Thread by @PandaScottish

[thread] Thank you to Matt Hancock & all those working under him

On ramping up

On straining every sinew

To increase the coronavirus / day testing of the UK

You didn't meet the target

And all you had to do is be honest in that

But you weren't

The why & how infuriate me

"In handling any crisis, it is absolutely crucial to retain credibility. Giving false reassurance is the worst thing one can do.... almost as bad as outright lying is holding information so closely that people think officials know more than they say."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22148/

So some words not from a politician but a poet

"But that's the wonderful thing about the icon - you continue to grow, you develop courage, the most important of all the virtues. Because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

quora.com/What-did-Maya-…

I could quote numerous politicians on honesty and integrity

But let's go for Honest Abe

"I should regret to see the day in which the people should cease to express intelligent, honest generous criticism upon the policy of their rulers.”

smithsonianmag.com/history/honest…

So there are five pillars - to borrow a terminology - I want to focus on:

The origin of the target

The how of the lie

The why of the lie

The propagation of the lie

What makes you angry about the lie?

Margaret Thatcher once talked of the "twin pillars of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law"

So I think the use of pillars as a theme is quite appropriate from party who oh yes unlawfully prorogued Parliament as it sought to further the hollow con of brexit sold by cheating, lies, cakeist fantasy, nativism, racism, xenophobia and aided by Putin interference

A british prime minister who is and has always been suppressing a russian report

Just imagine doing that and knowing your party will cheer you doing that

nbcnews.com/politics/natio…

Pillar 1: The origin of the target

19th March 2020

"By the same token we're massively increasing the testing to see whether you have it now and ramping up daily testing from 5,000 a day, to 10,000 to 25,000 and then up at 250,000."

walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-new…

Oh no sorry my bad that wasn't the target

After all in that was an aspiration of "ramping up" to 250,000 tests a day shall we say a Prime Minister who wants to allow someone to "let him" (aka red bus) strain every sinew

“I’m now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month. That is the goal and I’m determined we’ll get there.”

theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

Now you can look at previous views on targets from Matt Hancock and some of his colleagues historically

https://twitter.com/peterkyle/status/1256553660257050626

?

Heck you could even look more recently

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Pillar 2: The how of the lie

Now there are several elements to this lie

The first is
1) When did you decide to lie to fabricate reaching it
2) How did you decide to fabricate reaching it
3) Why did you think fabricating it was worthwhile

Now to all those selling the lie the target was met

Or those who are victim to the lie

Just wake up

Really

I don't say that with contempt

Those who have contempt are those who *want* you to fall for the lie and *hope* you do

See

hsj.co.uk/quality-and-pe…

And

newscientist.com/article/223747…

I am not going to waste any time in my life arguing with either charlatans telling me the target was met

They know they are lying

I don't care to argue the what of what they are peddling

I want to know the why

Because that then touches on point 2) of how you fabricate it

Because the HSJ journal makes it clear on so many aspects of the fabrication

But in my view it omits the *most* egregeious one

The most damning one

The most appalling one

In order to "ramp up" the home tests the government chose to exploit a mailing list of Conservative Party members

Now *even* if I accepted that "ramping up" home tests and fabricating the counting method to incude them in tests done was acceptable (which I don't)

The notion that you do this by only doing this to Tory party members is offensive

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

If this invitation had went out to all UK political party leaders to distribute via their party mailing lists - then that would have been ok

I would have thought ok its just another communication avenue to the government website advertising the home test kits

But it wasn't

It was propaganda targetted purely at Tory party members and their households

I can see the numbers sense it made - after all the Rees Mogg household and its "herd" of children would take up 8 tests and other Tory members demographically I am sure give you a rapid surge of no's

If I was a member of a party in government who deliberately and wilfully exploited my email address for government propaganda amidst a deadly pandemic crisis in such a fashion I'd be appalled

The "Tory" party wasn't

They responded to the "call"

Is a stain on that party

After all - there are so many more urgent persons who need access to testing in the U.K.

Patients

NHS staff
Care staff
Police
Fire
Ambulance
Military
Essential workers

So many many more candidates who are more deserving of preferential access to a test ahead of Tory members

So if I was a Conservative party member not only would I be appalled by such gaming the tests but I would refuse to partake in it

Can you imagine the outrage that would have followed had Labour been in government and sent an email to momentum members asking them to actively participate in fiddling figures on a promise?

But given the lying cheating racist Party leader they chose to elect

A man with no moral compass as Jacob Rees Mogg confirmed

The party of Thatcher who talks about those twin pillars of the rule of law and parliamentary democracy

Well that party is dead in a ditch

For a historical comparison

My mind goes back to the Quad on this

Cameron/Osborne

, ‘I don’t understand why you keep going on about the need for more social housing – it just creates Labour voters.’

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

And then point 3 - given how easily this lie of achieving this target is demolished

Why did you think it worthwhile to lie?

You knew before you had the daily press briefing that the HSJ had ALREADY reported on your tissue of lies

hsj.co.uk/quality-and-pe…

So you knew that it was already established the how of the fabrication you were attempting to pull off

yet you went out in the press briefing & still tried to brazen it out

You must have known journalists would question you on the detail and reveal it?

