Bj Allegedly Thought Covid Was Similar To Swine Flu

[piggynose]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/pm-unfit-for-job-cummings-claims-tens-of-thousands-of-lives-were-needlessly-lost/ar-AAKopEl?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBoPWjQ
your thoughts? or has this already been covered?

[DTCwordfan]

Good God, everyone was struggling to wrestle with what Covid was at the outset and then how best to handle it.....Cummings was part of the team and the decision making process so he is as equally complicit as Boris and the rest. In short, I think it he ought to be prosecuted against the Official Secrets Act for revealing what goes on in the supposedly confidential Cabinet meeting room. Talk about being a duplicitous rat - scum of the scum in my book.

[Hopkirk]

Yes, like all of us he started off knowing nothing and had to learn from the scientists. He probably won't deny he was a bit late, but was trying to avoid the massive damage lockdowns have caused.

[Ken4155]

DTC, what has you so convinced that Cummings actually signed the OSA? And, if he did, i'm quite sure that Johnson and co would take great delight in shutting him up by prosecuting him.

[Peter Pedant]

well NJ thought it was ordinary 'flu and so did the key thinker Donald trump

so really crap decisions and comparisons were the order of the day. But you know the people in power- what do you do - igve them a good slapping?

[jourdain2]

Well it is the same sort of virus, isn't it ?- just a heck of a lot more virulent. No-one knew what they were dealing with. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, which no-one has.... I know that if I had it --- I'd be very rich!

[naomi24]

Ken, I’d be very surprised indeed if Cummings hasn’t signed the Official
Secrets Act. What he is doing is wicked.

[Hopkirk]

In the privacy of the meeting rooms,, I would expect someone in that position to strongly challenge what they are being told in order to satisfy themselves that the projections and suggestions were valid. Some of that challenging, when in print and not in context could appear callous. It maybe that it was deliberately shocking.
What matters is what the eventual decision was, not how the discussion went.

This disgusting man who broke the rules himself shouldn't be given time of day.

[Ken4155]

Then why isn't he being prosecuted, Naomi? It must be because nothing he is saying contravenes the act. Whether or not it is wicked is a matter of opinion. Perhaps he's just getting revenge for being dumped by Boris?

[dave50]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We were in uncharted waters, Boris was quite rightly very worried about what a lock down would do to the economy, as I and many people were. It was thought it was a last resort when all else had failed. Keeping going on about how many thousands have died or could have been saved is just a knee jerk emotional reaction that helps no one. It is what it is, mistakes were inevitably made, a pandemic kills people, time to move on.

[douglas9401]

When will we get to 'it's just Boris being Boris'?

As if that's a good thing.

[Chinajan]

I'm sure you Boris fans would all be just as forgiving had a Labour regime been in power at the time. Because if not that would make you a set of hypocrites. Which I'm sure you're not.

[eve1974]

It’s Easy for us to be armchair politicians and / or scientists.

I think BoJo did the best he cld in a unknown situation.

Did he get some things wrong ? Deffo! But so did nearly every other world leader.

Ps - I’m not a boris / Tory fan at all but I think he did best as he cld

[douglas9401]

The OED has just announced a new definition of 'best' to be seen in their next edition.

[naomi24]

Perhaps he will be prosecuted, Ken.

[jno]

douglas, it would obviously be unfortunate if he had to miss Covid meetings to finish his Shakespeare biography because he needed to pay for his divorce, but he tried quite hard and only 127,748 Brits, mainly of the most dispensable kind, have died early. So let's give him a break, eh?

[tomus42]

Having had Sars, bird flu and swine flu scares previously that amounted to nothing, I think we all thought the same. We didn't have scientific advisors advising us differently like he did though.

[Ken4155]

Naomi @ 20;31, "Perhaps he will be prosecuted, Ken." Just been reading up on the situation, Naomi, and you may well be right. Though i think he may have consulted a legal team before today's session. Apparently the government's legal bods were due to pore over his declarations immediately afterwards to see if any of the OSA had been contravened.
It is an offence for current and former civil servants and advisors to reveal official and classified information from any government department if such disclosure is made "without lawful authority and is damaging."

[youngmafbog]

//Ken, I’d be very surprised indeed if Cummings hasn’t signed the Official
Secrets Act. What he is doing is wicked.//


Exposing the truth is wicked eh? Come on if it was a labour person we would want the truth. I doubt very much DC has said anything that contravenes the OSA, it will all have been checked over by briefs.

Having said that in regard to the OP I think what Boris said in the early days has to be taken with all the very confusing information available at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing ask SKS!

[davebro]

"DTC, what has you so convinced that Cummings actually signed the OSA?"

As a lowly officer in the Inland Revenue I was required to sign the OAS so I expect Cummings would have done so. I don't think there have been many prosecutions for breaching confidentiality.

[Peter Pedant]

prosecuted for what for chrissakes?
being there? breathing?

as NJ so brilliantly clearly and succinctly explained in the Hillsborough inquiry - breach of confidentiality aint a crime - offences against the OSA are (crimes)

and are you really suggesting ( yes even despite this is AB) that someone giving evidence to a select committee is committing an offence against the Official Secrets Act ( = spying )

fantastic even for the fantasists on AB !