Covid enquiry – both Scotland and Wales had problems with Westminster – and domestics today moving forward

I wonder how different it would all have been had there been a competent person in 10 Downing Street in the run up to the pandemic?

From this blog on January 16^th on the Scottish leg of the enquiry

• Boris Johnson’s government in London had dithered and delayed as health experts issued their first warnings about the devastating potential of the virus in early 2020 and the same questions would be asked of Scottish ministers and officials, despite the limitations on their powers.
• Evidence had already emerged that Sturgeon’s government had been ill-prepared for the crisis, partly because it had relied heavily on UK government-led pandemic planning that had focused on flu outbreaks.

And from the January 25^th blog entry

• Quote from the evidence – Sturgeon on Johnson: “He didn’t want to be on those calls, he wasn’t well briefed, he wasn’t listening, engagement with him became slightly pointless. They didn’t get us anywhere. We started with the approach we should work together, in co-ordinated fashion, but a substantive discussion isn’t what we got. The prime minister was reading a script and would largely ignore points made.” And “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”

From the blog on January 31^st

• Sturgeon said Boris Johnson was the “wrong prime minister” for the Covid crisis.
• She replied “yes” when asked if Boris Johnson was “the wrong prime minister” for the crisis.

And from last week in Wales

• Johnson’s Covid handling a genuine threat to the future of the UK – Drakeford. This was reported by Jane Runeckles, chief adviser, who said the first minister had a “genuine, sincerely held concern” that the actions of the UK government in the early pandemic amounted to a “genuine threat to the future of the United Kingdom”.
• She added that the contact between Drakeford and Johnson was “infrequent” and the first minister believed that “fissures” within the UK government were “growing, rather than contracting”.
• “There was no real notice of when the Cobra meetings [hosted by UK government] were going to happen, what the agenda would be, until very close – sometimes 10-15 mins – before those meetings began.
• “The first minster was becoming concerned about the levels of engagement that he felt were necessary due to the urgency of the situation we were in.”
• She later added that ministers were still not receiving adequate notice by October 2020.

There seems to be a bit of a theme emerging here – and of course we’re still on the WhatsApp route. Mark Drakeford is facing the enquiry next week. Wonder what he’ll add?

From this weekend’s Observer – quote – “New measures to target groups defined as extremist by the government are part of Rishi Sunak’s drive to crack down on Islamist extremists and far-right groups.” Source. 

So is Liz Truss going to face a ban?? No, thought not.

Domestics today – are you sitting down for this? – may actually have caught up.

Music

Karl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787), Arpeggio for solo viola da gamba from the Drexel Manuscript, Johanna Rose