Nathan Oswin Profile picture
Dec 11 34 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Here's a running thread of all the things the current Prime Minister cannot recall whilst under oath at the Covid Inquiry.

Some more understandable than others I'd humbly suggest.

🧵 Image
He cannot recall any conversations between officials or between officials and himself about safeguarding WhatsApp messages post the announcement of an inquiry to be set up in May 2021.

🧵
He cannot recall any of his office making the "observation or recommendation" to him about safeguarding messages.

🧵
He cannot recall changing phones around that time.

🧵
He cannot recall the "analysis that was presented" that the NHS would collapse in the run up to 23rd march 2020.

🧵
He cannot recall if there was a "detailed debate" about whether the NHS would collapse without the lockdown interventions in march 2020.

🧵
He cannot recall "that particular meeting" on the 23rd March 2020 when cabinet and the Prime Minister decided to mandate the national lockdown.

🧵
He cannot "precisely" recall to what extent debates about herd immunity occupied "valuable time and bandwidth" in the first two weeks of March 2020.

🧵
He cannot recall when precisely he spoke to the then Prime Minister about the challenges with the gilt markets.

🧵
He cannot recall whether he "expressed a view" when he spoke to the Prime Minister about locking down London in advance of the UK wide lockdown.

🧵
He cannot recall a "specific meeting or conversation" about whether or not locking London was advisable step to take in light of his concerns about the gilt market.

🧵
He cannot recall when Long Covid presented itself on the Exchequer's horizon.

🧵
He cannot "particularly" recall why or how the order in which schools and non-essential retail opened.

🧵
He cannot recall what a reference in an email about HMT giving gold standard economic advice to the Prime Minister and Chancellor.

🧵
He cannot recall a meeting where he had argued for a "opening up of the economy but the majority of the room had expressed its combined view that the risk of opening up too fast would have terrible consequences further down the road"

🧵
He cannot recall a read out from a HMT official who attended SAGE which highlighted that Whitty and Vallance had said the opening measures for July was at the "riskier end of the spectrum"

🧵
He cannot recall an email from his principal private secretary about Vallance and Whitty making clear to policy makers that June relaxation steps were "at the riskier end of the spectrum"

🧵
He cannot recollect Matt Hancock raising concerns about Eat Out To Eat Out "causing problems in intervention areas"

🧵
He cannot recall how SAGE phrased advice it was giving around the first lockdown.

🧵
He cannot recollect an economic SAGE having been raised with him at any point. (To be fair on this I'm not sure there's evidence showing necessarily that it directly was but it was mentioned in email chains between some officials)

🧵
He cannot recollect if in the meeting with Johnson, Professor Heneghan and Professor Gupta on whether he expressed any views which supported the Heneghan and Gupta position.

🧵
He cannot recollect anybody saying about free school meals and the @MarcusRashford campaign "Good working people pay for their children to eat and don't want free loaders" which is claimed in the Vallance diaries.

🧵
He cannot recollect any conversations about funding for social care staff to stop them working in more than one home.

🧵
He cannot recollect whether proposals to support care staff to not work in more than one home came across his desk.

🧵
He cannot recollect if the Welsh Government ever formally submitted to the idea of opting out of Eat Out to Help Out.

🧵
He cannot recollect if the Welsh Government ever raised Eat out to Help Out in any format.

🧵
He cannot recollect a letter from Nicola Sturgeon in September 2023 though it’s acknowledged he wouldn’t have seen it unless Johnson or Gove forwarded it on.

🧵
He cannot recollect any conversations around the unequal impact of self-isolation support for those who couldn’t work from home.

🧵
He cannot recall the decision-making around free school meals.

🧵
He cannot recall who was initially resistant to the funding for free school meals over holidays.

🧵
He cannot recall what his initial view on free school meals during holiday times was.

🧵
He cannot recall at what point he funded the holiday activity and food programme.

🧵
He cannot recall there being a direct relationship or someone quantifying a relationship between Long Covid and a rise in economic inactivity - but does accept it seems “plausible” that it could play a part

🧵
And that's your lot - 29 things the Prime Minister couldn't recollect whilst under oath at the Covid Inquiry.

Some quipped they were surprised he could recollect what door to use when he got in the car at the end when leaving.

✂️

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Nathan Oswin

Nathan Oswin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @nathan_oswin

Nov 1
So yesterday was just an extraordinary day at the Covid Inquiry that's been quite widely reported on.

Here's 10 things you may have missed amongst the huge amount that came out.

🧵 Image
1) Answering a @The_TUC question, Cummings said that providing financial support for the lowest paid to self isolate was "neglected in the chaos" and agreed it was "appallingly neglected"

🧵
@The_TUC 2) Cummings added that "the treasury institutionally was opposed" to provide financial support to those neeidng financial support to self isolate

🧵
Read 15 tweets
Jun 17
Here's a thread of people to follow here on twitter to keep up with news, views and opinions on the #CovidInquiry

Please feel free to suggest others that should make the list.

🧵 Image
First off the caveat apology of I'll miss people and the list will keep on growing!

🧵
There's @The_TUC and legal teams @DoughtyStPublic @ThompsonsLaw with @GerardStilliard @RubyPeacock19 and colleagues @antoniabance @Alex__Collinson @ShellyAsquith @TUCEquality @TUCeconomics @mattdykes @SianCElliott who all put up far smarter details than I am ever capable of.

🧵
Read 20 tweets
May 12
It's two years today since then Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the setting up of a statutory public inquiry under the 2005 act into Covid-19 and his governments handling of the crisis.

What's happened since then?

🧵
It would be a further 217 days before Johnson would announce the chair into the inquiry, Barroness Hallett, on 15 December 2021 following pressure from @CovidJusticeUK and others.

Three months later on 13 March 2022 the draft terms of reference would be passed to the chair.

🧵
The inquiry held consultation events across the UK on these draft terms of reference for the PM to sign off and at long last, on 28 June 2022, over a full year since Johnson announced the inquiry, there were signed off terms of reference.

🧵
Read 27 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(