'People have every reason to be confident and calm about all that kind of thing… all the coronavirus, and any threats from disease,' Boris Johnson, Feb 2020.
'We can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country,' Boris Johnson, March 2020
'We can now see the sunlight and pasture ahead of us. And so it is vital that we do not now lose control and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain,' Boris Johnson, April 2020
'We have a route, and we have a plan, and everyone in government has the all-consuming pressure and challenge to save lives, restore livelihoods and gradually restore the freedoms that we need,' Boris Johnson, May 2020
'I take full responsibility for everything this government has been doing in tackling coronavirus and I’m very proud of our record,' Boris Johnson, June 2020
'It’s very important that people should be going back to work if they can now....I think we should now say, well, ‘go back to work if you can’. Because I think it’s very important that people should try to lead their lives more normally.,' Boris Johnson, July 2020
'We have the disease under control,' Boris Johnson, August 2020
'We are once again asking office workers who can work from home to do so,' Boris Johnson, September 2020
'People are not following the guidance in the way that they should...everybody got a bit, kind of complacent and blasé,' Boris Johnson, October 2020
'We are entering a new and crucial phase of our fight against Coronavirus....we must act now,' Boris Johnson, today.

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More from @ianbirrell

18 Aug
Some quotes from self-declared superforecaster Dominic Cummings that are interesting in light of the PM's refusal to hire anyone that challenges him and this government's shambolic incompetence on everything from protecting people in pandemic to the exam fiasco
1) 'Everyone is discouraged from telling the truth to important people. It isn’t a culture in which you admit mistakes. There’s no grip, no focus.' He was attacking Cameron's coalition but sounds familiar, doesn't it?
2) 'The people at the apex of political power (elected and unelected) are far from the best people in the world in terms of goals, intelligence, ethics, or competence.' Yes, his government proves this point daily...
Read 16 tweets
1 Aug
If you want to see the damage that Brexit has wrought to Britain, consider the fact that Claire Fox became a regular voice on the BBC, then an MEP and now has been elevated to the House of Lords by Boris Johnson.
Over the course of her career as a 'controversialist' she ran a magazine that libelled ITV journalists by alleging they faked evidence when exposing some of the worst atrocities in Europe since WW2. It also opposed gun controls after the Dunblane massacre.
During the Iraq War her party - which published the magazine - did not just oppose a foolish misadventure but rooted for Saddam Hussein against British troops
Read 7 tweets
23 May
Certain political stories are lethal because they cut through to voters on a personal level while inflaming concerns lurking in people’s minds. The Mirror story about David Cameron’s car taking his shoes to work while he cycled and smiled at the cameras was a prime example
This is the danger for the government in defending Cummings. Clearly his actions were hypocritical & wrong. They must have been known to Downing Street. They anger voters locked up, losing jobs, missing their own families & even funerals in these dark times.
However much they try to spin, this single story exposes arrogant & elitist attitudes behind the populist stance of people in power. It does so with far more force than angry speeches or columns. And it comes after enforced U-turn revealed lack of concern over health & care staff
Read 4 tweets
9 May
Do all deaths count equally? I've been trying to get clarification today after @NHSEngland medical director Steve Powis said: 'I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities; autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals.'
2/ My understanding from the NHS is that it will publish data that has been verified on the deaths of anyone with a learning disability, autism or mental ill health who has died, with confirmed Covid-19, in any NHS setting.
3/ But hold on: they still seem to be working out details so could not, for instance, say if this would include people funded by the NHS in private hospitals and units. Clearly only just begun focusing on this issue. Bottom of priorities again, for all the waffle.
Read 13 tweets
10 Mar
According to @RencapMan (who's been excellent on #coronavirus), Switzerland has the same virus rate as Italy on 4 March implying it should close schools tomorrow & its economy will shut down on 16th March.

Spain follows two days later.
France should see schools off by Friday with national lockdown on 19th March.

Germany follows a day later.

The UK is currently like Italy on 26th Feb so economic shut-down date is 23th March.

'That’s western Europe out of the global economic picture within two weeks.'
Now let's move to the US.

Its data implies national lock-down looms on 25th March. And it will be looking at about 50,000 cases by the end of this month and probably something like 2000 deaths (slightly lower rate that Italy due to younger population).
Read 5 tweets
15 Feb
Today's Times revealed the latest Johnson adviser @AndrewSabisky claims 'eugenics are about selecting for good things' - which is highly repellent, historically inaccurate but typical of the arrogant new wave of eugenicists emerging from the woodwork. Here is the full quote:
Several of his tweets on disabilities seem to have disappeared - although The Times referred to one tweet still up as saying 'women’s sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.'
His @ASI review of Adam Perkins's much-condemned book The Welfare Trait has also disappeared, although online references to it note that Sabisky claimed 'habitual welfare claimants with employment-resistant personalities are likely to have offspring with similar personalities.'
Read 7 tweets

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