There was ‘no hard evidence’ England’s controversial 10pm curfew prevented coronavirus from spreading, Sir Patrick Vallance has admitted. The chief scientific adviser said it was a ‘policy decision’ designed to limit the amount of time people spent indoors together – where Covid spreads most easily. But he conceded the intervention was not backed up with any … Read more
Robert Jenrick says it is a ‘personal decision’ whether to hug family at Christmas despite Chris Whitty grimly warning people must not do so ‘if you want them to survive’ Robert Jenrick said it is a personal choice if people hug relatives at Christmas Prof Chris Whitty said last night people should not ‘if you … Read more
‘Don’t hug granny if you want her to survive to be hugged again’: Downing Street experts are unanimous that just because it’s not illegal to embrace relatives at Christmas doesn’t mean you should Prof Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance said they want people to see their families But they added they would not encourage people … Read more
Anger flared last night after the Department of Health and Social Care’s Twitter account was used in an effort to rubbish a report challenging official scaremongering by analysing key facts about the coronavirus pandemic. Under the headline ‘Covid: What They Don’t Tell You’, a two-page article in yesterday’s Daily Mail raised multiple questions about the … Read more
Surely now is the time for Boris Johnson to offer the courage of his hero Winston Churchill. We need it more than ever. Yet last week he became the reincarnation of LedruRollin, the French revolutionary, who, as the mob rampaged through Paris in 1848, declared: ‘I must follow them, for I am their leader!’ What … Read more
An official prediction that coronavirus deaths would soon pass those registered in the first wave has been quietly corrected by the government, it emerged last night, because they were too high. The projections led to the country being hit with a second national lockdown and were shown at a Downing Street press conference last Saturday. … Read more
‘Unbelievable slide sass!’ Matt Hancock retweets message saying NHS boss was taking a dig at Vallance and Whitty’s ‘complicated graphs’ at No10 briefings Sir Simon was introducing a graph on rising Covid-19 hospital inpatients NHS CEO said: ‘Sometimes the charts can be a bit hard to keep up with’ Remark prompted a smirk from his … Read more
Faced with a barrage of questions about the dubious graphs they wheeled out during Saturday night’s Halloween Horror press conference, Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty spent much of yesterday’s Commons select committee hearing shifting in their seats. But there was one question in particular that got Sir Gloom and Professor Doom extremely hot … Read more
The chaotic and haphazard way in which a new lockdown was announced on Saturday evening symbolised Boris Johnson‘s disorganised approach to the pandemic over the past eight months. Nearly three hours late, the Prime Minister stood uneasily at his lectern, flanked by the two familiar ‘gloomsters’ — Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty. They … Read more
Boris Johnson has been slammed as ‘incompetent’ for his disastrous handling of the pandemic as he last night bowed to pressure to put England back into a full lockdown. In a heavily delayed press conference, the Prime Minister yesterday said he had taken the ‘incredibly difficult’ decision to reimpose restrictions almost as draconian as those seen … Read more