Brits are wondering where their Prime Minister had gone as the United Kingdom is smitten with a coronavirus pandemic, a recession and exam turmoil finally have an answer.
The leader has been located on a glamping holiday with fiancee Carrie Symonds in Scotland as Brit’s own summer holidays abroad are put in danger by yet another round of eleventh-hour quarantine announcements, but Boris Johnson opted for a staycation.
His absence has raised eyebrows in recent days as his deputies deal with the fallout over the school exams grading embarrassment.
Downing Street had made no secret of Boris Johnson’s plans to take a holiday with the 32-year-old mother of his new offspring and the couple were hunted down to a three-bedroom cottage and tent set up on the Scottish coast, where they are tucked away with baby Wilfred and canine Dilyn.
The precise location of the cottage – speculated to have been chosen for its remoteness, has not been published.
The Prime Minister was pictured grimacing in a seersucker shirt and black beanie as shutterbugs caught him ducking outside the windswept hillside property.
The photographers captured a contemporary teepee style calico tent about 50 yards from the cottage and according to a media outlet, it costs more than £1,500 a week to rent the plum spot during the summer peak.
One holidaymaker reportedly crossed paths with the Tory leader on a hiking trail in the area on Wednesday and he said that he recognised the Prime Minister despite his face being covered by a special hat to shield against Scotland’s midges.
His security detail, dog Dilyn and fiancee Carrie Symonds were instantly recognisable, the hiker said. The tourist said it just looked like any other normal family day out.
But the holiday spot is a far cry from the couple’s previous choice of Mustique, where the Prime Minister and his love chose the luxury Caribbean retreat for their New Year’s break.
The under-fire leader did work throughout during the parliamentary summer recess period before taking his holiday and split from convention by taking a holiday away from the limelight, unlike previous Prime Ministers including David Cameron and Theresa May, who have allowed media to photograph their summer breaks.
Reports had claimed that Boris Johnson would spend his summer holiday camping and No 10 had insisted he would be kept briefed on the exams saga while he was on holiday.
But as a Prime Minister for a country currently being run down, Boris Johnson needs to take charge and be responsible for his country, the holiday could have waited and what about the thousands that have died due to Torie’s ineptitude, they won’t be getting any more holidays, full stop.
What’s he hiding in the fridge again, no he’s mimicked Theresa May this time and taken to the fields and I wonder who’s footing the extra security bill?
And what is he doing exactly? Exam debacle, thousands dead before their time, millions wasted on cronies, non-arrival of PPE and a co-worker he won’t fire even though he’s under enquiry for a rape charge.
Brexit negotiations are in turmoil, thousands of jobs are being lost every day, what a magnificent job he’s doing there and the leading MPs et cetera are getting longer holidays than the rest of the country.
A man who stabbed an Arsenal supporter to death as he headed to a game with his friend has been imprisoned for life.
Alex Lanning, 22, has been jailed at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of gifted athlete Tashan Daniel, who was fatally stabbed at Hillingdon station, west London.
His co-defendant Jonathan Camille, 19, was imprisoned for six and a half years after being convicted of a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Tashan Daniel was travelling to an Arsenal league cup game with a friend when he was stabbed in the heart. Alex Lanning was later seen laughing as he fled the scene.
Sprinter Tashan Daniel had only recently celebrated his 20th birthday, died at the station.
Alex Lanning stabbed Tashan Daniel with a knife which had a serrated edge and a hook and was designed to be used by fighter pilots to cut the tough Perspex glass out of jets. Alex Lanning alleged in court he’d stolen the blade from the set of the Fast & Furious films.
Jailing Alex Lanning for life with a minimum term of 25 years for the killing of Tashan Daniel and his co-defendant Jonathan Camille for six and a half years for manslaughter, Judge Mark Dennis QC said that this was a disgraceful display of violence for which there was no possible justification or excuse.
