Scepticism is a peculiarly British trait. The idea that we might actually be able to do something well seems too absurd to contemplate. Before the 2012 Olympics, the general view was it was all going to be a disaster: the stadiums would be late; the Tube drivers would go on strike; the opening ceremony would … Read more
NHS coronavirus contact tracers struggled to reach tens of thousands of potentially infectious people yesterday after phone lines crashed following an IT malfunction. As workers attempted to catch up on a backlog of calls to the 16,000 infectious people missed from the database – due to an error caused by an outdated version of Microsoft’s … Read more
An eerie silence suddenly befell Committee Room number six just after 4pm yesterday. Baroness Dido Harding had just explained to the Commons’ science and technology committee how she’d come to be head of our vital testing programme. The matter had been raised by Graham Stringer (Lab, Blackley and Broughton) who had politely pointed out that … Read more
The testing fiasco is on the brink of dooming the country to a de facto lockdown with keeping schools open ‘unsustainable’, ministers were warned today. Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock are facing fury after the system descended into a shambles, with millions of people struggling to get checked. The Health Secretary was humiliatingly forced to … Read more
Britons seeking a coronavirus swab in Twickenham have been told to pretend they’re from Aberdeen in order to jump the queue – amid growing anger over the Government’s testing ‘shambles’. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged the public to not ‘game the system’ by changing their postcodes when requesting a test. But a glitch, revealed … Read more
Covid tests will have to be rationed, Matt Hancock admitted yesterday. In a humiliating climbdown, he said a ‘priority list’ would ensure care homes, hospitals, schools and key staff had enough. In a torrid session in the Commons, the Health Secretary was also forced to admit the current critical shortages could drag on for weeks. … Read more
Border Force officials are only aiming to spot check fewer than a third of arrivals at Britain’s airports, it has been revealed. The government has introduced measures which require passengers arriving in the UK to fill out an online form before they arrive in the UK from any country. This includes countries or territories which … Read more
Fiasco doesn’t begin to do it justice. Perhaps omnishambles – a word first coined in the BBC political satire The Thick of It – comes a little closer. Or given the PM’s reliance on his trusted henchman Dominic Cummings to read the political runes, should it be Domnishambles? In reality, the events presided over by … Read more
Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, confirmed plans to merge the body with the NHS Test and Trace programme Public Health England’s boss has revealed he is ‘sorry beyond words’ for staff finding out the beleaguered agency was getting broken-up through media reports. Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, confirmed Number 10’s controversial plans to … Read more
With great fanfare, Boris Johnson last week announced a ‘world beating’ army of contact tracers whose job is to stop coronavirus in its tracks. No fewer than 25,000 have been hired. Their mission – to combat coronavirus by sleuthing down every person in danger of contracting Covid from each new case that emerges. On Thursday … Read more