BUSTED: Sunday Times ‘investigation’ into Tory coronavirus failures was public knowledge WEEKS ago
We’re supposed to be shocked by new revelations in the Sunday Times – but the facts have been public knowledge for weeks and months.
How strange to see the Sunday Times publishing an ‘investigation’ into the Tory government’s failure to get to grips with the coronavirus crisis, when This Writer published the same information, weeks ago, on my personal blog site!
The ST piece is behind a paywall so I can’t be sure, but from what I can tell (thank you Owen Jones on Twitter), I covered all the major points.
But there seems to be a huge amount of background detail missing.
Why is nothing said about the fact that the government let all of its strategies to counter a pandemic like the coronavirus fall out-of-date, nearly a decade ago?
Where are the facts about Exercise Cygnus – the test to estimate the impact of a hypothetical influenza pandemic on the United Kingdom that concluded that such a pandemic would cause the country’s health system to collapse, due to a lack of resources. The Tory government of the day refused to buy the recommended equipment on the grounds that it would cost too much.
All those details – and more – are in my piece.
Don’t be fooled by the Sunday Times article.
It seems there’s no new information in it that makes any difference at all.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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At least, seeing it’s a Murdoch rag, a few more right wingers will be exposed to reality at last. There seems to be a change of mood against Johnson in the right wing press. They’re getting fed up of defending all the chaos. Whisper is that Murdoch appears to be ready to push for Michael Gove to challenge him.
And you think Gove would be better? They are all tarred with the same brush.
When did I say Gove would be better?
https://archive.is/20200418182037/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh
I have just read the article following a link from someone in CiF in The Guardian with no paywall, As you say, no real surprises for anyone who has paid the slightest attention over the past few months, and some omissions, but to see it laid out in such a critical manner by The Sunday Times I did find quite astonishing.
An article in The Guardian this morning also explains ‘the man on fire’ quote in one of your posts last week……
Don’t leave us all in suspense! Pass on the link please!
Of interest:-
https://app.box.com/s/3lkcbxepqixkg4mv640dpvvg978ixjtf/file/239555624001
New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory GroupMinutes of the fifth meeting of NERVTAG – 14 June 2017
Here it is :
theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/19/labour-party-financial-peril-keir-starmer-members-leaked-report
They certainly like their ‘fire’ references!
I view this article by Sunday Times as a ‘damage limitation one’ wherein the culprits are dictator Boris, Matt Hancock and Prof. Chris Whitty!! Notice the detailed information concerning dictator boris’s ‘part time work’ all designed to show he is incompetent and not fit to be prime minister. Yes we already know this but the pandemic did not magically gain control in a matter of a few weeks.
Sunday Times conveniently glosses over the decade of fascist tory austerity measures whereby they systematically destroyed all the procedures/planning/specialist departments/staffing because these were ‘not value for money’ and a pandemic would never ever happen!!
So I believe dictator boris is the principle scapegoat and his usefulness to the senior fascist tories has now ended – it will be a case of ‘king is dead long live the next fascist tory king!’
In-fighting within political parties is not new especially when said party is in political power and the male leader is seen as being in a weak position. Time then for a new leader who will ‘magically solve everything’ – except he won’t it will just be fascist tory policies as usual!
Hi Mike, one of my Facebook friends copied and shared the article in its entirety, which I can post here, but it is very long, so don’t know how well this work?
I would not be comfortable putting that article on This Site. It’s old news; I published a version (that I think is better) three weeks ago; and they’d probably try to claim I was ripping them off if I published it.
Completely understand your decision, Mike. I posted it so you could read it yourself. And you’re right, you did cover it all!
Thank you!