Worlds worst humanitarian crisis as we speak to the un in yemen the cemeteries are overflowing the country bombed with u. K. Weapons from u. K. Warplanes trained by the u. K. s Royal Air Force all the some more coming up in todays going on the ground but 1st once upon a time there was a u. K. Government official who told the truth arguably to the public about a risk to Public Health and i had to resign for it joins me now via skype from. Minutes Edwina Currie and we did thanks for coming on obviously a terrible death toll being announced the highest in the World Capital but everything here is about Dominic Cummings horizontals job advice do you think specially after a tweet from the Civil Service that apparently theres an inquiry into Cummings Johnson theyre all a bit naive in the sense that even after a landslide victory they thought that they could get bricks its done my impression is that everyone in this country has behaved very well would lock down that best. Or at least most people have and its all got very frustrating its weeks and weeks and weeks of it now we see more months of it to come and people get frustrated and angry and they dont entirely understand whats going on and they dont have the math to do the statistics and so on so its much easier to focus on one person choices that they made months ago and the most panicky time and the choices that one person made for the sake of this child i dont think its actually got much to do it Dominic Cummings the top i think its a proxy for attacking the Prime Minister who as you. Rightly say hes got a big majority and you want to get rich and i think any think that can weaken him is going to be fair game. I must say my admiration for the Prime Minister went up on sunday when he backed Dominic Cummings i thought that was a very honorable thing to do hunt in fact that could only wish the same interests me all those its sick. And arguably this is with more establishment forces than even under mrs thatcher maybe i mean are there anti Democratic Forces that are trying to overturn the referendum let alone the manifesto of the conservative party in december there is still quite a lot of people that we wont ever leave the 8 you we actually left on the 31st of january the transition period that were in now simply maintains the old arrangements until such time as we get an agreement if we dont get an agreement we leave without one and that will happen at the end of december and im quite sure Prime Minister is not going to be deflected by on that and we have to hope the brussels see sense and puts economics and business had to close 6 and i havent up till now but yes there are people who think that anything anything any means whatever to stop brecks it and to get back into the e. U. Is wes doing going back to the Health Issues you say youre a big supporter of johnson i mean obviously you were working for a Prime Minister who was a scientist was fatter after all what do you make of johnsons handling of as i say the worst death toll per capita in the world from coronavirus he said he was following the science do you think the scientists what they were advising him is now no need some scrutiny. Im sure theyre miscreation they are of all of this but its a good idea to wait to. Try and do it right in the middle were still very much in the middle of all this i think one of the key elements that has been the finger is been put on the fact that very few people understand exponential growth you know i did an economics degree and i see just ics and even i dont really grasp the difference between making a decision on a sunday and making a decision on the next sunday by which states weve had exponential growth of the spread of a very of an infection that lays people. But thats what happened if we had shut down a week or 10 days earlier we would have been closer to what germany has endured and not in the situation that we are now but we didnt and we didnt because you know you would read all about this and then you look around and you see none of your friends are in. Nobodys keeling over depends obviously who your friends are if youre visiting care homes presumably would be different but i think what i and i are you are it what you want the kind of people that would shrug it off of the ones around the city in cabs and if that this is just a cat homes have been stopped very quickly so that it was believed that the care homes were going to be secure that they would be in town without outside this itches i dont see anybody realized exactly the way the care homes function which is at the evenings and weekends and overnight using agency staff and that they are peripatetic and that afterwards they go home and live a normal life or with an argument or nationalized care service there but when you say we can talk about the inquiry later of course some would say we need these questions answered right now and i think one question is what is the connection between big pharma and the scientific advice patrick violence obviously a big guy had to g s k a scandal ridden Big Pharma Company the reason i ask you is you seem to when you resigned over talking about health Public Health issues seem to be going completely against a massive farm lobby and the big agriculture businesses in the sense they didnt have you to tell us that we should be careful about eating eggs that make a right but getting steaks and cat Homes Council run care home so say use Agency Workers so theres no distinction back in fashion the best care homes in this country are run by private companies and they do a tremendously good job the 2nd thing to say is look we cant solve this without private industry we cant solve this without big business the resets can be done in an university and hospital labs Like Oxford University and in fact there are more than 90 Vaccine Research projects over the world and what theyre going to be repaid and by golly is nobel prizes and cheap. Yes which is wonderful much easier to get funding from their own words but you cant roll out millions and millions of doses without really big industry which is investing its own money and that is on a scale that beats any think that an individual government could do a much honester of a im not sure the communist party of china would agree with you there i wouldnt agree with the communist party in china on anything ok well ive got to ask you i mean can a politician tell the truth to the public about Public Health because you are trying to do that arguably. But you have a very difficult for politicians to talk about Public Health and be truthful where you could ask your colleagues in the communist party in china how much truth they could tell. You