Thread by @ukiswitheu

..The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me, failed short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this

..When the pubic needed us most, the government failed

Dominic Cummings
May 26th 2021

..The government itself and Number 10, was not operating on a war footing in February in any way shape or form

..A lot of key people were literally skiing in the middle of February 2020

..It wasn't till the last week of February there was any sense of urgency

#DominicCummings

..If we had the Prime Minister chairing COBRA meetings and he tells everyone that it's just swine flu, don't worry about it

..I'm going to get Whitty to inject me on TV with coronavirus, it's nothing to be frightened of

..That would not help serious planning

#DominicCummings

..I am not a technical person

..I am not a smart person

..I could not understand a lot of the models that were being discussed

#DominicCummings

WTF were you doing in government if you aren't technical or smart!

..No one was saying they want herd immunity to happen

..The point is, it was seen as an inevitability

..You'll either have it by September after first peak, or by January after second peak

..Those are the only two options

#DominicCummings

Australia & New Zealand disagree

Hunt: When Hancock said Herd Immunity was not part of the plan, was that wrong?

Cummings: Yes

..I'm completely baffled why Number 10 is trying to deny that

..That was the official plan, you can see it in the COBRA documents I've brought along

#DomonicCummings

..The first lockdown was delayed because there hadn't been the planning or the preparation for it

#DominicCummings

On March 12th Cummings sent a text to Johnson:

..We've got big problems coming, Cabinet office is terrified as sh*t, no plans, behind the pace, we must announce today, not next week, that if you feel ill with cold or flu, stay home

#DominicCummings

Lockdown was a week later

Surreal!

March 12th 2020

- Covid meetings
- Trump wanted to bomb Iraq meetings
- Carrie Symonds upset at story about her dog in The Times meetings

Title for Johnson's memoirs to be written when he is in jail:

A pandemic, a terrorist president and a b*tch

#DominicCummings

Hunt: Did you advise that pubs and restaurants should be shut?

Cummings: Yes, we said on the 14th we need to lockdown

..It was like a scene from Independence Day, with Jeff Goldblum saying the aliens are here, your whole plan is broken and you need a new plan

#DominicCummings

..Not just the Prime Minister but many other people thought the real danger is not the health danger but the economy

..Although I thought he was wrong, lots of other people in Whitehall thought the real danger was the economic one

#DominicCummings

..Matt Hancock the Secretary of State for Health should have been fired for at least 15 or 20 things

..Including lying on multiple times in the Cabinet rooms and in public

#DominicCummings

..On March 19th, not only was there no plan for shielding

..Lots of people in the Cabinet office said we shouldn't have a plan

#DominicCummings

Why aren't these people in jail?

In New Zealand: every life is precious

In UK Downing Street covid planning whiteboard from March 13, 2020:

#6 Who do we save?

.. Mid April Matt Hancock told us that everything is fine on PPE

..When I came back after covid the first meeting was about the PPE

..Hancock said it was the fault of NHS CEO and Chancellor

..Cabinet secretary said to me and PM it was untrue

#DoinicCummings

..We had a choice between Corbyn or Johnson

..Any system which gives a choice between two people like that, is a system that has gone extremely badly wrong

..Thousands could provide better leadership than either of those two

#DominicCummings

..It's completely crazy that I should be in such a senior position

..It's crackers that Boris Johnson is PM

..This covid crisis was lions led by donkeys

#DominicCummings

..My view is that the Prime Minister was already 1000x obsessed by the media

..It undermined him doing his own job

#DominicCummings

Dominic Cummings says that if we had a second referendum the whole system would have fallen apart

Newsflash: the UK's post brexit has fallen apart

..Hancock interfered in the building of Test and Trace

..Half the government were calling around saying do not do what Hancock says, build T&T properly

..Completely because Hancock wanted to go on TV and say look at me and my 100k target

..It was criminal

#DominicCummings

..Then the Prime Minister goes down and nearly dies

#DominicCummings

Did Cummings just let slip that Boris Johnson was so ill with covid that he nearly died?

..I said repeatedly, if we don't fire Mat Hancock Secretary of State for Health

..We are going to kill people and it's going to be a catastrophe

#DomonicCummings

Over 150,000 deaths from covid, Hancock should be in jail

..The Cabinet Secretary said to the Prime Minister

..The British system is not set up to deal with a secretary of state for health, Matt Hancock, who repeatedly lies in meetings

..We can't operate like that

#DominicCummings

..Chaos isn't bad

..Chaos means everybody has to look to me to see who is in charge

Boris Johnson thrives in disorder and chaos

Boris Johnson should go straight to prison

#DominicCummings

..The government rhetoric was that we put a shield around care homes

..Complete nonsense

..Quite the opposite of putting a shield around them

..We sent people back to care homes with covid

#DominicCummungs

..There was no proper border policy because the Prime Minister didn't want one

..The Daily Telegraph and Tory MPs going crackers at a border policy

.As of today, look at variants, we still don't have a border policy

#DominicCummings

Johnson wanted headlines not public health

..Huge parts of Public Health in the UK and US

..They said don't wear masks, turned out to be nonsense

..They said don't close the borders, it was common sense obvious [to close them]

#DominicCummings

..How would you rate the government's response to covid?

..Some individual brilliant performances

..Overall, system total failure

#DominicCummings

..The reason for all these problems were

..Bad policy, bad decisions, bad planning, bad operational capability

..It doesn't matter if you have great people doing communications if the Prime Minister changes his mind ten times a day

#DominicCummings

..Everybody know that the Secretary of State for Health, the Chief Scientific Adviser, the Chief Medical officer

..Were all briefing Laura Kuensberg, Robert Peston, in the week of the 9th on the single peak herd immunity plan

#DominicCummings

..Tens of thousands pf people died who didn't need to die

..If Number 10 today won't tell the truth about the official plan they briefed the media about and described on TV a year ago, what on earth else is going on in there?

#DominicCummings

..Many of us said to the Prime Minister in the summer

..Don't do this whole covid is over get back to work

..Over July and August, the government tried to get people back to work

#DominicCummings

..There's a great misunderstanding people have

..That because covid nearly killed the Prime Minister

..Therefore he must have taken it seriously

..His argument was literally, I should have been the mayor in Jaws and kept the beaches open

#DominicCummings

..Did you hear him say let the bodies pile high?

..The version the BBC reported was accurate

..I heard that in the Prime Minister's study

#DominicCummings

..The Prime Minister's girlfriend Carrie Symonds

..Was trying to appoint her friends to Number 10 jobs

..She tried to overturn an outcome of an official process which was not ethical and illegal

#DominicCummings

@metpoliceuk will you investigate?

..The Prime Minister knew I blamed him for the whole situation

..The heart of the problem was

..I regarded Boris Johnson unfit for the job of Prime Minister

#DominicCummings

..When you have a crisis this bad

..You've got to face reality

..It's beyond absurd that we're in a situation where millions of people watch the gov have an official policy of herd immunity last march, now Number 10 is trying to claim it didn't exist

#DominicCummings

..Do you think Boris Johnson is a fit and proper person to get us through this pandemic?

..No

#DominicCummings

..Number 10 data team, CMO, Chief Scientist advised a short lockdown in September, so it has minimal impact

..Johnson locked down 5 weeks later

..Thousands of people caught covid in those 5 weeks and died

#DominicCummings

..People are incentivised to keep their heads down

..To back up the system when it fails

..People are appointed to jobs based on being a good chap

..Being really good at your job is not taken seriously

#DominicCummings