COVID-19 PRESS CONFERENCE FOR ENGLAND, SUNDAY 24 MAY

Led by Alex Johnson, Prime Minister
Supported by Professor Steve Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England

This posting was written very early on  25th May, and updated at 11am.

The entire presser can be found on YouTube.  There is also a transcript.

The graphics can be found here.  This web page also lists links to the graphics shown at other pressers.

Johnson talked principally about two things:

1.    Decision to retain Dominic Cummings despite his travel to Durham
  • Cummings acted “legally” and “honestly” as he had “No alternative”. Foolowed his "instinct" as a parent
  • When Johnson was questioned he simply repeated what he had said without answering any of the questions
2.    On track to partially re-open schools on 1 June, subject to a formal review by Thursday 28 May

Powis presented the daily graphics.  He said nothing new, with no update on the estimate of R

Few questions were adequately answered.  They were a waste of time, other than to highlight genuine concern about PPE in hospitals, and the issues around Cummings, including public anger.


NEWSPAPER REACTION

Right-leaning press



  










Left-leaning press


Other press










MY CONCLUSION RE CUMMINGS

Bollox.  There were alternatives for the family to remain based at their home in London, and the journey was not “essential”.  Here is a widely-respected lawyer discussing the issue:

As one of the questioners said, Cummings undermines the government messages. Actively encouraging the public to flout the rules.  Dangerous for keeping R down.

Can R stay below 1 by Thursday 28th so a second lockdown can be avoided?  A week ago I reckoned 50:50.  Now I reckon the chance is less than 25%, certainly by early June when what’s happening this coming week will be known.



MPs' REACTIONS


Let's see tomorrow, Monday.  I suspect anger amongst Conservative MPs will rise as their mailbag swells with correspondence from angry constituents.  [Indeed it has, as this report indicates 15 Tory MPs and counting publicly up in arms.  Only 2 of the backbenchers supporting Johnson on their WhatsApp group apparently.]

According to a Minister:


Likewise from other MPs, members of SAGE and many others.  The Twittersphere is flooded with outrage.  Here's a member of one of the SAGE sub-groups:

WILL CUMMINGS SURVIVE?

Will Cummings survive?  Will he take Johnson with him?  Watch this space.

Personally I'd like to see Cummings go and Johnson replaced as PM.  This episode was outrageous. 

Perhaps Jeremy Hunt to be Interim PM, a former Health Minister and the man Johnson beat to become Conservative Leader and PM.  Stranger things have happened.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

R, R, WHERE R'T THOU R? (Updated 29 May)

Image
R has gone AWOL.  The king of the COVID metrics is missing, presumed dead.  Yet so important.  That's what I wrote early on 28 May.  I then found something that made me fall off my chair.  I'm now returning to the topic late morning on 29 May: R is so important as an indicator of how well this coronavirus is being kept under control, and a key part of assessing whether lockdown restrictions can be eased or indeed need to be tightened .  But R is only useful if reflecting the transmission rate now.  The problem is that it isn't.  I am shocked! RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS OF R On 15 May, Sir Patrick Vallance, joint chair of SAGE, tweeted this: We'll go to that web page in a moment.  But before that.... Sir Patrick has tweeted nothing about R since 15 May (as at 10 pm on 29 May).  Nor has Professor Chris Whitty , the other joint chair, presumably as his brief is medical matters.    . So I looked at all the slides...
Read more

THE MONDAY AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE

Image
On Sunday evening 10 May, PM Johnson broadcast a pre-recorded message that set out some sensible overall concepts. But his talk has been widely slated for a lack of clarity, and that consensus hadn't been developed with either the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, nor with Labour and other political parties. Frankly it looked like a Year 12 school project that had gone horribly wrong. Could it get any worse?  Hold my beer! Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, did a round of media interviews on Monday morning that confused people even more.  And resulted in some of the things he said having to be corrected. Later in the day, a round of briefing papers were released to Parliament, and PM Johnson appeared in the Commons to answer questions.  Again not good. This is Keir Starmer, Labour leader, trying to make sense of the documents in the Commons this afternoon The story so far is set out in this damning article "Motor misfires ...
Read more