know i dont like all the eggs nor yet. But they have i have obviously its a state program of vaccination presumably and will happen right now rather than Big Pharmaceutical Companies big monopoly pharmaceutical companies arguably have they been more open in november about the spread of this this new coronavirus have they not tried to shut down 9 doctors and make them recount one of them at least one of them later died then passed the world has been more aware of the problem much sooner and its now quite clear that the illness had reached europe quite early on in january of course the sooner than that and we would all have been in a better shape so to answer your question is it possible for Public Health ministers to speak the truth yes of course it is and to the public believe them yes they do the problem faced 32 years ago was actually that the public believed us were very cautious and very sensible about food safety but my colleagues in government particularly the ones responsible in the ministry of agriculture fisheries some food they thought that it was. Not not important they thought they were into nial they were listening to bad juices i said closing down the produces which is what the Chinese Government did but its now allow them to reopen theyd theyd back what about the 2 and it was many years before the producers themselves came to me and said you were right and we now need your help well the Chinese Government or a few did the allegations they didnt act with propriety we invite the Chinese Ambassador on on the on the show but this Public Private partnership that you speak of of course the government is now involved in some app and its involve. In Contact Tracing i mean once serco to do it one of these private companies associated arguably with the blair and brown administrations already its been its been caught leaking addresses of traces and this is a company after all that took responsibility for fraud over electronic tagging why is it that we can have Public Companies doing this like arguably under mrs thatcher because mr thatcher was no fan or at least in practice she didnt do nearly as much privatisation of the n. H. S. As tony blair or gordon brown little and cameron you know the idea that government can control everything is an illusion and the idea that ministers can control things better then manages marriot of different private businesses leads to all sorts of mistakes is fine when everythings going well but its not fine for ministers to be solely in charge when things go badly wrong what what government should do is set standards maintain them and sure through monitoring go regulator a framework so that standards are properly adhere to ensure that theres education and training backing for that to produce people of the quality that can go into private industry and private labs but then you know governments dont have access to the same sorts of money that Huge International businesses do and the skills that Huge International business cannot read my personal view is that it was a mistake for us in the n. H. S. To try and develop the tracing out ourselves and that money could have been much better use for all sorts of other things and that google and apple already have a tracing out which is being widely used and other countries which would have given us that connectivity and which will probably end up using anyway because it works so you know why waste government money just because youre trying to have government control in the end the history. Of the world economists shows that actually capitalism with Good Government works far better than anything else but during a Global Pandemic things are different of course governments have more money than the biggest multinationals they can print the debt why is it in paris if you go on the metro you get free Hand Sanitizer p. P. A. In britain were always were expected to buy our own because theres something fundamental here about what it is to be a citizen or a subject in a pandemic and arguably there is a correlation there with being the country with the worst per capita coronavirus death rate in the world before you keep repeating that can i remind you we are one of the biggest countries and we have one of the highest percentages of all people in this country where we have Something Like over 400000 people that were in care homes and 600000 people at home being cared for huge amount 1000000 people in the most vulnerable categories we are faster than the rest of europe we are blacker than the rest of europe we have a whole range of mortgages like diabetes and outside those which are widespread so were actually much more vulnerable in many ways than many many other countries plus were much more honest about statistics to come to your comparison with france france is a much more of a control economy and always has been its very hard in france for example to dismiss people to dismiss employees one outcome of that is out with pandemics in normal times unemployment rates in france a much higher are as much as twice as high as they are in the United Kingdom so much free a society is one in which it is possible to recover really quite quickly and i really have not heard any call in the world for free Hand Sanitizers but seems to me a nonsense i would rather the money be spent on stuff that is what i think janish us should be doing i regard thank you. After the break coronavirus strikes the country where aerial bombardment weaponry sanctioned by then foreign secretary Boris Johnson has killed or wounded nearly 20000. 00 men women and children we talk to the u. N. On the ground which claims yemens entire Health Care System is effectively. All its a ball coming up about 2 of going on the ground. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business im show business ill see that. Problem drugs 10. 00 come from unscrupulous dealers from pharmacies to in every state in the United States weve seen very sharp increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to prescription opioids invited america under the banner of medicine persisted with the pain but instead of trying to wean him off though she did dose after dose after dose after dose and really became his drug dealer so whos to blame patients doctors manufacturers or the government. Welcome back and out of the worlds worst humanitarian crisis yemen way u. K. Weapon sales given the nod by u. K. Prime minister Boris Johnson and led on imaginable pain and now a bombed out Health Care System trying to cope with coronavirus joining me now via skype from sanaa is the u. N. High commission of the refugees yemen representatives on the buzz thank you so much on again off a coming on weve been covering it for years on this show yemen i have to tell you were. Speaking to you from a. Country with the worst because its a death toll from coronavirus maybe more than 60000. 