It was with gratification mixed with renewed anger that I read Ian Dunt's account in today's i of the evidence to the Covid-19 Inquiry given by former deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara. I had posted a couple of times (this was typical) about the six weeks wasted before neglect turned to panic in Downing Street in March 2020. Ms MacNamara's evidence gave independent confirmation.
It was a thorough, judicious, objective description of a failure of governance on a near-biblical level. And it did not come from someone with an axe to grind It was damning in a way that Cummings never could be because she had minimised any sense of personal animosity and strategic calculation.
MacNamara was measured, calm, even remorseful. It goes without saying that Cummings despised her and spoke of her in heavily misogynistic tones when he was in government. He was always "dodging stilettos rom that c**t," he told Johnson on WhatsApp.
He wanted to "handcuff her". But now it was her time in the witness box. And she laid it out step by step, every failure, every superficial thought. every irresponsibility, every unforced error, every personal and organisational inadequacy.
On 13 March 2020, MacNamara had walked into the prime minister's study. "I have come through here to the prime minister's office to tell you that I think we are absolutely f**ked," she said. "I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people." Her testimony was the story of how that situation was allowed to develop.
She outlined how Johnson's response to the early months of the Covid outbreak was typified by machismo, ignorance and baseless confidence. During those key weeks between January and March 2020 the evidence from overseas became overwhelming.
It was increasingly clear we were facing a profound threat to British people's lives. But Johnson's private behaviour seems to have been identical to his public persona - the "cake and eat it" prime minister, the man who engaged in jolly old England self-satisfaction over evidence and sustained thought.
"Mr Johnson was very confident the UK would sail through," MacNamara said. He spent much of the time "laughing at the Italians", despite that country providing an early test-case for what was about to hit Britain.
Dunt then details the sexism, the limiting of debate and discussion, the talking over of junior people. Everything was contaminated by ego. My guess is, though, even if the deputy cabinet secretary had been a man and that there had been more open discussion, the closed minds of those in charge would have led to the same outcome. And hundreds of thousands of UK residents died before their time.
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