SomersetSB
Well-Known Member
It’s amazing now on here how all the lefties/Labour supporters now believe what’s printed in the Sun newspaper.
Do you want to discuss boring politics? (12 Viewers)
- Thread starter mrtrench
- Start date
Philosoraptor
Well-Known Member
If he isn't going to resign or be sacked I suspect this is going to be in the news, and more, over the weekend. Can't see any news editors going to take the suggestion that this is now closed. Probably a maelstrom of shit coming their way in the Sunday papers.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
It’s amazing now on here how all the lefties/Labour supporters now believe what’s printed in the Sun newspaper.
He’s admitted it?
Ccfcisparks
Well-Known Member
I mean there’s literal photographic evidence of it
Earlsdon_Skyblue1
Well-Known Member
SomersetSB
Well-Known Member
I know just amazing how the sun is a rag when you want it to be now your printing stories from it on here!!I mean there’s literal photographic evidence of it
Grendel
Well-Known Member
he who doth protest too much
Ccfcisparks
Well-Known Member
No you are right it’s total bollocks
D
Deleted member 9744
Guest
The answer to your question is yes.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
I actually agree with you on that point. But he has talked about stuff like family values etc
And although he may not have been an MP he was in a high ranking public office (London Mayor) and she did get over £100k in govt grants and went on three trade junkets at tax payer expense.
D
Deleted member 9744
Guest
The evidence does look quite compellingIt’s amazing now on here how all the lefties/Labour supporters now believe what’s printed in the Sun newspaper.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
If you had have said that on here last April you would been hit with a chorus of “would you rather live in Italy” from the resident plebs.
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
You mean aside from the fact he’s admitted it given he couldn’t deny it because of the very clear evidence by way of a still from a CCTV camera.It’s amazing now on here how all the lefties/Labour supporters now believe what’s printed in the Sun newspaper.
Ian1779
Well-Known Member
I merely shared its ‘blockbuster’ that they’ve sat on until they were told to release it. It merely solidifies the ‘rag’ status.
I haven't actually. Might do it this weekend. You?
D
Deleted member 4439
Guest
D
Deleted member 4439
Guest
Even the Telegraph are after him
Hypocrisy is too small a word for Matt Hancock’s betrayal of the public’s trust
Those who govern us are drunk on absolute power, and it's made men like Hancock reckless
On the 6th May 2020, Kay Burley, the Sky News presenter, asked Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, for his reaction to the news that Neil “Professor Lockdown” Ferguson had broken Covid rules he had a big hand in imposing on the British people by inviting his mistress over for the afternoon. “It’s extraordinary,” said Hancock, that look of faux-concern furrowing his blameless brow, “I am speechless. Professor Ferguson took the right decision to resign.” The social distancing rules, he said, “are there for everyone and are deadly serious.”
On 6th May 2021, exactly a year later, Matt Hancock was caught on CCTV giving his aide, Gina Coladangelo, a sixth-form-disco snog in the corridor outside his office. Old friends from Oxford, the pair’s “brazen” affair has apparently been the talk of the health department during the pandemic. This time, it was our turn to be speechless.
When the image appeared on the front page of The Sun on Friday, the breakfast tables of Britain spontaneously combusted. The marmalade hit the roof, well, it did at Pearson Towers. Thousands of people posted reactions on social media. Some were bitterly mocking the official mantras: “Hands, Face, Back to My Place”. “Saving Lives, Shagging Wives”.
Others were simply devastating: “I wasn’t even allowed to kiss my dying father because of Hancock.”
The anger and disbelief were palpable. Was this really the minister who told us on the 17th May that, after fourteen months of physical and emotional self-denial, we were free to hug our loved ones, when, a fortnight earlier, he’d been giving mouth-to-mouth to some glamorous chum he’d put on the public payroll? Knowing Hancock, he’d call it First Aide.
At least we know why he’s had that manic smirk on his face for the last year. How exhausting it must be to deliver pious, finger-wagging homilies to the nation, warning the doubly-vaccinated that they still aren’t in the clear (breaking an earlier Hancock promise). Then, after menacing people to carry on observing the rules, there’s just time for a quick “pilot scheme” with the mistress before dashing home to the wife and three kids in north London. Apparently, Mr Hancock was happy to run the risk of giving “this lethal virus” to his poor family, even though such behaviour was strictly prohibited under his own regulations.
