Teetering Matt Hancock ignores head and heart and sticks to PM's script | John Crace

Door Matt knows a circuit breaker is the right way to go but he lacks the strength to stand up to BorisIf Matt Hancock believes in karma, he must be wondering what the hell he did in his previous existence. His fall from grace has been spectacular. Early on in the coronavirus pandemic, Matt looked as if he was one of the few ministers to have grasped the severity of the situation and to be prepared to take the necessary action to contain it. A rare outbreak of responsibility in cabinet. But over the last three or four months, Matt has become Door Matt.For a while the health secretary’s one sanctuary was that at least he could claim to be following the science. Even when he missed nearly every testing target and his decision to outsource the track-and-trace system proved disastrous, he could kid himself that he had failed in a more or less scientific way. But even that escape clause for his conscience was snatched away once the prime minister chose to ignore Sage’s recommendation to introduce a circuit breaker in September and then chose not to disclose the evidence until this week. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/15/teetering-matt-hancock-ignores-head-and-heart-and-sticks-to-pms-script #matt_hancock #health_policy #conservatives #house_of_commons #politics #uk_news