https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17mppag/misogyny_hairdryers_and_foulmouthed_tirades_what/
Misogyny, hairdryers and foul-mouthed tirades: What we learned from
Britain’s Covid-19 inquiry this week
Analysis by Rob Picheta, CNN
Published 10:21 PM EDT, Thu November 2, 2023
NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 06: Britain's Prime Minister Boris
Johnson looks on while Gordon Halfacre receives his coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) vaccine from corporal Lorna MacDonald during a visit to a
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine centre on January 6, 2022 in
Northampton, England. (Photo by Peter Cziborra-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Peter Cziborra/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Boris Johnson shared an outlandish theory about Covid-19, his former
aide claimed.
London
CNN
—
Britain’s haphazard response to the coronavirus pandemic has been thrown
under further scrutiny at an inquiry this week, after a series of senior
figures described disorganization, chaos and vitriol at the heart of
Boris Johnson’s government.
Johnson’s leadership was eviscerated by a number of his most important
aides when the Covid-19 crisis struck, according to notes, emails and
WhatsApp messages revealed at the inquiry this week.
Many of those aides testified at the inquiry, which began earlier this year.
The culture inside Downing Street has also been criticized, with
correspondence laying bear the level of anger and in-fighting between
major players.
And a deep level of confusion and uncertainty over the science of the
virus’ spread – sometimes stretching into the territory of outlandish
conspiracies – was alleged. More than 230,000 people have died of
Covid-19 in the UK since it emerged in early 2020.
Here’s what you need to know from Britain’s Covid-19 inquiry.
Johnson ‘cannot lead’
Johnson’s premiership ultimately collapsed last year after a series of
scandals, headlined by revelations that his staff organized a string of
parties and gatherings while the UK was in lockdown.
But notes and communications unveiled this week revealed the depths of
distrust at the heart of government.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 02: Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson
addresses the Global Soft Power Summit at The Queen Elizabeth II
Conference Centre on March 2, 2023 in London, England. The conference
explores the role of soft power in international politics and business.
(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Johnson's leadership was criticized by some of his most senior aides.
“He changes strategic direction every day,” Simon Case, still Britain’s
most senior civil servant, said in a remarkable message to Johnson’s
chief of staff. “He cannot lead and we cannot support him in leading
with this approach. The team captain cannot change the call on the big
plays every day. The team can’t deliver anything under these circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Johnson’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance,
described the ex-prime minister as being weak and indecisive in a
notebook entry during the crisis, PA Media reported.
A wild hairdryer theory
Johnson came in for brutal criticism from Dominic Cummings, his top
adviser-turned-political rival who has lambasted the former leader since
being dismissed from Downing Street in late 2020.
Cummings was particularly critical of Johnson’s apparent lack of
understanding over the science of Covid-19 – alleging that he once asked
whether people could use a hairdryer to “kill Covid.”
“A low point was when he circulated a video of a guy blowing a special
hair dryer up his nose ‘to kill Covid’ and asked the (two senior
scientific advisers) what they thought,” Cummings told the inquiry while
giving evidence on Tuesday.
A message from March 3, 2020, sent by Cummings, said that Johnson didn’t
believe Covid-19 was a “big deal and he doesn’t think anything can be done.”
Johnson was “unbelievably bullish” that Covid-19 would not severely hit
the UK in early 2020, according to another top aide, then-deputy cabinet
secretary Helen MacNamara.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks back into 10 Downing Street
in central London on July 7, 2022 after making a statement. - Johnson
quit as Conservative party leader, after three tumultuous years in
charge marked by Brexit, Covid and mounting scandals.
Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images
Johnson's career collapsed after revelations about parties in Downing
Street during lockdown.
‘Violent’ misogyny
Cummings was accused of fueling a misogynistic culture in Downing
Street, after the inquiry revealed emails and WhatsApp messages from his
time as Johnson’s top adviser.
In one WhatsApp message, Cummings complained about Johnson’s key team
“dodging stilettos” from MacNamara, adding that he would “personally
handcuff her and escort her from the building” and calling her a “c*nt.”
Cummings has denied his language was sexist, writing on Twitter
Wednesday that the narrative is “bullsh*t from Boris/Carrie & the
Establishment,” referring to the former prime minister’s wife.
But McNamara told the inquiry that the language was “miles away from
what is right or proper or decent, or what the country deserves.”
Former Number 10 special advisor Dominic Cummings walks out of his house
to speak to the press in London, England, on January 24.
(Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images)
Former Number 10 special adviser Dominic Cummings.
And she blamed Johnson for failing to notice and stop it. “It was
disappointing that the prime minister did not pick him up on that
violent and misogynist language,” she said.
Messages showed that Cummings referred to other ministers and staffers
as “useless f**kpigs” and “morons,” and pushed to have ministers sacked.
Johnson felt older people should ‘accept their fate’
Matt Hancock, the UK’s former health secretary, wanted to decide “who
should live and who should die” if the pandemic overwhelmed hospitals
and forced decisions on where to direct care, according to the former
chief of the National Health Service (NHS) England.
Simon Stevens told the inquiry on Thursday that Hancock “took the
position that in this situation he – rather than, say, the medical
profession or the public – should ultimately decide who should live and
who should die,” adding that “fortunately, this horrible dilemma never
crystallized.”
The allegation highlights a number of conflicting theories that
circulated in government about where care and resources should be directed.
In August 2020, Vallance wrote that Johnson became “obsessed with older
people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and
the economy going,” the inquiry heard.
Ambulances are pictured parked outside the Royal London hospital in
London on December 20, 2021. - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday
faced pressure to tighten coronavirus restrictions to prevent the spread
of the Omicron variant, despite opposition to do so before Christmas.
The UK reported 82,886 Covid-19 cases on Sunday as the new variant
rages, with the highest number of infections in London. (Photo by Tolga
Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
More than 230,000 people died in the UK as a result of Covid-19,
according to official figures.
Criticism for Sunak
The UK’s current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, did not escape the week
unscathed by the inquiry.
Sunak was chancellor (finance minister) during the pandemic, during
which he rose from a newcomer to front line politics to a leading
candidate to replace Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime
minister.
But his “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, which offered incentives for
diners to attend restaurants in the summer of 2020 after the first wave
of Covid had subsided, was criticized by Lee Cain, Johnson’s former
communications chief.
The scheme “made absolutely no sense whatsoever,” Cain said. Earlier in
the inquiry, it was revealed that one of the government’s advisers
referred to Sunak in a message as “Dr Death” over the scheme.