'Nature's way of dealing with old people'

WorldbyStorm

Nov 2

Okay, well, this is not exactly a surprise given those involved, but still:

Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to the then prime minister, said in evidence on Tuesday that a "dysfunctional system" of state led vulnerable groups to be "appallingly neglected" in March 2020.

"Overall, it's widespread failure but pockets ... doing excellent work," he said, adding that the Cabinet Office, the department that runs the machinery of government, was a "dumpster fire" and that senior officials going on holiday in February 2020 was "pretty insane".

His remarks came as the inquiry was shown diary entries from 2020 in which Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's former chief scientific adviser, wrote that Mr Johnson appeared "obsessed with older people accepting their fate" and considered the virus to be "just Nature's way of dealing with old people".

Lovely. And a view shared more widely amongst the Tories.

In December 2020, weeks before England entered a third national lockdown, Sir Patrick wrote: "Chief whip [Mark Spencer] says 'I think we should let the old people get it and protect others'. PM says 'a lot of my backbenchers think that and I must say I agree with them'."

There's more. Of course there is. Some of it about the embedded misogyny of the Tories and advisors, some about the chaotic nature of Johnson's government and manner of governing (apparently he was imprinted by whoever he spoke to last - great). And some of it just a sort of wonder at how screwed up the UK has been over the past decade or more. And the sheer mystery not that the Tories have plunged in the polls but how they retain any support at all and how anyone would vote for them ever again.