On 10/05/2020 09:22, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:41:15 on Sat, 9 May 2020,
Recliner remarked:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 09:46:48 on Sat, 9 May 2020,
Recliner remarked:

We clearly were testing far too few people, not even front-line NHS
staff or elderly people turned out of hospitals into care homes. So
Matt Hancock rashly promises to be testing 100,000 a day by the end of
April, which was a dreamed-up and, as it turns out, unachievable, target.

But he changed the definition of 'testing' just before the target date, so
he could claim to have met it. But it was a lie: the actual number of
*tests* being conducted by then (which is itself a higher number than the
number of people being tested) was actually about 80,000 per day.

The actual number of *people* being tested per day is around 60-70k. That's
certainly a very big improvement, but he's lost a lot of his already weak
credibility by first dreaming up an impossible target, then missing it,
then lying about supposedly achieving it. Why should anyone believe him the
next time?

I don't think many people did believe him. Apart from anything else from
the start - when he took over from Jeremy Hunt - he's been completely
out of his depth.

Yes, very much so. And when the media want to interview a Tory politician
who can speak sense on health issues, it's still Hunt they turn to. Hancock
is one of the most obvious examples of over-promotion, though of course
no-one knew at the time how he would later be tested.

Daily Mail reporting today that he's "on borrowed time" as far as his
cabinet colleagues are concerned.

Yes, that's been the word for a while. But they'll let him carry the can
during the crisis.


Apparently he's now claiming that Boris forced him to make the claim
about getting 100,000 tests by the end of April.

--
Graeme Wall
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