“You are both comparatively young men however you are both old enough and mature enough to know what you were doing and to make your own choices.”
Judge Mark Dennis, QC said the assault took place on a station platform and in the presence of members of the public who were shocked and frightened by the violence that occurred close to them.
The offenders fled from the scene and made attempts to avoid apprehension. They encased their heads in clothes stolen from nearby clotheslines and hid the knife.
“It is plain these events had a profound and lasting effect on Tashan’s family and those who knew him as a friend.
“This was a dreadful display of violence for which there was no possible justification or excuse.
“Alex Lanning, your reaction after the event reveals no sense of regret for the person you had just stabbed to the chest.
“Twice you were seen laughing as if what you had just done meant nothing to you.”
Nobody carries that kind of knife on them, especially that particular knife, not unless they’re planning on using it to stab somebody, and why would a person have such a knife on them?
Now a lovely young man is dead because someone thought it was funny to do so and found it entertaining as well and this despicable person should have got a much longer sentence.
And if a person is going to take another life, then they should be imprisoned for life and should never be permitted to wander the streets again. Life should mean life, not part sentencing and then out of jail, discharged on tag or probation for the remainder of their sentence.
If a person carries a knife, it’s with purpose and this is really sad. Sadly, because we live in a pretty precarious society, now many people carry knives because they don’t feel safe, but then there is the percentage that carries them because they plan to kill with them.
Life should mean life without parole or until they die, it’s the only way and some might say that capital punishment is the way to go, but that doesn’t always work either, America has demonstrated that.
And it’s so sad and Tashan Daniel’s family will never get over his death, and we should never understand the mentality of people like this. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, this was a life, and clearly, this never had anything to do with what football team Tashan supported, Alex Lanning was there for one thing and one thing only and that was to kill on that particular day.
Laila Stanhope from Basildon, Essex was due to be sent Amazon vouchers from the Emily Ash Trust which was originally set up to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow donors.
Laila And Her Mother Charley
The trust has now evolved and today their primary aim is to support families who have a child, teenager or young adult with cancer.
Laila
Laila Stanhope has a brain tumour and the charity had sent her £400 worth of vouchers. The vouchers had been sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery which had to be signed for, but instead, they never reached the little girl and it was signed by someone else.
So, out there is some advantageous reprobate who’s now using the vouchers that should have been used to buy new bedroom furniture for Laila’s room.
Laila Stanhope has a brain tumour and is undergoing chemotherapy and is wheelchair-bound.
Three years ago Laila had a bleed on the brain, then a year and a half later a brain tumour was found, the bleed also paralysed her.
The trust is dealing with it, but if the person that took the vouchers has any compassion, you will recognise your signature and Laila would be very happy if you could return the vouchers or the money that the vouchers were worth. This is a shocking thing that you did this to a little girl who is extremely sick – shame on you!
Anybody that knows anything about this can contact me through my website.
A primary school has become the first in the country to make all children wear face masks when they start the new term next month.
The head of the school has also informed parents they should send their children to Hogwarts – Harry Potter’s school if they’re not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously.
Only children in reception class will not be required to mask their faces, according to the edict sent out by Warren Harrison, chief executive officer of the Premier Academy’s Eaton Mill Primary School.
In a newsletter sent to parents on Monday, Mr Harrison slammed the government for doing everything on the hoof and said the Premier Academy was acting with common sense, logic and reason in the face of coronavirus.
All children in year one upwards who return to the school, in Bletchley, near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on September 8 will have to wear masks or visors but the plan goes against government guidelines which state children under the age of 11 don’t have to wear masks.
The newsletter, which was signed off with “Stay safe, mask up and stay classy”, states “All staff, children, parents, carers and visitors must wear a mask when on-site or they will not be granted access.
Face coverings are not acceptable and they recommend the N95 or surgical masks and once in their bubbles, children and those members of staff in close contact with children will shift from a mask to a nominated shield which will be provided by the school, anyone may, however, stay in a mask if they prefer.
