIME and memory don't work that way. So they do try and avoid reminding normal people of what they used to do, even after some time has passed

Which brings us back to Jeremy Hunt:

The only reason I can think why he'd bring up the NHS is because he LITERALLY thinks we've all forgotten.

That when he said 'As Health Secretary...' we were all going to be:

"Oh right. Yeah. He did that. Can't remember what he was like."

I think Jeremy Hunt has genuinely forgotten how time actually works, and believes that he gets to just hard-reset us all (and himself) occasionally.

The Maybot might be gone, but is the Hundroid the replacement model?

Hell, it would explain how he was sitting last night.