Thread by @PandaScottish

[thread]

I used the example of Aberfan in a thread (which I will link at the end of this) in trying to imagine the scale of deaths from this pandemic in the UK

But now I want to turn to the words of a politician from that time.

"There is, too, a far greater bond in this disaster than any party political affiliation could indicate. All of us who are here felt with the people at Aberfan that day. "

"It is disastrous enough to lose a child—I think it is the greatest disaster that can befall any family—but to lose a child in that way was so terrible that words can hardly express how we felt. "

"I should like also to say that we greatly admire the way in which the right hon. Gentleman Cledwyn Hughesthe Secretary of State for Wales dealt with the disaster on the spot, the way he went down on the first day and the way in which he coped with things. "

"We also appreciate the difficulty of some of the decisions which he had to make, particularly when the rains came on the following day."

"Although he is not here at the moment we also watched with admiration the way in which the hon. Member for Cardiff, West (Mr. George Thomas), went about his duties there, and I feel that we should express this admiration."

"I share the view of the Member who said that, always when tragedy strikes, the person in command should go to the scene as quickly as possible. This may be as a result of my own background of a family company. When anything happens, the person who is head of it goes immediately"

"He is responsible for the whole, and he must go. he summonses his chief lieutenant & gives instructions to find the facts as quickly as possible, but he himself goes there to show people that he is there to see what is going on, extend sympathy, while setting officials to work."

The speech from Margaret Thatcher

margaretthatcher.org/document/101587

Roll on to 2020/2021

@10DowningStreet @BorisJohnson

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1389904419689582592