The Sunday Times yesterday released an insight ‘into’ the Government’s handling of the Coronavirus. When a vaccine becomes available and the virus has receded a public inquiry can take place. Why was this story released now with the PM still recovering from a period in an ICU unit?
An inquiry would probe the governments’ preparedness and response. Masks, tests, PPE, mass immunity, lockdowns, COBRA – the lot could be looked at. The government’s approval rating is at a record 50 per cent, according to YouGov’s tracker. Confidence in its handling of the crisis has decreased slightly, but it stood at 52 per cent last Wednesday according to Opinium.
David Gauke, Treasury Minister, Work & Pensions Secretary, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor has offered his opinion on the timing of the release, he said “the most prevalent media bias is the bias in favour of news. Something new must be happening. Restrictions should be tightened. Or…relaxed. They certainly shouldn’t just stay the same, because that wouldn’t be news. And the nation demands news”. This suggests that Mr Gauke feels the MSM are manufacturing news.
However, all the evidence of the last 24 hours suggests that a stubborn residue of Remainer diehards and FBPE figures have learned nothing from its mistakes in the 2016 EU referendum and in last December’s general election.
‘Boris Johnson missed Cobra meetings: now the British people will see the truth!’ (despite it being perfectly normal for Secretaries of State to conduct COBRA meetings). These cries come from the same people hysterically crowing about Mr Johnson losing to the Supreme Court; suffering Commons defeats; messing up over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; groping Charlotte Edwards ; Boosting a bus slogan demanding £350 million a week; writing two drafts of his key Brexit article. One senior journalist on that most distinguished of MSM titles, the Economist, effectively accused Johnson recently of faking his Coronavirus illness (a claim he later withdrew).
It may be significant that one person who has not made the mistake of simply damning the Prime Minister out of hand is the new Leader of the Opposition. Studiously, cautiously, like the careful lawyer that he is, Keir Starmer is staking out ground, setting traps: preparing for Parliament’s return next week, and for later.
Starmer knows that if the lockdown continues as it is indefinitely, public opinion will turn on the Government. If this does happen it will have nothing much to do with the Sunday Times’ or other newspapers’ disclosures. It will be because voters are working out for themselves that home working and furloughs are about to be replaced by redundancies and business closures.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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