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Cummings

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    Cummings

    Case of keep your friends close and your enemies closer...

    https://news.sky.com/story/dominic-cummings-reveals-four-demands-he-made-of-boris-johnson-in-living-room-deal-to-join-number-10-12248537


    The health department was a "smoking ruin" in the early days of the COVID pandemic, the prime minister's former chief aide has told MPs.

    Dominic Cummings revealed how the UK's vaccine programme was moved out of Matt Hancock's Department of Health and Social Care following the problems health officials had in buying protective equipment for NHS staff.

    He made the comments in explosive evidence to the House of Commons' science and technology committee, in his first public remarks since leaving Number 10 last year.

    Mr Cummings also claimed:

    • The government's procurement system before 2020 was an "expensive disaster zone" and when the COVID pandemic hit it "completely fell over"
    • Parliament should hold an "urgent" inquiry into the coronavirus crisis and MPs should take a "very, very hard look" into "what went wrong and why in 2020"
    • He made four demands of Prime Minister Boris Johnson prior to joining his Number 10 staff, including sorting out the "disaster zone" of Whitehall
    • He did not ask for a pay rise from the prime minister before leaving Downing Street and had previously taken a pay cut

    Commenting on the UK's vaccination programme, Mr Cummings told MPs that Number 10 "took it out of the Department of Health" and decided to create a separate taskforce.

    "It's not coincidental the vaccine programme worked the way that it did," he said.

    "It's not coincidental that to do that we had to take it out of the Department of Health, we had to have it authorised very directly by the prime minister and say 'strip away all the normal nonsense that we can see is holding back funding in therapeutics'."

    Mr Cummings added: "In spring 2020 you had a situation where the Department of Health was just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE and all of that.

    "You had serious problems with the funding bureaucracy for therapeutics, that was the kind of context for it.

    "Patrick Vallance (the government's chief scientific adviser) then came to Number 10 and says 'this shouldn't be run out of the Department for Health, we should create a separate taskforce'.

    "We also had the EU proposal which looked like an absolute guaranteed programme to fail debacle.

    "Therefore Patrick Vallance, the cabinet secretary, me, and some others said 'obviously we should take this out of the Department of Health, obviously we should create a separate taskforce and obviously we have to empower that taskforce directly with the authority of the prime minister'."

    Mr Cummings was also quizzed about the government's plans for a new "high-risk, high-reward" scientific agency he had spearheaded while in Downing Street.

    The £800m Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA) is modelled on America's long-running Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).

    Answering questions on how he got Mr Johnson to agree to ARIA's creation, Mr Cummings told the committee: "Essentially what happened was the prime minister came to speak to me the Sunday before he became prime minister and said 'would I come into Downing Street to try and help sort out the huge Brexit nightmare'.

    "I said 'yes, if - first of all - you're deadly serious about actually getting Brexit done and avoiding a second referendum'.

    "'Second, double the science budget, third, create some ARPA-like entity and, fourth, support me in trying to change how Whitehall works and the Cabinet Office work because it's a disaster zone'.

    "And he said 'deal'."

    Mr Cummings added the July 2019 meeting between himself and Mr Johnson was attended by only the two of them, and took place in his living room.

    "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

    #2
    It doesn't sound like Cummings is stabbing Boris in the back, quite the opposite because the PM can claim the credit for letting all the changes proceed
    Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

    Comment


      #3
      Hardly shocked at his low opinion of the health service. We do have a terrible death rate, even though Boris is hardly competent deferring to the NHS & Experts seems to have raised fatalities.
      Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by vetran View Post
        Hardly shocked at his low opinion of the health service. We do have a terrible death rate, even though Boris is hardly competent deferring to the NHS & Experts seems to have raised fatalities.
        Surely the high death rate is down to not deferring enough (not being led by the science)?

        Not locking down soon enough. Opening up too quickly last summer. Pissing around with tiers. The Xmas fiasco. Not to mention a completely useless track and trace system.
        Scoots still says that Apr 2020 didn't mark the start of a new stock bull market.

        Comment


          #5
          Phew, good job we voted him into his job. Much better than having unelected bureaucrat in charge, pulling the strings
          I am what I drink, and I'm a bitter man

          Comment


            #6
            So why is he not still working for 10 Downing Street? Was it really just to appease Princess Nut Nuts?

            You're mad if you think Whitehall doesn't need massive reform; surely that's in everyone's interests [the tax payers].

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by DealorNoDeal View Post

              Surely the high death rate is down to not deferring enough (not being led by the science)?

              Not locking down soon enough. Opening up too quickly last summer. Pissing around with tiers. The Xmas fiasco. Not to mention a completely useless track and trace system.
              Deaths and infections were much higher than expected in care homes, hospital acquired infections and places like prisons. it was obvious that these were soft targets for the virus.

              I agree the lockdowns were erratic and poorly controlled by the Government but basic medical mistakes were made in these sealed environments.

              Of the infections I know of most were in schools, hospitals, prisons and care homes. The older people outside these I know have been self isolating. Anecdotal I know so here are some opinions from experts.

              https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...065-9/fulltext
              Half of LTCFs had no cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first wave of the pandemic. Reduced transmission from staff is associated with adequate sick pay, minimal use of agency staff, an increased staff-to-bed ratio, and staff cohorting with either infected or uninfected residents. Increased transmission from residents is associated with an increased number of new admissions to the facility and poor compliance with isolation procedures.
              https://www.carehomeprofessional.com...in-care-homes/
              CQC figures show there were 24,919 deaths of residents in care homes involving COVID-19 between 10 April 2020 and 29 January 2021. Of these, 1,790 were notified in the week up to 29 January.

              Care Inspectorate Wales recorded 1,470 COVID deaths of residents between 1 March 2020 and 15 January 2021.

              https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n70

              Worryingly, on 16 December the HSJ also reported a study by doctors in northwest England, showing “major deficiencies” in compliance with Public Health England’s guidance on good practice in preventing nosocomial covid-19 transmission.4 Failings included routine allocation of patients to beds before negative tests were confirmed, not testing clinical staff regularly, and not using protective screens between patients. Remember: the HSIB, while sympathetic to staff and the conditions they worked in, hadn’t pulled any punches about some basic failings in adherence to best infection control practice.

              https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/res...rowded-prisons
              The prison population is much younger than the general population and is predominantly male. After accounting for these differences, we found that case rates in prison have been consistently higher than those seen in the general population – despite an extended lockdown across the prison estate. Up to the end of December there were 75 cases per 1,000 population in prison, compared to 46 cases per 1,000 in England and Wales overall.

              Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

              Comment


                #8
                Yep, care homes were a disaster. Not helped by lack of testing kits and PPE.
                Scoots still says that Apr 2020 didn't mark the start of a new stock bull market.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by DealorNoDeal View Post
                  Yep, care homes were a disaster. Not helped by lack of testing kits and PPE.
                  You mean plastic aprons and short sleeves?
                  "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

                  Comment

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