Reception aged children will not be mandated to wear a mask or face shield, however, the school are urging parents to encourage them to do so at the current time and when walking around the school, masks or shields must be worn, for example, visiting the toilets.
When not in the classroom, masks may be removed for eating purposes and when outside the building during the bubble’s daily walks. All cross bubble contact between children and staff will need all parties to wear a mask.
At dismissal time all shields should be left on desks with water bottles so that they can be washed efficiently and children will be dismissed in masks to adults wearing masks.
They also went on to urge everyone to attempt and maintain a 2-metre distance and said face shields would be named and given by the school. They also said to make sure that their child understood why they’re wearing a mask.
While children have been wearing a mask when they’re out when shopping or on a bus, I’ve noticed that they’re forever touching their masks and parents are repeatedly telling them not to touch it, so for younger children, this will definitely happen.
And it really isn’t their fault if they do touch their mask because at the end of the day it’s something they’re not used to and having something over their nose and mouth is uncomfortable.
A sheep farmer has been convicted of two counts of contaminating food, after putting three jars of baby food laced with shards of metal in two Tesco stores.
Nigel Wright is facing up to 14 years in prison after being found guilty at the Old Bailey.
The 45-year-old had demanded £1.5 million from Tesco after lacing baby food with razor-sharp shards of metal.
Two mothers found the metal pieces when they were feeding their children after Nigel Wright began his two-year campaign in the spring of 2018.
The married father of two threatened to inject tins of fruit with cyanide and salmonella unless the supermarket giant handed over the money in Bitcoin.
Nigel Wright signed off his emails and letters ‘Guy Brush & the Dairy Pirates + Tinkerbell the naughty fairy’ and claimed he represented dairy farmers who had been underpaid by Tesco.
He triggered two nationwide recalls on both Cow & Gate and Heinz baby food as a result of the threats, prompting the supermarket to clear 140,000 products from the racks.
A detective posed as a Tesco worker named Sam Scott to hand over £100,000 in the cryptocurrency to trap the blackmailer.
Nigel Wright was captured on CCTV buying wine and flowers for his wife after placing a contaminated jar on the shelves of a Lockerbie branch on November 29 last year. He also placed two jars of contaminated food on the shelves of a Rochdale store.
Scottish mother Morven Smith felt sick when she spotted the shards in a jar of Heinz sweet and sour chicken her 10-month-old son was eating.
Morven Smith, from Lockerbie, had already fed several spoonfuls to her baby when she found a shard of metal in the bowl in December 2019.
She said that she had taken the bowl out of the microwave and had given her son a couple of spoonfuls when she saw something shiny and she picked it out with her fingers. She said it was horrible and she felt sick and was so shocked.
Her husband found a second piece of metal at the bottom of the jar and the incident led to a nationwide recall of 42,000 tins of the product.
A second mother, Harpreet Kaur Singh found shredded chippings of metal in jars of Heinz Sunday Chicken Dinner and Cheese and Tomato Pasta Stars.
The mother sobbed as she told the court how she had been minutes away from feeding them to her nine-month-old daughter.
This is shocking, and how could anybody do this to innocent babes, especially when this man has children of his own, and he might have been targetting Tesco but it’s the mothers and babies that suffer.
And how did this man even think what he was doing would work? Did he think that Tesco would just take his word when he showed which one he had contaminated? Did he not realise that Tesco would dump it all, and clearly this guy is not the full shilling.
Shamed ex-MP Eric Joyce has evaded prison after pleading guilty to making an indecent image which highlighted a 12-month-old child.
Eric Joyce, 59, admitted the crime at Ipswich Crown Court in July and was told to sign the sex offenders register.