After an initial claim that the Health Secretary had “no comment on personal matters” and “no rules have been broken”, with public fury growing Mr Hancock had no choice but to apologise. “I accept that I have breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances,” he said, “I have let people down and am very sorry… I would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”
Seriously, does he think that will do? Why would he, who has interfered in every crevice of our personal and family lives, expect privacy for his own? It was the Prime Minister who visited a biscuit factory this week, but it’s his Health Secretary who’s the artful Jammie Dodger, trying to squirm his way out of trouble. You see, Mr Hancock didn’t just breach “guidance”.
The snogging session with Mrs Coladangelo happened during Step 2 of lockdown. Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations 2021, gatherings of two or more indoors were illegal except for permitted purposes such as “work”. But a work gathering had to be “reasonably necessary” to fall within the exception and be legal. We know that Matt Hancock has more front than Blackpool, but even he wouldn’t dare claim that his bit on the side was either reasonable or necessary. The minister broke the law and he must resign immediately or be sacked.
Am I being too harsh? “Give the guy a break!,” I hear some readers cry. At a time of national emergency, Mr Hancock has had one of the most stressful jobs. The pressure must have been immense. Surely, we can extend some leeway if he strayed.
Under normal circumstances, I would agree. We are all humble sinners and a man or woman’s private peccadillos shouldn’t disqualify them from doing their job. But no such understanding or humanity – not a sliver of mercy - has been shown by the Secretary of State or this Government to members of the public who have broken often cruel and arbitrary rules. Remember how we watched in horror as police arrested a retired nurse as she tried to drive her 97-year-old mother away from a care home. Hundreds of thousands of people have departed this life without a last touch or kiss from their best beloveds because the restrictions forbade it so relatives sobbed in the carpark because Matt Hancock said it must be so. Almost 30,000 children have been put on anti-depressants yet just one positive test (without any Covid symptoms) can still send an entire year group home to self-isolate for ten lonely days. Parents know this is insanity, but they must suck it up because that prating popinjay Hancock tells them it’s vital to keep us “safe”.
Do the authorities turn a blind eye to the suicidal publican who tries to find wriggle room in the guidance so he can pay bills that loom like warships in his nightmares? They do not. What do the couples who have to fill in a 25-page risk assessment this weekend so their guests can sit masked and far apart at their wedding, and not “mingle” or dance like the morning suits at Royal Ascot for fear of a £10,000 fine, think of the conduct of Matthew Hancock?
“I hate him,” says one bride simply. I hate him too. How dare Matt Hancock think he can flout the rules with impunity, rules which have caused an ocean of suffering to the good people of this country who have strived to do as they were told by this utter charlatan. Hypocrisy is too small a word for this betrayal of public trust.
I will leave it to others to plumb the murky depths of how Ms Coladangelo, who has a pitiful smattering of qualifications on her LinkedIn profile, landed such a juicy position with her old friend in Government. One thing, however, is crystal clear. The Hancock scandal has broken at the exact moment when even the meekest citizen is starting to question the Prime Minister’s prevarication over lifting restrictions and the ever more flagrant Them and Us application of exemptions.
If I had a gasket left to blow it would have exploded when Culture and Sports minister John Whittingdale explained this week how up to 3,000 Uefa officials will be allowed to arrive in the UK, without quarantine, for the Euro semis and finals. “We’ve always said that for some people who are important…”, said the hapless minister, accounting for the fact that normal people would be held to different standards.
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” I never ever thought George Orwell’s satirical take in Animal Farm on an arrogant, unaccountable elite patronising the masses would apply in our country. More fool me. We’re all in this together, eh, Matt?
You know what I think happened? They got drunk on power in Downing Street. Maybe we can’t blame them. How intoxicating it must be to have absolute control over a previously strong-minded populace. Suddenly, we were jittery puppets on their string. But absolute power made men like Hancock reckless. If he could say and do anything he liked then why not have a thrillingly illicit affair while telling young people they couldn’t meet and fall in love, or have sex, for a year? Was the pleasure even greater when you knew it was denied to others?
We were told to stay in our bubbles. The Secretary of State for Health stayed in a bubble alright - a bubble of his own monumental self-regard and arrogant delusion. When the Prime Minister told Dominic Cummings that Hancock was “totally fucking hopeless” he was right. For the mass deaths in the care homes, for the glib fibs about PPE, for allowing the NHS to become the National Covid Service, creating a waiting list over 5 million long. He should have been sacked for any or all of those things.
Now, with fresh and overwhelming proof of his unfitness for high office, it seems that the PM still won’t fire him. What more will it take? The statement from Number 10 said: “The Health Secretary accepts that he has broken the social distancing guidelines. The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed.”
Trust me, it’s not closed. There are millions of us, and we are raging now, and we will not allow it to be closed. If the Government permits one law for Hancock and “important people” and another for the rest of us then it is morally bankrupt. Boris must act this very day to restore the people’s faith, to prove that we haven’t been mugs.
