Dido says that no-one prediced the rise in requests for testing. Really?

Only this week Dominic Cummings was pictured slouching through the Downing Street gates carrying some archive letter written by US general Bernard Shriever, pushing for continued investment in ballistic weapons technology.

...and if anyone thinks this was just a happenstance with no significance, someoe like Cumming is not seen displaying a letter like this without carefully thinking it through first. it had a purpose and its purpose carried a message for, probably, the Americans. Signalling a positive interest in a missile defence shield as if by accident and leaving them entirely free to deny any interest in it, if it is expedient for them so to do.

A friend in Manchester has been tested this week and has Covid. She is 60y old and works part time.

She tried to get a test on line as she had a cough, was super tired and had lost her sense of smell & taste. No use with the on line application.

Someone told her of a walk in testing centre in Trafford Park so she drove over. 10 minute drive. Had the test (no queue) and got the result the next day.

I find that heartening. It’s not all chaos.

I do hope this isn’t true but have just read on Mail Online that the head of the NHS in England is ready to step down and could be replaced by Dido Harding. Please tell me this isn’t true.

Curlygirl

I do hope this isn’t true but have just read on Mail Online that the head of the NHS in England is ready to step down and could be replaced by Dido Harding. Please tell me this isn’t true.

A spoof I expect.

Who knew that children go to school in September?

Who guessed that hundreds of thousands of students head to universities where they – and easily shocked readers should look away – strive with every fibre of their being to mingle with each other as vigorously as they can?

What clairvoyant might have predicted that, when the government offered the public cut-price restaurant meals at the taxpayers’ expense, the public would gobble them up? Or that, when the prime minister urged workers to go back to their offices and save Pret a Manger, a few brave souls would have returned to their desks and risked having “dulce et decorum est pro Pretia mori” carved on their gravestones?

You may have expected trouble, but Baroness Dido Harding was flabbergasted. The complaint from MPs that the rise in Covid cases was “entirely predictable” baffled the head of the NHS test-and-trace programme. Nobody “was expecting to see the really sizeable increase in demand that we’ve seen over the course of the last few weeks,” she said.

Harding could not see a foreseeable crisis because she has no qualifications for running a public health service in a national emergency. She’s in post because she is a Tory peer and supporter of the governing regime. Far from firing her, ministers have promoted Harding to head their new National Institute for Health Protection. She didn’t apply for the post, she admitted to parliament.

Nick Cohen

Ah well there's any Health Protection down the drain then!

Far from firing her, ministers have promoted Harding to head their new National Institute for Health Protection. She didn’t apply for the post, she admitted to parliament.

Is that legal? Shouldn't the post be advertised?

Oh, I forgot, silly me! It doesn't matter if it's legal or not, does it.

Who knew that children go to school in September?

Indeed Furret, it cames as a tremendous shock to everyone. Apparently.

The skies are the limit for the Baroness. Seems that it's a supreme example of its not what you know but who. It would almost be acceptable if the results were excellent, but it's one failure after another. I read this morning that a labour peer is questioning whether her rocket fuelled promotion is against the constitution.

Urmstongran The reason that the person in your example was able to get a test was no thanks to the Government, but because someone passed on some local information. Our local Facebook group gives anecdotal information about which testing centres are operating well.
It is the Government testing system which is operating badly.

Seems we are top of the tree for testing

Following the EU referendum, a group of MPs investigating fake news ordered Mr Cummings to appear before them for questioning about the Vote Leave campaign.

He did not respond the order of the House, and was accused of showing a “total disregard” for the authority of Parliament.

A report concluded Mr Cummings committed contempt of Parliament “both by his initial refusal to obey the Committee’s order to attend it and by his subsequent refusal to obey the House’s order”.

inews.co.uk/news/dominic-cummings-controversies-lockdown-genetics-contempt-of-parliament-brexit-430679

Dido Harding showed herself to be thoroughly inept and incompetent in her appearance before the Parliamentary Committee, but at least she deigned to appear, unlike Cummings who remains in Contempt of Parliament, yet seems untouchable.

For more accurate statistics on covid testing in the UK, listen to the first item on Wednesday's edition of "More or Less"

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08rlmn8

Sorry ,WW2, but I saw the same news in the Sunday Times.
How can you appoint someone who may have experience, but who has not been successful in that sphere.

westendgirl

Sorry ,WW2, but I saw the same news in the Sunday Times.
How can you appoint someone who may have experience, but who has not been successful in that sphere.

The only experience she appears to have is of failing.

Dido Queen of Carnage. Absolutely.

varian

For more accurate statistics on covid testing in the UK, listen to the first item on Wednesday's edition of "More or Less"

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08rlmn8

Not being funny but I got lost, too complicated for me. Can anyone explain ?

Dido, Queen of Carthage
Dido is described as a clever and enterprising woman who flees her ruthless and autocratic brother, Pygmalion, after discovering that he was responsible for her husband's death. Through her wisdom and leadership, the city of Carthage is founded and made prosperous.

Perhaps this one should revert to her real name.

Honestly Lucca you will never get a more clear and trustworthy explanation of the statistics than you can get on "More or Less"