In court, it was revealed he had on a device a 51-second film depicting a number of children, one of which was said to be 12 months old. The judge sentenced him to eight months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
The charge alleged that Eric Joyce made the shocking image between 7 August 2013 and 6 November 2018 and Judge Mr Justice Edis, sentencing the former shadow minister said: “You have pleaded guilty to an offence which involves the possession of a category A film of a little less than a minute’s duration.
“That film showed the sexual abuse of very young children.
“That these acts of abuse happened is because there are people like you who want to watch these films.
“If there was no market, those children wouldn’t be subjected to these very serious offences.”
But the judge added: “You have sought help from people well able to provide it and there’s evidence before the court that that has had an effect on helping you reduce, perhaps completely, your impulsive behaviour, and that’s happened over a significant period due to the delay in these proceedings.”
Mr Justice Edis further sentenced Eric Joyce to a sexual harm prevention order, which will continue until further order of the court.
He was also given an 18-day rehabilitation activity requirement and directed to pay prosecution costs of £1,800.
In an earlier hearing, Judge Emma Peters informed the court that Eric Joyce maintained he accessed the video via an email which he said was a spam email. She added that at the time he was drinking heavily and that he had now undergone work with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and a psychotherapist.
Judge Peters informed the former shadow minister, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, that the offences cross the custody threshold and she said that it was going to be a question of whether it’s immediate or suspended.
Eric Joyce left Labour to serve as independent MP for Falkirk in 2012, stepping down before the 2015 general election. He spent 21 years in the Army, rising to the rank of major.
This man got a suspended sentence for having improper pictures of a young child, yet a person caught growing a cannabis plant gets 5 years in prison, where is the justice? And this guy was an MP for goodness sake.
What an utter farce, but then it wasn’t the judge’s children on that video and how is it conceivable that someone, especially an MP can evade prison for child abuse?
It looks like our justice system is made to protect MPs, serving and retired and it’s now coming to the forefront that there are a lot of influential people out there and not just MPs who are degenerates and marauders, but it seems it’s only right that the justice system protects its brothers.
The amount of displaced children has hit a 14 year high with approximately 130,000 stuck in B&Bs and temporary shelters and devastating new figures today reveal there were 129,380 children living in temporary accommodation in England on March 31.
The number is up 3.1 per cent on last year and is the highest quarterly figure reported since summer 2006.
More than two-thirds of all people stuck in temporary accommodation, a measure of homelessness, have dependent children dwelling with them and some 1,550 parents with children are living in what is deemed to be short term B&Bs.
And while that was a 29 per cent decrease on last year, 530 of those parents had still been in B&Bs past the allowable limit of six weeks.
Overall the number of households in temporary accommodation rose 9.4 per cent last year to 93,000.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced this increase was mainly motivated by single households and may be connected to the coronavirus ‘Everyone In’ scheme.
The scheme took rough sleepers off the streets and housed them in accommodations like hotels, increasing the number of people in temporary accommodation but Labour warned a new surge of homelessness is on the horizon as landlords get permission to restart evictions, which was banned for five months, and is scheduled to start again this Monday.
Shadow Housing Secretary Thangam Debbonaire said that these figures highlight the pressing need to extend the eviction embargo, to avoid thousands of more people being made homeless in the run up to winter.
And he said that before COVID, we already had devastatingly large numbers in temporary accommodation as a direct result of 10 years of the Conservative government, whose methods have thrust people into destitution.
And that the Government have known for months that an eviction crisis was emerging and not for the first time, it has been too hesitant to take action and that we’re now facing a possible disaster if the embargo is lifted with no strategy for what comes next.
In three months, approximately 5,000 households were threatened with homelessness after being served a no-fault eviction notice and a quarter of all households who applied to their council for assistance were renting from a private landlord at the time – 19,160.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter said that thousands of more renters have since had their lives turned upside down as the country sinks into an economic free fall and with the daily news of new job cuts and the eviction embargo set to lift on Monday, the coming months are likely to see a devastating homelessness crisis unfold unless the government steps in to safeguard people’s homes.
