The Clamp
Well-known member
You’re like the man who jumps off a 30 storey building and keeps saying to himself on the way down “all okay so far”.But I still don't know whether the government specifically told the civil service that they must not get PPE from existing suppliers even if it was available - in which case they're obviously culpable. Or whether they personally took over the system of ordering and refused to let any civil servants have a go at it - in which case they're obviously culpable. Or whether they created a brand new system in which they deliberately excluded anyone with any knowledge of the system and ensured none of them were able to ask - in which case they're obviously culpable. Or whether the civil service was to some extent at fault.
I don't believe in this scenario whereby the minister was solely responsible for procurement and none of the 6,500 NHS England staff, and none of the 3,000 Department of Health staff, had any access to any of the ordering system. There must have been incompetence by some of them as well as by the minister.
If, as you all suggest, the minister said that he would do it all himself and his staff could take the time off, then there must be memos about it. But until I see more than rumours on a stridently anti-Tory message board, I won't believe that Hancock and only Hancock was able to order PPE.