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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