Of course, no child is alone in these B&Bs, they’re there with their parents, but are usually not given many options but to go there or the children would be put into children’s homes.
And children are on the streets at a tender age normally because of their home lives. Of course, the immigrant predicament does need a shakeup but we can’t indict them for everything.
The whole population could get regular coronavirus tests as standard as part of a future strategy to ease lockdown, and the Health Secretary claimed a huge project is underway in Government to swamp the country with tests for everyone, even those who have no coronavirus symptoms.
However, Matt Hancock declined to spell out any specific details of his plan or set a deadline for it, saying only testing would be ramped up over the remainder of this year.
It also comes after the Government repeatedly grappled to meet other pledges on testing earlier this year. Yesterday 150,000 tests were carried out in the United Kingdom.
However, it’s not clear how his ambitious pledge would be financed or whether it would apply to devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but Matt Hancock claimed if the moon shot works, it could allow some of the remaining constraints on businesses, and meeting family and friends, to be lifted.
The Health Secretary stated that mass testing, population testing, where they make it the norm that people get tested regularly, will enable them to, therefore, give some people their freedoms back, and that it’s a huge project in Government right now.
It comes after researchers found up to 72 per cent of people who tested positive for coronavirus did not have symptoms and the Office for National Statistics announced the group didn’t report symptoms at the time of a swab test for COVID 19.
However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said figures were unknown because symptoms were self-reported, and some forms may be blank and the sample size was also small with only 165 people who tested positive so the margin for error was pretty wide.
Currently, tests need to be sent off to a lab and it takes time to turn around, making regular mass testing difficult and Matt Hancock stated his plan will only work if new, much faster tests, such as one that can deliver a result in ten minutes, pass the evaluation at Porton Down.
He said that some of them you only have to use saliva rather than having a swab all the way down the back of your throat, meaning anyone can administer it or self administer it.
Some of them don’t need a lab on the test, which means you don’t need to send it off and get it back and with the best ones you get the results in ten minutes.
But he added that he wasn’t going to put a firm deadline on it and that they were going as fast as they could, working with dozens of companies, both homegrown and international, to get the very best testing capacity.
And that this moon shot to have testing ubiquitous and ready to reopen all sorts of things to decrease the burden of the quarantine arrangements, to enable them to reopen parts of the market, that was an especially significant project in Government right now.
Separately, England’s weekly coronavirus survey would be hugely expanded in an effort to find more people who are spreading COVID 19 without symptoms and the infection survey would increase from regularly testing 28,000 people per fortnight in England to 150,000 by October.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey presently intends to increase to include 400,000 people and ministers are also working with Heathrow Airport to obtain a way for coronavirus testing to reduce the quarantine period.
Studies for the government’s scientific advisors have suggested people could be tested twice, once at the border and again about a week later, to cut the 14-day isolation down to 10 or 8 days.
However, Matt Hancock said the details are still being worked out, as any system can’t let many sufferers through the cracks and it’s been reported that Cabinet Ministers will meet next week to discuss strategies to replace blanket quarantines with COVID 19 testing for travellers.
Documents released on Friday from Sage’s June 18 meeting showed the scientific group found that double testing of travellers significantly reduced the chance of false negatives and could enable quarantine duration of less than 14 days.
It comes as Gordon Brown launches a campaign to promote science jobs and research as part of the COVID 19 economic recovery.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the former Prime Minister will call on MPs, local leaders, unions and businesses to back staying inside Horizon, a European research and science programme that pioneers medical, environmental and hi-tech research.
The ex-Labour leader said the COVID related jobs crisis means maintaining and generating new jobs and is the biggest economic challenge we will encounter across the United Kingdom in the next few months.
And people across Britain have a realistic perception of the big financial problem now facing us and is about solving the job crisis and it’s about whether you’re for full employment across our regions and nations, not whether you’re for or against Europe.
