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.
--
Roland Perry