“What about Ferguson staying on?,” Kay Burley asked Matt Hancock after Professor Lockdown broke the rules.
“That’s just not possible in the circumstances,” replied the Secretary of State.
Hypocrisy is too small a word for Matt Hancock’s betrayal of the public’s trust
Those who govern us are drunk on absolute power, and it's made men like Hancock reckless
On the 6th May 2020, Kay Burley, the Sky News presenter, asked Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, for his reaction to the news that Neil “Professor Lockdown” Ferguson had broken Covid rules he had a big hand in imposing on the British people by inviting his mistress over for the afternoon. “It’s extraordinary,” said Hancock, that look of faux-concern furrowing his blameless brow, “I am speechless. Professor Ferguson took the right decision to resign.” The social distancing rules, he said, “are there for everyone and are deadly serious.”
On 6th May 2021, exactly a year later, Matt Hancock was caught on CCTV giving his aide, Gina Coladangelo, a sixth-form-disco snog in the corridor outside his office. Old friends from Oxford, the pair’s “brazen” affair has apparently been the talk of the health department during the pandemic. This time, it was our turn to be speechless.
When the image appeared on the front page of The Sun on Friday, the breakfast tables of Britain spontaneously combusted. The marmalade hit the roof, well, it did at Pearson Towers. Thousands of people posted reactions on social media. Some were bitterly mocking the official mantras: “Hands, Face, Back to My Place”. “Saving Lives, Shagging Wives”.
Others were simply devastating: “I wasn’t even allowed to kiss my dying father because of Hancock.”
The anger and disbelief were palpable. Was this really the minister who told us on the 17th May that, after fourteen months of physical and emotional self-denial, we were free to hug our loved ones, when, a fortnight earlier, he’d been giving mouth-to-mouth to some glamorous chum he’d put on the public payroll? Knowing Hancock, he’d call it First Aide.
At least we know why he’s had that manic smirk on his face for the last year. How exhausting it must be to deliver pious, finger-wagging homilies to the nation, warning the doubly-vaccinated that they still aren’t in the clear (breaking an earlier Hancock promise). Then, after menacing people to carry on observing the rules, there’s just time for a quick “pilot scheme” with the mistress before dashing home to the wife and three kids in north London. Apparently, Mr Hancock was happy to run the risk of giving “this lethal virus” to his poor family, even though such behaviour was strictly prohibited under his own regulations.
After an initial claim that the Health Secretary had “no comment on personal matters” and “no rules have been broken”, with public fury growing Mr Hancock had no choice but to apologise. “I accept that I have breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances,” he said, “I have let people down and am very sorry… I would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”
Seriously, does he think that will do? Why would he, who has interfered in every crevice of our personal and family lives, expect privacy for his own? It was the Prime Minister who visited a biscuit factory this week, but it’s his Health Secretary who’s the artful Jammie Dodger, trying to squirm his way out of trouble. You see, Mr Hancock didn’t just breach “guidance”.
The snogging session with Mrs Coladangelo happened during Step 2 of lockdown. Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations 2021, gatherings of two or more indoors were illegal except for permitted purposes such as “work”. But a work gathering had to be “reasonably necessary” to fall within the exception and be legal. We know that Matt Hancock has more front than Blackpool, but even he wouldn’t dare claim that his bit on the side was either reasonable or necessary. The minister broke the law and he must resign immediately or be sacked.
Am I being too harsh? “Give the guy a break!,” I hear some readers cry. At a time of national emergency, Mr Hancock has had one of the most stressful jobs. The pressure must have been immense. Surely, we can extend some leeway if he strayed.
Under normal circumstances, I would agree. We are all humble sinners and a man or woman’s private peccadillos shouldn’t disqualify them from doing their job. But no such understanding or humanity – not a sliver of mercy - has been shown by the Secretary of State or this Government to members of the public who have broken often cruel and arbitrary rules. Remember how we watched in horror as police arrested a retired nurse as she tried to drive her 97-year-old mother away from a care home. Hundreds of thousands of people have departed this life without a last touch or kiss from their best beloveds because the restrictions forbade it so relatives sobbed in the carpark because Matt Hancock said it must be so. Almost 30,000 children have been put on anti-depressants yet just one positive test (without any Covid symptoms) can still send an entire year group home to self-isolate for ten lonely days. Parents know this is insanity, but they must suck it up because that prating popinjay Hancock tells them it’s vital to keep us “safe”.
