IT would be a wonderful thing if Matt Hancock would retreat to his love nest and remain invisible and silent from now on.
One of the most upsetting aspects of the case resulting in Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris’s legal victory is the reminder that many survivors of the shameful policy to admit untested and frail elderly patients from Covid-breeding hospitals directly into care homes were treated like prisoners and denied contact with their families for the duration of the pandemic. Indeed, those in hospital now are still deprived of contact with their nearest and dearest – in so many cases, the people who provide essential care such as decent food, hydration, personal hygiene, love and a reason to stay alive. The innocent must endure punishment, including premature and solitary death, to atone for the failings of the policy makers.
Mr Hancock’s response is to claim that he was not aware of asymptomatic transmission of the disease at the time, and is another insultingly implausible comment akin to those trotted out by the PM on the infamous Downing Street parties.
Let us not forget that the reason for our imprisonment by Mr Hancock and continuing (for some) mass testing was based on the disputed concept of asymptomatic transmission. Mr Hancock’s callous ‘dumping’ of so many convalescing elderly people tested or untested, symptomatic or otherwise, on already overstretched care homes without notice was egregious. It defied common sense, in the way that the defenders of the lockdown revelry in Downing Street defy simple fair play and decency.
To those who say: ‘Move on, why are we talking about cake?’ I say we are not ‘talking about cake’. We are talking about the degradation of integrity in parliament, and the injustice of the infliction of cruel and ludicrous rules on the entire nation by people who considered the rules did not apply to them, were not necessary in the first place and could be openly and shamelessly disregarded by our public servants.
Move on, shall we? Get a life, think about the important ‘issues’?
No. We can do both. We can and should expect much, much better and engage with the various other crises. If we sweep Partygate under the carpet, what else can go with it? The pretence that our Health Secretary had no idea that his disregard for the lives of care-home residents would result in thousands of preventable deaths?
I dread to think what will be next.
