Since the start of the week, former close advisers to Boris Johnson have been testifying as part of an investigation into the political management of Covid. They talk about how the Prime Minister at the time did not take the pandemic seriously.
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While a long and in-depth investigation is underway in the United Kingdom into the management of Covid, Boris Johnson’s entourage assures that he did not believe in the danger. The testimonies of those close to the former Prime Minister are corroborated by messages exchanged at the time. His chief of staff and his communications director say they “exhausted” by Boris Johnson, in a message dated March 19, 2020, a few days before the first confinement imposed in the United Kingdom. Yet “BoJo” compares the pandemic to swine flu.
“Obsessed with older people accepting their fate”
Another illustration of Boris Johnson’s state of mind: the former Prime Minister praises the mayor’s attitude in the film Jaws, an elected official who keeps the beaches open despite shark attacks so as not to damage the image of his tourist island. Johnson then calls him a hero. His former scientific advisor notes that he “seems obsessed with older people accepting their fate”, that is to say contamination and perhaps death, to let the youngest live their lives.
These hearings reveal an entire state apparatus that is overwhelmed and drowning in quarrels and insults. Dominic Cummings, principal adviser to “BoJo”, spread messages about ministers, whom he treated as “morons” and of “fucking pigs.”