We now know why the government has kept the membership and deliberations of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) a big secret. It is because two of the Tory Party’s top political advisers, Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner, have been attending and participating, even though neither of them have any scientific qualifications.
Although Downing Street is defending their presence by claiming that they have only attended as ‘observers’, other committee members speaking to the Guardian newspaper, have made it clear that they actively participate in the committee’s deliberations.
Cummings’ baleful influence
One political attendee, Dominic Cummings, has a huge influence in government and is generally thought to have shaped the early strategy of relying on everyone getting infected with coronavirus, to build up a ‘herd immunity’. “So what, if a few old people die?”, was the mood music coming from Cummings, according to The Sunday Times. His baleful influence is felt at every turn and no doubt heavily influences the daily briefings to the press, better described as daily blagging sessions.
While NHS and front-line workers are battling the coronavirus pandemic, with wholly inadequate PPE and testing, government ministers, with Cummings’ backstage guidance, are bluffing their way through any uncomfortable questions about PPE, testing or fatality rates. The country stands up to the virus, they stand up to the country.
What is just as bad as Cummings attendance, is the presence of Ben Warner, another political adviser. He was a key figure in the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign, which, let us recall, told one big lie after another. Lying was the in fact the modus operandi for his whole campaign. No lie was too big or too outrageous to win the vote – like millions of Turkish citizens standing by to flood the EU or the “£350m a week” for the NHS.
‘protection from lobbying’
In a letter to parliament this month, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, gave reasons for the membership of the Sage committee being secret. Secrecy, the letter said, “protects [committeemembers] from lobbying and other forms of unwanted influence which may hinder their ability to give impartial advice” But “lobbying” and “unwanted influence” is precisely what is happening.
Speaking to the Guardian, on conditions of anonymity, other committee attendees have expressed alarm at the presence of political advisers without any scientific qualifications. One of them felt that “Cummings’ interventions had sometimes inappropriately influenced what is supposed to be an impartial scientific process.”
Referring to the presence of Warner and Cummings, the Sage member complained, “When a very senior civil servant or a very well-connected person interrupts, then I don’t think anyone in the room feels the power to stop it. When you get to discussing where advice might be going, there have been occasions where they have been involved, and a couple of times I’ve thought: that’s not what we are supposed to be doing.”
Warner’s brother awarded £250m contract
We also now know – from social media, because the mainstream media will keep it quiet – that Warner’s brother Marc founded and heads up a data company called Faculty and, surprise, surprise, no sooner had Cummings got his foot in the door of Ten Downing Street that Faculty was awarded a £250m contract with the NHS. Faculty and another company now have another contract, for the NHS tracking app, awarded to them without competitive tendering. The other company involved, Palantir, is owned by a right-wing American billionaire, currently supporting Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid. Despite all the fine talk about “our wonderful NHS”, these people still see the health service as their own personal golden goose.
With Cummings and Warner in attendance, we can now see the link between the government’s daily ‘briefings’ and their alleged ‘scientific advice’ with all empty promises and lies day after day. It is not so much ‘scientific advice’ the government listens to, as polling figures. Their strategy, such as it is, is a rationalisation of the extreme deficiencies they engineered over ten years: deficiencies in PPE, in testing capacity and in NHS beds and staff levels.
Fatalities seriously under-reported
Take the fatalities rate, for example. Everyone knows that the government daily figures count hospitals deaths only, and the passing of the 20,000 number was marked as if it were genuine. In fact, the government – and the media who have tamely followed the government’s agenda on all things – know full well that the 20,000 milestone was passed a week earlier. According to the Office of National Statistics, the true death toll in England and Wales is running about 40% higher than the government’s daily update. But pre-occupied with ratings, and advised by Cummings, government spokespersons continue on their own sweet way, marking up fatality rates somewhere between 40% and 50% below the true figure.
It is no wonder that there are suspicions around the government’s lack of transparency. Johnson cannot admit simply to being short of the necessary resources, because that is tantamount to admitting that his government and his party have run the NHS into the ground in the last ten years. The shambolic nature of their handling of the pandemic is borne out of a complete inability to be honest about the condition into which they had driven the NHS.
Only 7% of public think testing level is enough
The public’s confidence in the government’s ability to handle the coronavirus crisis has fallen sharply in the past fortnight, with less than half of voters now having faith in decisions made by ministers, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer. According to these polls, a particularly low proportion of people (15%) believe the government is handling the key issue of testing well. Just 7% think the level of testing for Covid-19 has been enough, while 71% think it has been insufficient. Some 57% disapprove of the way testing has been handled, up from 48% on 7 April. These polls confirm the anecdotal evidence from the complaints of health professionals and health unions for weeks.
Perhaps a greater tragedy is the relative silence of the Labour leadership in all of this. There is a mountain of anger and indignation building up against the political corruption, lies and shambolic policy emanating from Downing Street, but there isn’t so much as a sniff of this from the official opposition. Starmer might have called for an ‘exit strategy’ and for the personnel of the Sage committee to be published, but he clearly doesn’t do indignation. Some are beginning to suspect that unfortunately he doesn’t do much ‘opposition’ either. Having manoeuvred and schemed for years to get rid of a leader who was allegedly “unelectable”, Labour’s right wing now seem to have installed as leader the Invisible Man.
April 28, 2020
