Thread by @StefSimanowitz

1/. DAN WALKER: The guidance says you should choose what to do. What would you do

HELEN WHATELY: I’d choose to follow the guidance

Yet another car crash interview by govt minister, @Helen_Whately unable to say whether she will continue wearing face.

2/. Last year, @Helen_Whately attempted to blame scientists for the govt’s policy of transferring #COVID19 patients from hospitals into care homes without testing

@KayBurley wasn’t impressed

BURLEY: You can't stick this on the scientists

WHATLEY: I can

3/. On 28/5/20, @Helen_Whately, was asked four times by Fiona Bruce on #BBCQT where we are with the app which is essential for tracking & tracing

She didn’t answer

#HelenWhately: The app will support the...the...the...the...as we go further down the path

4/. Asked why the govt deliberately transferred people from hospitals to care homes without tests, @Helen_Whately, first tried the “guided by science” line, THEN claims “the world” didn’t know that #COVID could be asymptomatic recently

The world DID know!

5/. Asked about Exercise Cygnus
the 2016 govt simulation of a disease outbreak, which exposed the UK’s lack of pandemic readiness,
@Helen_Whately replies: "Could you tell me what you're talking about?"

@NickFerrariLBC is almost lost for words!

6/. “It will be safe for children to be back in schools" @Helen_Whately claimed last August, despite admitting to @louiseminchin that she “hasn’t seen the paper”

She also claimed we have “very low transmission”

This was not true.
#COVID19 #coronavirus

7/. “They cover up crime with scandal & covers up malice with incompetence...They want to project an image of being inept, instead of as having a cruel & well-defined plan.”

@sarahkendzior wrote this on the Trump’s admin, but could have been writing about Boris Johnson’s govt👇

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1277145853384425472

8/. Johnson isn’t a ‘bumbling loveable buffoon’

He uses this persona as a front for deflecting scrutiny, avoiding questions & building his Teflon brand

Now more than ever, we need journalists & MPs not to be bamboozled by bluster, distraction & lies.

9/. Like many of the Cabinet, Helen Whately went straight from university to management consultancy & to politics

She has no background or experience in social care

She voted along with 344 other MPs against the weekly testing of NHS & Social Care Staff.

10/. “This is the govt most days
on this programme. Sometimes I do think our viewers would appreciate a straight answer to a straight question" @mrdanwalker to @Helen_Whately

Ministers boycotted @piersmorgan @Channel4News @BBCNewsnight etc. #BBCBreakfast

11/. Acting as if they’re above scrutiny is a deliberate & well-rehearsed strategy

If asked about any govt failings ministers deflect, or lie go on the offensive

Anyone questioning govt COVID strategy is “divisive”, “unpatriotic” or as Bobby Friedman wrote, “a danger to us all”

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1311971344402219008