And the science and jobs benefit of Horizon membership to our universities and to high-quality ancillary companies will be essential to our four-nation COVID economic recovery plan.
Gordon Brown, who speaks at the festival on Friday, will be joined on the virtual platform by European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans and he’s expected to confirm the EU wants to maintain scientific research and development with British universities, despite Brexit.
I feel a huge blob of déjà vu coming because it wasn’t that long ago when Matt Hancock was telling everyone that we were going to have a world-beating Test and Trace app. However, what followed was a shambles.
Now here he is again promising what he knows he can’t or won’t deliver. How dumb does he think the British people are? And as that saying goes ‘Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me’.
And I’m no conspiracy nutcase but something clearly isn’t right with any Government who’s demanding that we all give what is effectively a sample of our DNA to them and now people are saying that this isn’t about the virus, it’s about a New World Order and Agenda 21 but it’s a pretty good way to lock the world down in the name of a virus.
And isn’t it illegal by International Human Rights law for a Government or anybody come to that to force another human being to undergo any medical procedure, including test and vaccination without there informed consent?
But since when have our Government’s given a drat about legality? And will a Tory contributor be profiting from the sale of these mass testing kits?
Dominic Cummings has been questioned by a former top prosecutor to give evidence about his movements through the coronavirus lockdown, as in May the Prime Minister’s chief aide drove from London to Durham despite having COVID 19 symptoms.
And it was said that Dominic Cummings might have broken lockdown rules, following the revelations of his journey, and a separate 60 mile round trip to a local beauty spot, but Dominic Cummings explained the excursions by stating that he and his wife Mary were self-isolating at his family’s farm in Co Durham because they were worried about childcare for their four-year-old son.
Dominic Cummings then claimed a trip to Barnard Castle was to test his eyesight. However, eyewitnesses maintain they saw him in Houghall Woods in Co Durham on the morning of Sunday, April 19, but Dominic Cummings maintained he was in London that day.
However, former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal’s legal team have written to Dominic Cummings and his wife, Mary, asking for data about their movements on key dates in March and April.
Nazir Afzal stated that all they’re asking, on behalf of the law-abiding public, is that Dominic Cummings, who’s continually talked about the importance of data, provides the data that will evidence his whereabouts and confirm he was telling the whole truth.
He further stated that they’d written to his wife Mary because she had yet to give an account of her whereabouts, which has become increasingly relevant as witnesses give their accounts, and that the public deserved the truth and nothing else.
Mike Schwarz, an associate at Hodge, Jones and Allen solicitors, said in a letter to Dominic Cummings, that their letter was provoked by testimony from additional witnesses, that put him in Durham on the morning of 19 April 2020, and indicated that he had returned there a second time.
And that appears to be inconsistent with his statement that he gave in the Downing Street Rose Garden on 25 May 2020, when he announced that in the last few days, there had been numerous media reports that he had returned to Durham after 13 April and that all those narratives were incorrect.
Dominic Cummings further referred to a particular report that he returned there on 19 April, and that data on his phone could confirm that this was untrue and that local CCTV footage if it existed, would further confirm that he was telling the truth and that he was in London on that day, and that he wasn’t in Durham.
The letter that Dominic Cummings got asks him to make available particular data in his possession at the time, and available from independent recording devices, capable of establishing his story.
The legal team also want location history data from all mobile phones used on particular dates and location history data from vehicles the couple travelled in.
The letter says that as an accomplished prosecutor, Mr Afzal is very mindful of the national security, privacy and other matters that might relate to specific data and information saved on Dominic Cummings mobile phone or other devices.
And that the request have been thoroughly limited to location data for the dates and times at which Dominic Cummings was acting in a personal rather than professional capacity, and in relation to which he and his wife Mary have previously expressed their readiness to disclose vital details to the public.
They did not ask for Dominic Cummings to provide or approve the disclosure of any data or information that was not immediately related to his whereabouts – Downing Street refused to comment.
