In advance of Cummings select ctte appearance today it’s worth considering the following: 1) his protracted Twitter thread appears to be a “not me guv” defence. If he’s not partly responsible for the inept and deadly initial UK Govt response to the #COVID19 response, then who is?
2) A pandemic is classified as a Tier 1 national security risk. National security is a Cabinet Office area of responsibility. Hence Gove is the responsible senior minister. This may explain his current ‘submarine approach’ to media appearances on #COVID19. He needs questioning
3) The last pandemic exercise (‘Cygnus’) in 2016 was co-chaired by Cab Office and Dept of Health ministers, so Hancock is also a senior minister with responsibility in a pandemic. When did he first read the Cygnus report and what were his conclusions? What actions did he take?
4) In our system of government power is very much concentrated in No 10, so Johnson (& his wider politically-appointed team - including Cummings) as our PM bears ultimate responsibility for the mismanagement of the pandemic response. He and his team need to be properly questioned
5) Where’s Mark Sedwill gone? In a national crisis the civil service plays a key role, especially in putting options to ministers. How was herd immunity ever near an option to be taken with a virus whose CFR (case fatality rate) was initially thought to be much higher than ‘flu?
Hence, the three key responsible ministers are Gove, Johnson and Hancock. In another more honourable age, involving such clear, proven individual failures in ministerial office leading to the unnecessary premature deaths of thousands, each of their resignations would be expected
As to Sedwill & other senior civil servants, there needs to be a proper investigation into the collection & presentation of information to ministers. It’s not only politicians who are culpable for the scandalous initial response to #COVID19 in early 2020. We need a public inquiry

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More from @DrPhillipLee

12 Apr
Thanks for getting back to me. That is a big question and I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll have a go at explaining a bit about where I stand....
The first thing to say is that I think our governance system is fundamentally unfit for the 21st century and needs a major reset
This isn’t an issue for which there are quick fixes because that system (including politics, government, the Civil Service and the unwritten contract with the people) grows out of our society. That’s the beauty of our democracy and means it ought to self-correct. In theory.
Our problem though is that our governance system has become chronically detached from society over recent years. People talk about the ‘Westminster bubble’ but it’s much more serious than that and until we correct this fundamental flaw, we’re just rearranging deck chairs
Read 9 tweets
30 Mar
A year on, it is so good to hear of global action to be more prepared for the next pandemic. International collaboration is key. I want Far East governments in the lead (Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, etc). They have shown us how it’s done....
A year on we have lost over 129,000 of our loved ones to #COVID19. Most of these deaths could have been avoided if we’d had competent Government. Japan (whose population is around double ours) lost around 9000 and Taiwan *just 10 people* TEN PEOPLE
A year on we have done relatively well on vaccine rollout, thanks to remarkable international science and the structure and culture of our NHS - THANK YOU to NHS staff and scientists
Read 5 tweets
7 Feb
How long will it take for the anger directed at those who warned of the impact of a hard Brexit to be directed instead at those who conned people into voting for it in the first place?
No amount of “believing more in Britain” is going to change the future economic reality. What will change that reality is for those of us who once argued for a rethink on Brexit now to provide an actual option people can vote for.
That option needs to be clear, inspirational and ultimately lead to Britain rejoining the EU. #RejoinEU
Read 7 tweets
27 Dec 20
This is a bad #Brexit deal done by bad people in a bad way. It doesn’t have the public’s explicit informed consent. It bears little relation to Vote Leave’s promises in 2016. I couldn’t vote for it
Of course we must now move forward as a country and, like many, I am fed up with the Brexit process. But that makes it all the more important to call out what has happened: Britons have been misled by bad people into making the greatest strategic error in our modern history
We must learn. The public was had and elected people whose mismanagement of #COVID19 led to the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands; who screwed our country for a generation; & cornered us with lies, manipulation, bullying & brinkmanship. Such people shouldn’t be in power
Read 5 tweets
6 Dec 20
This is pure revisionism, untrue and a dangerous, divisive reinvention of recent history that will stop our country from recovering. I was intimately involved in these events and will try to explain....
Let’s put aside for a moment the rights and wrongs of a ‘soft’ Brexit. (Wrong mainly because no one voted for it in the 2016 referendum; it literally wasn’t on the ballot paper.)
There was a fleeting opportunity for a soft Brexit in 2016 *if* the-then PM had chosen to make delivering Brexit a cross-party endeavour. This is what she should have done on an issue of such strategic national importance, and I told her so at the time.
Read 25 tweets
9 Nov 20
POST-BREXIT: Kupchan (Biden Foreign Policy Adviser) - “The bottom line is that Brexit is an act of self-isolation. Britain (is) no longer the bridge to Europe it (has) been. The UK is going to have to figure out how to make itself relevant at a time when it is inwardly focussed”.
POST-SUEZ: Acheson (US Sec of State) - Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role. The attempt to play a separate power role — that is, a role apart from Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, a role based on being head of a...
....’commonwealth’ which has no political structure, or unity, or strength — this role is about played out.” A senior adviser to the President-Elect of our closest ally indicates we’re no further forward in 2020 in determining an effective role in the world than we were in 1962.
Read 4 tweets

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