The Government’s lethal negligence of care homes during pandemic is the most damning charge against Matt Hancock

THE lethal negligence of the Government over care homes in 2020 eclipses any of its other Covid failures.

Matt Hancock’s career as Health Secretary ended in shame over his personal activities.

But he now has the damning charge against him that his department acted unlawfully in discharging hospital patients untested into the care sector.

Thousands then caught the virus and died.

Many, though frail enough to be in care, were healthy — but had no protection against the first Covid wave.

The jabs were months from being invented.

Yet Hancock claimed he had thrown a “protective ring” around care homes. It was utterly, disgracefully false.

There is some mitigation for Downing Street.

This scandal erupted during the initial panic over an unknown plague — and mainly while Boris Johnson was himself in hospital fighting for his life.

There was a clamour to free up hospital beds for a surge of Covid victims. Tests were in short supply.

Hancock can justifiably claim that the serially useless and now defunct Public Health England failed to tell him that those without symptoms could still transmit Covid.

But there WERE warnings, including one from Sir Patrick Vallance.

The coming public inquiry will one day pass definitive judgment on the overall handling of the catastrophe.

But there can be little doubt about the scandalous neglect of elderly and vulnerable care home patients who were sitting ducks for the virus.

HAIL SHALE

ONE of the crazier Government objections to fracking was that dramatically increasing UK gas production wouldn’t cut prices.

What guff. Yesterday Russia cut supplies and the cost soared.

If enough shale gas is produced it WILL make our energy cheaper — and more secure.

So we welcome the PM urging Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to crack on.

He may not fancy reigniting a war with the eco lobby but he must.

We need rapid exploration to confirm fracking can be done to reasonable safety standards and that the vast supplies said to be under our feet can be extracted.

As Boris said in Cabinet: “Kwasi, just get on with it.”

HATE PLATFORM

WHY was Facebook ever hosting a sickening Russian propaganda video?

Why did it ignore hundreds of users said to have reported the clip of British PoW Aiden Aslin being threatened with execution by his captors?

Even a plea from his mother fell on deaf ears.

Instead it took a call from the Culture Secretary to Nick Clegg, now the tech giant’s PR man.

“Nick has agreed to take that down,” Boris said later.

How very gracious of Mr Clegg.

Why didn’t he and Facebook just do the right thing to begin with?