Do the authorities turn a blind eye to the suicidal publican who tries to find wriggle room in the guidance so he can pay bills that loom like warships in his nightmares? They do not. What do the couples who have to fill in a 25-page risk assessment this weekend so their guests can sit masked and far apart at their wedding, and not “mingle” or dance like the morning suits at Royal Ascot for fear of a £10,000 fine, think of the conduct of Matthew Hancock?
“I hate him,” says one bride simply. I hate him too. How dare Matt Hancock think he can flout the rules with impunity, rules which have caused an ocean of suffering to the good people of this country who have strived to do as they were told by this utter charlatan. Hypocrisy is too small a word for this betrayal of public trust.
I will leave it to others to plumb the murky depths of how Ms Coladangelo, who has a pitiful smattering of qualifications on her LinkedIn profile, landed such a juicy position with her old friend in Government. One thing, however, is crystal clear. The Hancock scandal has broken at the exact moment when even the meekest citizen is starting to question the Prime Minister’s prevarication over lifting restrictions and the ever more flagrant Them and Us application of exemptions.
If I had a gasket left to blow it would have exploded when Culture and Sports minister John Whittingdale explained this week how up to 3,000 Uefa officials will be allowed to arrive in the UK, without quarantine, for the Euro semis and finals. “We’ve always said that for some people who are important…”, said the hapless minister, accounting for the fact that normal people would be held to different standards.
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” I never ever thought George Orwell’s satirical take in Animal Farm on an arrogant, unaccountable elite patronising the masses would apply in our country. More fool me. We’re all in this together, eh, Matt?
You know what I think happened? They got drunk on power in Downing Street. Maybe we can’t blame them. How intoxicating it must be to have absolute control over a previously strong-minded populace. Suddenly, we were jittery puppets on their string. But absolute power made men like Hancock reckless. If he could say and do anything he liked then why not have a thrillingly illicit affair while telling young people they couldn’t meet and fall in love, or have sex, for a year? Was the pleasure even greater when you knew it was denied to others?
We were told to stay in our bubbles. The Secretary of State for Health stayed in a bubble alright - a bubble of his own monumental self-regard and arrogant delusion. When the Prime Minister told Dominic Cummings that Hancock was “totally fucking hopeless” he was right. For the mass deaths in the care homes, for the glib fibs about PPE, for allowing the NHS to become the National Covid Service, creating a waiting list over 5 million long. He should have been sacked for any or all of those things.
Now, with fresh and overwhelming proof of his unfitness for high office, it seems that the PM still won’t fire him. What more will it take? The statement from Number 10 said: “The Health Secretary accepts that he has broken the social distancing guidelines. The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed.”
Trust me, it’s not closed. There are millions of us, and we are raging now, and we will not allow it to be closed. If the Government permits one law for Hancock and “important people” and another for the rest of us then it is morally bankrupt. Boris must act this very day to restore the people’s faith, to prove that we haven’t been mugs.
“What about Ferguson staying on?,” Kay Burley asked Matt Hancock after Professor Lockdown broke the rules.
“That’s just not possible in the circumstances,” replied the Secretary of State.
So, after this
Matt Hancock broke ministerial code over family firm given NHS contract
Health secretary breached code ‘in technical terms’, new adviser on standards concludeswww.theguardian.com
and this
Cummings told officials to bypass procedures on £530k grant to data team, leak reveals
we now have this
Matt Hancock 'affair': Aide Gina Coladangelo's brother has top job at company with NHS contracts
Roberto Coladangelo is the strategy director of Partnering Health Limited, which has several NHS contracts, Sky News can reveal.news.sky.com
If Johnson doesn’t have a quiet word this weekend (either you resign saying it was necessary ‘after stressful time, let people down, need to spend time with family blah blah’ or I sack you) this will severely damage the government
Hancock has always been a mixture of idiot/toxicity...now he’s just toxic
Evo1883
Well-Known Member
He has to go .. it simply cannot be allowed to continue .So, after this
Matt Hancock broke ministerial code over family firm given NHS contract
Health secretary breached code ‘in technical terms’, new adviser on standards concludes
and this
Cummings told officials to bypass procedures on £530k grant to data team, leak reveals
we now have this
Matt Hancock 'affair': Aide Gina Coladangelo's brother has top job at company with NHS contracts
Roberto Coladangelo is the strategy director of Partnering Health Limited, which has several NHS contracts, Sky News can reveal.
D
Deleted member 4439
Guest
Apart from anything else, unless he resigns and adopts a low profile for a long time, he couldn't be taken seriously in any interview. All you'd be able to focus on on is "what a cock" (yes, yes..}. I know Boris needs him for the inquiry, but he would be seriously damaging his party if he didn't have him resign.