Durham Constabulary made it clear that they would not be taking any further action against Dominic Cummings and that by placing himself at his father’s premises he did not breach the regulations.
And the Prime Minister said that he believed that Dominic Cummings acted reasonably and that he considered the subject closed, and Dominic Cummings stated that he thought that in all circumstances he acted rationally and constitutionally, weighing the safety of his family and the extreme position of No 10 and the public interest in effective government to which he could contribute.
However, it’s a fairly simple matter, all he has to do is present the evidence to demonstrate that he wasn’t lying because if he doesn’t then people out there are going to think they can smell a rat.
But divert, dispute, redirect and lie – it’s the Tory way, and Dominic Cummings shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it because of who he is, even by the authorities, and it’s about time the right thing was done, and that he’s properly held to account.
We the public elected them into Parliament in the first place, therefore we have every right to ask challenging questions, and they shouldn’t be given the right to refuse to acknowledge them because they’re answerable to us, the public.
Did Dominic Cummings think about what would have happened if he’d broken down in his vehicle or got a flat tyre? Especially knowing he had symptoms of coronavirus, driving those miles, anything could have occurred.
What would have happened if he’d been involved in a car collision? And if anything would have happened, he would have had to have breakdown recovery out, or if he’d been involved in a car crash, paramedics would have been in close contact.
I bet he never thought of that? And I don’t know why no one has put that to him for questioning, and we know it didn’t happen, but what if it had? He didn’t think of that when he went on his travels, and I wonder what he would say to get out of that one?
Tory Matt Hancock has confirmed Public Health England will be scrapped, and the change has now started.
The Health Secretary announced the drastic changes with immediate effect despite fury at him for doing so in the midst of a pandemic, and he stated there will be more private sector partnership in future as he sets up the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).
Public Health England (PHE), which was responsible for essential coronavirus testing and research will have its pandemic work merged with that of the much-criticised NHS Test and Trace programme.
The new NIHP will oversee both, led by Tory peer and David Cameron’s pal Dido Harding. In the meantime, PHE’s work on obesity, addiction and other essential public health problems will be given over to councils, who’ve had their public health budgets cut, and across the NHS, including GPs and pharmacies.
But Matt Hancock risks new rage after acknowledging there’s not yet a plan for who will oversee the new public health work. Instead, he stated he’ll consult widely with more news in the coming weeks.
The new NIHP will report directly to ministers and support the clinical leadership of the Chief Medical Officers, and Matt Hancock told the think tank Policy Exchange that it’s conceived amid crisis but it will help maintain vigilance for years to come.
PHE has long been scrutinised by figures in No 10 for scaling back community testing in March, over counting coronavirus mortality by including anyone who died at any time following diagnosis.
But ministers have also been accused of using PHE as a scapegoat for other shortcomings in the crisis.
Matt Hancock gave no date for the merger to be complete but announced it would start today, and that the new Institute would be formalised and running from spring 2021.
PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie will be supporting the transition but seems to have been dismissed from his position, but Matt Hancock said Michael Brodie, PHE’s former Finance Commercial Director will step up as the interim chief executive.
Matt Hancock added that from today, PHE, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and NHS Test and Trace will run under a single leadership, reporting to Baroness Dido Harding, who will establish the NIHP and undertake the global search for its future leadership.
The Health Secretary’s decision to scrap Public Health England has been branded as reckless and careless.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth tweeted that last year ministers outlined PHE’s priorities, but they didn’t consider planning for a pandemic, and a structural reorganisation mid pandemic is time-consuming, energy-sapping, it’s also unsafe and certainly irresponsible.
Richard Murray, chief executive of the health think tank, The Kings Fund, reprimanded Matt Hancock’s decision to break up Public Health England (PHE), and he said that Public Health England seems to have been found guilty without a trial.
