Pandemic Diaries: The inside story of Britain’s battle against Covid

Product Information

He’s not afraid to be critical of pretty much everyone especially Cummings with only Van-Tam and Witty coming out of it with their credibility undamaged. The first extract was published in the paper on Saturday and comes shortly after Mr Hancock reappeared in Westminster following his controversial appearance on ITV's reality show I'm A Celebrity. Rather, Hancock claims there was “scandalous behaviour” by some care home operators who were using staff who had tested positive for coronavirus, saying there were at least 40 care homes where this was happening. If you couldn’t bear watching him on I’m a Celebrity, I’m afraid this book may go down like a plate of sheep’s unmentionables.

Honestly, I got annoyed whilst reading the book, for the past 2 years I've hated Matt, but the truth is. In an exchange between Mr Hancock and an aide from 13th December 2020 - five days before the government scrapped plans to relax rules for many over Christmas - the former health secretary discusses when to "deploy" the announcement of the new variant. The chief medical officers and the Government’s scientific advisory body, Sage, were all in favour of trying to reduce the policy before the “pingdemic” had even started.Decide that I will begin writing a diary in 2022 so that I can keep some kind of contemporaneous notes. In an exchange on 16 February 2021, Simon Case, who holds the most senior position in the civil service as cabinet secretary, asked Mr Hancock if he knew "how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday". Early on in Hancock’s diaries, we learn that the UK Health Secretary’s first (and I quote) “oh shit” moment was on January 28, 2020, when he was told that the pandemic could lead to up to 820,000 UK deaths. Matt Hancock served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021, leading the UK government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the biggest health crisis the country, and the world, has faced for generations.

Dominic Cummings looks like an “odd amoeba you find in jars in school science labs”; Gavin Williamson is dismissed as having all the sophistication and intellect of a seven-year-old. The Queen Mother is “a fundamentally treacherous character” and Winston Churchill “looks like an angry Buddha”. Three volumes cover the last three decades of the 20th century – including an acerbic telling of the downfall of Margaret Thatcher’s government, in which he served.

Crucially, it also offers an honest assessment of the lessons we need to learn to be prepared for next time – because there will be a next time. In fact, I’m up for these small diplomatic efforts — so long as the Foreign Office agrees, of course. Hancock claims: “The reaction was somewhat ‘shrug shrug’ – essentially because they didn’t really believe it.