REMORSE: @MattHancock realises that the deliberately late lockdown increased the #COVID death toll by at least 20,000 & that the govt’s policy of transferring people from hospitals to care homes without testing also killed tens of thousands
2/. GUILT
Hancock is asked about failures with the contact tracing app, with testing, with providing PPE to frontline NHS staff, with doing checks in airports, with late introduction of masks & why he says he “didn’t know about asymptomatic transmission”!
3/. DISTRESS
@MattHancock is asked why billions of £ of #COVID19 contracts were fast-tracked to unqualified companies (including his neighbour’s) & why companies with links to #CambridgeAnalytica - #Palantir & #FacultyAI - are running the NHS data store.
4/. SADNESS
After 9 months holding back the emotion, Hancock finally allows himself to break down in genuine tears...on live television
Is he crying for the 60,000+ Britons who’ve died of #COVID?
No! His tears are because he’s so “proud to be British”!
5/. FEAR:
Even in the face of mounting scandals & one of the highest #COVID19 death rates in the world, the govt was bullish
“We’re clearly better than all other countries. That's why we approved the vaccine first & why this vaccine - developed by a Turkish-born German immigrant working for an American firm in Belgium - is a great British success" (via @larryandpaul)
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A truly great song & stonking video (the best bit comes right at the end) - via @mikewarburton
VIDEO DIRECTOR: I thought we’d shoot in Jamaica. Palm trees, sandy beach, girls in bikinis...
JOHNNY: Let me stop you there. I want horses in stables, ardent forest & a little old lady dressed as a waitress pouring me a cup of tea from a silver tea pot in an English Stately Home
JOHNNY: One other thing. In the middle of the video I want at least 10 seconds of just of the sky
VIDEO DIRECTOR: Just sky?! For 10 seconds?! In the middle of the video
“I just reckon we've got the very best people in this and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators. Much better than the French have, the Belgians, the Americans have...Because we're a much better country than every single one, aren’t we.” @GavinWilliamson on @LBC
“All 27 EU members will have access to vaccines at the same time. Some countries could have gone quicker but they chose solidarity.” @jensspahn German health minister
“We're first! We’re the best!” UK govt ministers
Pfizer = American
BioNTech = German
Manufacturer = Belgian
“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs...reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
(Arthur Schopenhauer)
A govt minister grinning & laughing inappropriately isn’t a big deal
What’s more concerning is how unaffected ministers have remained in the face of the soaring death toll that has resulted from their #COVID19 strategy
Watch their body language, their eyes, their bullishness.
The only time the Cabinet seemed truly ruffled was NOT when the death toll became the highest in Europe or when the #CareHomeScandal broke or when it was revealed late lockdown had cost 20,000+ lives
A Turkish court has upheld the unjust convictions of four human rights defenders, including my former @amnesty#Turkey colleagues, Taner Kilic & Idil Eser
When human rights defenders are silenced, ALL our rights are put at risk.