And that it was unclear what problems the government are expecting to solve by carving up PHE and redistributing its responsibilities, and unquestionably, there are questions to be acknowledged about England’s administration of the COVID 19 crisis, and that the middle of a pandemic isn’t the time to dismantle England’s public health agency.
Colin Hutchinson, a retired surgeon who leads the Doctors for the NHS campaign group, said it slaps dogma in the face, rather than sound management, and a major restructuring of deckchairs isn’t the priority here when we know there’s still so many icebergs about.
Now is precisely the time we need public health strategies to take greater prominence in the United Kingdom, and PHE’s remit is to protect the nation’s well-being and reduce health inequalities.
And one would have expected the remit and purposes of the PHE to be expanding with a concurrent growth in funds, instead, the government wants to destroy the agency.
Matt Hancock said the new Institute will have a singular and ruthless purpose, shielding people from outside threats to this country’s help which includes biological weapons, pandemics, and infectious diseases of all kinds.
He said it would combine world-class expertise and scientific support, but in a move that will infuriate many on the left, he seemed to boast there will be more private sector involvement in the new body.
Challenged by drug giant Pfizer how the private sector could get involved, Matt Hancock answered that the truth was, we couldn’t have done it without the private sector, and that they couldn’t have expended testing in the way that they did, and that they couldn’t have expanded contact tracing in the way that they did.
Matt Hancock acknowledged that the United Kingdom went into the pandemic without the ability to deal with it and that they were making the transition now because they wanted to do everything they could to fulfil their responsibilities to the public, and to strengthen public health in the United Kingdom.
Baroness Harding, the head of the new body, was elected in May to lead England’s contact tracing programme but her reputation is mired in controversy, and since then, the programme has encountered questions about performance and value for money.
The peer was put in the House of Lords by her university buddy David Cameron in 2014, and while she’s the chair of NHS Improvement, Baroness Harding has also held senior positions at Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
And she was chief executive of TalkTalk when it was fined £4000,000 for security failings which led to 157,000 customers personal data being stolen.
Her latest position as chief of the NHS Test and Trace, which was launched in May, has also been mired in controversy.
The service, essentially outsourced to Serco and Sitel, scaled back its national operations and handed more authority to local councils after failing to reach more than a quarter of COVID 19 sufferers close contacts.
And plans to launch a companion app was pushed back by months after it didn’t work and had to start again from scratch.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock maintained the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) will sustain a level of independence in order for ministers to get unbiased advice.
Matt Hancock said that he definitely wanted to give the best possible advice that was objective and given without hesitation or favour and as open to external challenge as possible.
But Jonathan McShane, chair of the Terrence Higgins Trust said that at the same time, you need to operationally be able to come together and work seamlessly together and that if you formalise independence too much you could cause friction in that part of the relationship which gets in the way of response.
And with exemplary spirit and honesty, the Government is passing the buck to the NHS, and what a great idea it is to make drastic changes in the midst of a pandemic, and I’m shocked that Boris Johnson hasn’t remained in Downing Street to ensure this important move takes place smoothly.
Where is he hiding now? Perhaps he’s rented a cabin on the bank of the Loch Ness. No doubt the monster would love to sink its teeth into his juicy behind.
First, the Government gets this assignment of NHS money into the private sector by dumping the hard problem of testing and tracking onto councils. Perhaps a similar approach will be used in the near future to put more of the NHS into private companies hands.
And they will probably use companies like Atos, Maximus, Capita and Serco, and watch out for all the mash-up that will come from this mess. What a great way to hide all the ineptitude and statistic manipulating.
And I dare say, in a short while, when the argument is done and dusted, Boris will arrive on the battleground to bayonet the wounded. And now a public body is to be discarded to make way for a private company part of the way through a global pandemic and led by a person responsible for the Track and Trace disaster.
You just couldn’t make this up if you tried, and yet dimwits still bleat on about how amazing the Tories are.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 