Agreed, although not sure Johnson needs him for the inquiry. Cummings has already hung him out to dry, he’s got no credibility etc etc and I never thought he’d still be in position by then anyway. Also that inquiry is going to finger pointing all round (everyone covering their own arses). As you say, far more damaging to keep him. The public as a whole are rightly livid
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
Isn’t the point that Boris needs Hancock for the enquiry so Hancock doesn’t also hang him out to dry? No honour amongst thieves and all that. If MHancock is no longer in the team who would he be protecting other than himself? I doubt his ego will allow him to not use the enquiry as an opportunity to try and rebuild his own personal reputation.
But the info from scientists advisors, SAGE group minutes etc etc will tell the story. If Johnson has only got Hancock covering his back then he’s fucked anyway (Hancock’s got no credibility etc).
If Hancock leaves now he might even be back in the cabinet by the time of the inquiry….I know a few on here will be clambering for him to be made Education Secretary !
I'd normally go along with the last bit Steve but competence wise I don't see this lad becoming resurgent.
I just see Pike from Dad's Army.
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lifeskyblue
Well-Known Member
You are doing Pike a disservice…Hancock is not merely a ‘stupid boy’
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
I'm really not so sure. If I were a scriptwriter for the Thick of It, he'd be providing a valuable service hanging around...
Grendel
Well-Known Member
Which is why thatcher kept on Gummer but there becomes a point where it tips into overall negativity
It’s one calamity after another with Hancock - he will resurface again but for now time to go
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
tbh, my conspiracy theory (and it avoides judgements here, as I really don't want it to tip over into t'other thread!!) is similar to Cummings.
At that point, certain sectors of the population were quite happy sitting at home, not enthused by eating out to help out, going on holiday etc. What you need to do is change the collective psyche a little, and one way of doing that is to loosen those chains where people follow authority fairly literally. Once Cummings tested his eyesight, there was a discernable shift where people weren't as worried about following rules literally, as he hadn't after all.
We're in a similar position now. Hancock can serve a purpose in just loosening those psychological chains ever so slightly, showing that rules are there to be bent and, when they loosen more, it encourages people to take advantage of those loosened rules rather than self-selecting.
In that way... Hancock can provide a service. You *then* move him away, and he either ends up the patsy for errors, or the blame if you need to re-introduce restrictions down the line. Meanwhile, his authority is damaged so he doesn't get any attention paid to him if he butts againstt the government.
The political (small p) move might be to keep him there, given the stage we're at.
(Of course what's more likely is that he's a hopelessly incompetent insincere buffoon who has no grasp of the role he's supposed to play in government, but who doesn't like a conspiracy theory eh
)tbh, my conspiracy theory (and it avoides judgements here, as I really don't want it to tip over into t'other thread!!) is similar to Cummings.
At that point, certain sectors of the population were quite happy sitting at home, not enthused by eating out to help out, going on holiday etc. What you need to do is change the collective psyche a little, and one way of doing that is to loosen those chains where people follow authority fairly literally. Once Cummings tested his eyesight, there was a discernable shift where people weren't as worried about following rules literally, as he hadn't after all.
We're in a similar position now. Hancock can serve a purpose in just loosening those psychological chains ever so slightly, showing that rules are there to be bent and, when they loosen more, it encourages people to take advantage of those loosened rules rather than self-selecting.
In that way... Hancock can provide a service. You *then* move him away, and he either ends up the patsy for errors, or the blame if you need to re-introduce restrictions down the line. Meanwhile, his authority is damaged so he doesn't get any attention paid to him if he butts againstt the government.
The political (small p) move might be to keep him there, given the stage we're at.
(Of course what's more likely is that he's a hopelessly incompetent insincere buffoon who has no grasp of the role he's supposed to play in government, but who doesn't like a conspiracy theory eh
I agree, there is more to this, definitely in terms of timing of the release of the pic/vid. Whether it involves Cummings (I think Dubed mentioned this might not be Hancocks only affair), or possibly Johnson wanting to reduce his power/remove potential blocker to reopening... or something else. Who knows.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
That was the problem with falling out with Cummings over Carrie. I reckon they'd agreed Hancock would end up being the fall guy and now Cummings is either trying to remove Hancock so he can't be or destroy any credibility as a leader Johnson has (how he still has any anyway is a mystery).
Cummings is the type of guy to keep portfolios on people with all the shit they've got up to to use as blackmail and Johnson probably has his own filing cabinet.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
He will never sack him. It'd be pot calling the kettle black. Would anyone seriously be surprised if Johnson had been up to similar during lockdown given his reputation?