Why not just be honest?

"In handling any crisis, it is absolutely crucial to retain credibility. Giving false reassurance is the worst thing one can do.... almost as bad as outright lying is holding information so closely that people think officials know more than they say."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22148/

Which leads us into

Pillar 3: The why of the lie

Why lie?

Given Matt Hancock you said on 24th January 2020 the UK was one of the first countries in the world to develop a coronavirus test

The fact that by the end of April you have finally reached something approaching a meaningful test level is a wonderful thing

The fact that testing capacity is increasing is good

Obviously it has come too late to aid the "apparent success" of the 1st wave of covid

The where are we 30,000 or so official deaths and the forecast total (from FT) at mid 40,000 (or so - I struggle to keep up with the flood of news)

As we descend the peak of wave 1 this testing capacity will be invaluable not only for the test, test, test and trace phase that is surely going to have to feature in the un-lockdown

But also as we try to contain any wave 2

So your incompetence in the "herd immunity" of wave 1 - has 1 benefit - we come out of wave 1 & prepare for wave 2 very much aware of how is it Boris & Stanley Johnson put it

Oh yes - the UK only realised the "seriousness" of covid when the Boris was infected and hospitalised

Personally I thought the WHO made it clear in January 2020 the seriousness of covid

But hey what do I know I don't know how to spell pinnnochio properly as Stanley would say so I am just an illiterate anyway

Pillar 4: The propagation of the lie

You had many "journalists" who repeated the lie as part of your speech of the press briefing

They then questioned you and many of them rightly followed up with further well "sunlight" to borrow a phrase from

You have many Conservative politicians or ex-politicians from your MPs to even George Osborne , to the Tim Stanley and to Iain Dale and others

Who push deflections and diversions as they either push the lie or say yes the Government lied but.....

And of course the loyal MPs / party

Even George Osborne got in the act

https://twitter.com/George_Osborne/status/1256335677161041921

You knew that all you had to do was get it through the news cycle on Friday and enough "newspapers" would present it in a style you wanted

Or the initial headlines that many "journalists" wrote up would give the lie prominence

After all the lie just needed initial prominence

Here's how an international news organisation reported it

Or as they call it in Trumpland - the lugenpress

https://mobile.twitter.com/billneelynbc/status/1256265426935431169

That it fell to pieces minutes later in the press briefing didn't matter

After all you have the familiar tropes that can then be deployed to belittle journalists, the BBC Or others who correct the lie and initial impression sent out

I should also make it clear - I wouldn't view Matt Hancock not making the target as a resignation matter

I think he passed that point a long time ago in terms of what could "conventionally" be classed as principles or details which would justify a resignation

On being against prorogation:

“everything that those men who waded on to those beaches fought and died for”, adding: “And I will not have it.”

oh and

“A policy on Brexit to prorogue parliament would mean the end of the Conservative party as a serious party of government.”

Instead Matt has chosen to become compicit in the party of Cummings-Johnson

It is a choice

Just following orders is not a viable excuse for Matt

I personally think he should stay in post - not as a positive choice - but because I would fear who the hell would replace him from a party of cultist lying cheating racist incompetents

And so we turn to

Pillar 5: What makes you angry about the lie?

For me several things

It is the ever descending eternally bottomless barrel of lies , deceit, cheating, racism and xenophobia incompetent husk the "Conservative" Party has chosen to become

It is the contempt that Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and others demonstrate for the british public

You know that public that has oh - here's today daily briefing

"UK death toll - officially 28,131 - could be nearer 30,000, says head of national statistics office"

It is well ... I want you to be best

To borrow a phrase from America

But you aren't

I would borrow the phrase "right matters here"

But that seems equally abhorrent to use with the current rabble of the party in government

The party of Thatcher

By choice a cult of brexit fantatics
cheats
liars
racists
nativists
fantasists

And those cowed and terrorised into silence in the cult whose fear is simply to serve self and career

They have nothing left in response to critique of their coronavirus response

Apart from

Zip it
Aggressive questioning (at BBC/C4)
Unpatriotic slurs
Be optimistic
journalists are untrustworthy
journalists are missing the mood of the country
Inflame anger at China

Your reminder

These pathetic deflectionary tropes wouldn't be needed if their response really was an "apparent success"

wouldn't be needed if they had "done the right thing at the right time"

Their inability to answer to their record

Tells you all you need to know

See here for a thread where Tim Montgomerie - peddles without any shame a range of those bullshit tropes

That is all these cheering propagandists pied piper charlatans are after

Feeding the base

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1254788555093630983

And see here - a look back to a disgraced former defence minister and a man who said something would be the "easiest deal in history"

One Dr Liam Fox MP

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1255847520305020933

A eminder of Boris Johnson

A man at the heart of all this

A lying cheating racist incompetent charlatan

Who will do or say anything for self & career

Everyone knows what he is

p.s. I am glad he survived covid and wish him, his fiancee & son well

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1255951040068845577

@threadreaderapp unroll please