30 May 2023 , 23:01
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After reluctantly establishing the public inquiry into the pandemic, the Government is now frustrating the probe’s chairwoman Baroness Hallett.
The Cabinet Office states it isn’t holding Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages.
This is the same Whitehall nerve centre that insists certain messages aren’t relevant and won’t be handed over anyway.
Only Baroness Hallett, a distinguished retired judge, can declare what matters and what doesn’t. The unavailability or disappearance of potential evidence is unacceptable.
Families of more than 200,000 dead in the UK are entitled to the whole truth.
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Blocking disclosure to spare the blushes of politicians – whether Johnson or Rishi Sunak – smacks of a cynical attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the British people.
Perhaps Baroness Hallett should consider her position as inquiry chief if the Government continues to refuse to play fair.
Moral rumpus
The fallout over Phillip Schofield lying and the claims of a toxic atmosphere at This Morning are like a soap opera. But MPs sitting in judgment on it? Really?
Parliament is tainted by more scandals than any TV show, so the idea that MPs on a select committee will grill ITV bosses is ludicrous.
Attention-seeking politicians would be better employed finding something constructive to do amid the cost of living crisis and the global environmental emergency.
ITV chiefs certainly have questions to answer about who knew what and when.
But our compromised elected representatives need to stop thinking they have the moral high ground. Some of this lot are on moral molehills not mountains.
Happy Raleigh
Arguably the most iconic bicycle since the penny-farthing, the Raleigh Chopper was a 1970s cult classic.
Its return could be a moment for us all to get on our bike and pedal back to the future.