Johnson’s latest act of mind-blowing hypocrisy nearly broke Twitter

Boris Johnson giving a coronavirus daily briefing
Steve Topple


Not known for his ability to think before he speaks, Boris Johnson has trotted out numerous mindless platitudes during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. But his latest nugget of steaming hypocrisy was so bad it nearly broke Twitter.

Guess who’s back?

Back from hospital, but seemingly not on paternity leave, Johnson tweeted:

 

Related articles

Suffice to say, a lot of people took issue with Johnson’s sentiment. At the time of publication, his tweet had had nearly 800 comments. Rachael Swindon was so incensed she tweeted not once, but twice about the PM’s insipid statement:

Yes, back in 1995 Johnson allegedly wrote in a column for far-right libertarian rag the Spectator. Business Insider claimed this said that:

If NHS services continue to be free in this way, they will continue to be abused, like any free service…

If people have to pay for them, they will value them more.

And Johnson allegedly wrote that people who say, “in the future the NHS should be for those who are genuinely sick, and for the elderly” were “bang on the nail”.

If people were having to pay for some NHS services, fortunately, the PM’s own recent stay in hospital probably would have still been free. Not that Johnson needs free healthcare, given the website Celebrity Net Worth puts his personal fortune at $4m.

But regardless of whether we should have free healthcare in the UK, other people took issue with the PM over his handling of the pandemic.

Chaos at best, wilful negligence at worst

As Gayle Letherby sharply noted:

Paul echoed similar thoughts:

Meanwhile, someone else pointed out the scandal surrounding the government’s testing record. As The Canary reported, not least in this is health secretary Matt Hancock’s false claim (or ‘lie’ if you prefer) that the Tories had hit their 100,000 tests a day target:

Hugh Barron pointed out the Tories’ track record on NHS funding:

More specifically, the Tories presided over near-historical low funding for the NHS. This, in part, has led to what Twit pointed out: the crisis in PPE:

PPE crisis

As BBC Panorama exposed, the government and PHE previously designated coronavirus a “High Consequence Infectious Disease”. But then, on 13 March, the government downgraded the virus. And at the same time, the government also downgraded its PPE guidance. As BBC News reported:

the government… told NHS staff they were safe to wear less protective aprons and basic surgical masks in all but the most high risk circumstances.

Now, it seems that this guidance was at best flawed. At worst, the government has put NHS staff’s lives at risk.

Johnson: does he have “a clue”?

But it was Robert Hutchison who perhaps summed the whole, sorry mess up the best:

There’s probably a lot of people asking a similar question to Hutchinson right now. In the aftermath of the pandemic, any functioning democracy would instigate a public inquiry into the Tories mortal failure to manage this pandemic. Whether the people of the UK will demand that or not remains to be seen. Maybe, we might have another general election for the Tories to lie and cheat their way through. Or possibly, we might just see a new PM once the dust settles.

Someone on Twitter responded to Hutchison’s tweet by asking him “what should we do”? He replied:

The way Johnson is running things at present, Hutchison’s offer doesn’t seem like too bad an idea.

Featured image via BBC News – YouTube

We need your help ...

The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.

Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.

We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.

Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?

The Canary Support us

Related articles