A Daily Mail hack can’t work out what’s happening with our public services. Twitter schooled him fast.

Daily Mail hack Andrew Pierce is a bit confused. As someone who works for a paper that’s spent years sycophantically drooling over the Conservative Party, he’s in a bit of a quandary. Because he’s finally realised that there’s a bit of a problem with the state of our public services. But he was a little confused about the reasons why. Luckily, social media users were on hand to tell him exactly why there’s such a problem.

“What is happening?”

Pierce tweeted:

Hartlepool has only 10 police officers on duty overnight to protect 90,000 people. Only two GPs on duty in Kent one Sunday morning covering 1.4 million people. What is happening to our public services

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— Andrew Pierce (@toryboypierce) November 24, 2018

As a political journalist, it’s a little unclear how he managed to miss the memo about the cuts this government has implemented. He has, for example, missed the 19% cut to police funding since 2010, resulting in 20,000 fewer officers on the streets.

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He also seems to have missed the fact that, four years ago, GPs were warning about the effect of budget cuts; not to mention the impact that cuts to the NHS are having more generally.

“Wake up and smell the coffee”

Luckily for Pierce, the knowledge and expertise of Twitter soon answered his question. Labour MP Chris Williamson set the record straight:

Wake up and smell the coffee @toryboypierce. This is Tory Britain.

— Chris Williamson MP #GTTO (@DerbyChrisW) November 24, 2018

And others soon followed suit:

What exactly did you think that Austerity and cuts were going to do? It's like someone who's advocated jumping out of planes being surprised the law of gravity causes him to hit the ground

— mr_ceebs (@mr_ceebs) November 24, 2018

Serious question? Have you looked at what the Conservative governments have done to public spending since 2010?

— alan mills (@alanmills405) November 24, 2018

Is he for real?

Some people just couldn’t believe his tweet. In fact, it made them check his account was genuine:

I honestly double-checked to see if this was a parody account.
“What has happened to our public services” he asks having gleefully watched and defended his Tory chums as they’ve decimated this country over the past 8 years.
The sheer nerve to even throw the question out there!

— ❄️matt (@Memyselfaswell) November 25, 2018

Another Twitter user checked in with the @Han_Dodges parody account just to be sure:

Is this you @Han_Dodges? Your best work yet.

— Spanner In The Works (@pagster57) November 24, 2018

I wish

— Han Dodges (@Han_Dodges) November 24, 2018

So yes, it does appear that a Mail political journalist was seriously questioning why our public services are so dire. Given his paper has supported the government making these cuts, it’s almost funny. Except it’s not. Because we all have to live with the consequences of that support through the devastating impact austerity has had across the UK.

Featured image via screengrab