Welcome to Wonderland

Finally, a woman is trusted to run the daily briefing, but it’s Priti Patel, so don’t expect anything to change. “I’m sorry if people feel there have been failings”, she says, as if there’s any doubt. What is that “if” doing there? It’s part of the current Toryspeak instruction, where mistakes aren’t actually made, they’re just illusions in the eye of the beholder. So “I’m sorry if you thought we got it wrong; (actually we didn’t, so it doesn’t matter).” But it does. Thousands of people have died, as a result of an incompetent government which can’t listen to warnings, take necessary precautions, make decisions or communicate with its people. Just a glance round the rest of Europe (let alone South Korea or New Zealand), and a look at the numbers of deaths, tells you that our lot do not have a clue.

I was amazed last week when someone in The Guardian praised Matt Hancock for bringing a new honesty to the daily briefing. But Hancock didn’t say “we got it wrong.” He said “We might get it wrong in the future, and if we do you’d be right to tell us.” But it’s all hypothetical, it hasn’t happened yet. If only that were true.