00 people dead but we shouldnt be complacent to stand about coronavirus striking yemen we had a really add on sand up with the situation in yemen. 5 years of conflict that left the population very weak with a lot of i dont you need to be 3. 6 me young of scammony have been displeased bicycle seats and the very overcrowded at their site in makeshift dance most of the population do not have access to running watch or are therefore easy if you think of the stand seeing your eyes only sharon or d even washing your hands for a good early is it not a possibility in your man so we fear that they call an ambulance will spread very fast within the community its already started and that in this story will be very high there are no official figures Human Rights Watch claiming that 16000000 or 55 percent of the population may be infected by corona virus can that be is it in that ballpark range its really difficult to assess how many people die from going at various as we speak knowing that young man has also we please do not have enough testing kits so we can actually call to dance away when there is a recovery plus we have to remember that unfortunately in yemen people die every day disease Communicable Disease which are very senior seem to alongside going out of errands to doing it my life. And therefore its really difficult to distinguish between. The key is going up by reason which obvious although casey on top of that how much of the have been destroyed by the conflict lets say the stigma to zation a wrong people will recall at the same time of course now values that the 1st one in particular a refugee in young man migrants the streets the pollution in young men than the 1st one. Discriminator losing their leach out and being denied access to medical care i want to get on to the destruction the military destruction in a 2nd is it true that you the un has been pulling stuff out i know that obviously cholera a previous epidemic is continuing there reputedly the worst cholera outbreak in history whats different about coronavirus in yemen that the u. S. Has been pulling stuff out leaving you there i notice that theyre very sure is their medical capacity fall on staff are you many turn flight care from client medical. And no see the need in the u. K. I reach it decreased but weve seen you have to have and we were not able to provide more including because of lack of hungering. For example or you now many clearly create meant in case one of us we developed this to be a symptom of going out variance so we decided to send shared more than harmful very international critiques away but our National Colleagues which were our younger frontline asked deal within their own community to bending the community of the most important segment of society in young men and just to be clear these figures are true you have only 520 i. C. U. Intensive care beds in the country there are only 38 covert isolation beds there and around 7000 testing kids in a country of 29000000 where dick cheney and i can not only take treatment that youre mentioning but also theyre not see them very specialized doctors to act 10 to to the patients over here britain is sending apparently 810000000 pounds worth of aid only about just remind us about the war because over here Boris Johnson its being recalled here that he nodded through 1200000000. Sounds in arms sales just 2 days after a food factory was destroyed 2 months before u. K. Weaponry involved in the bombing of a funeral killing maybe 140 people just tell me about the how the effects of the war impact now the Coronavirus Response there war is really the root cause the so my own poor to me through the lack of access to the court said i have sweet point 6000000 yemeni ive been the states over the last 5 years by the concrete dipping their bare policies being bald ourself and having to leave to weave in the big cock and night to save their lives and we have a situation where most of. The free time yeah leaving me now that side which i we need those improvised. And. Overcrowded weights very difficult for them to take care of themselves in terms of for communicate both disease like care theyre growing that virus so indeed as long as we dont address the root causes of all of this means that we see that concrete you many 10 will only be able to do really a drop and its a drop in the ocean off of me the reason yet man and on top of that we do not have enough funding as we speak now to do what we. Should be doing of course the United States is also providing funding for aid although the trumpet ministration were seeking to speed up the 8000000000. 00 arms package to the arabia will that not help things in yemen i mean and we leave. That diplomat question of the results there concrete we human a chance now we focused on sitting lie. Leading early to beat up this suffering and i was immediately. Theyre also spoke english and but definitely we have a concern that we are almost how of the year and the u. N. To be in fiji agence yet not england we see such a percent of the funding that we need to provide lifes a beam and i she stands to lose these bits from we need to think through the rich thing yet so they the next equal and human nature i mean patty that we recommit funding for human nature an aspect of the cry of these in yemen and that all schools of parties to the conflict and the british and indeed from maps recommit to finding a political solution to the conflict iran of course denies sending arms to the conflict the un secretary general antonio get there as has been in touch with the Iranian Foreign minister zarif welcoming irans efforts but both of them are saying the ports of yemen must be open any news on whether the ports are open so humanitarian aid can get through maybe from iran i should say iran has been said being a humanitarian the Energy Resources to venezuela their special envoy of the secret agent all the 4 young men evening. Better access by the u. N. Each other in our organization choose a bolt and via vault as well now that you can attend coordinate there in yemen. I will leave it to them to comment on this point but its critical for me i have the head of the u. N. Agree a project and see that i am it creeped my staff wondering are the internally displaced camps with the basic dignity that i can give them ask in groups and family ties or if i cannot do that i want could them at trieste by sending them and it creates to community where the cannavaro is its very been very rapid i dont know whether youve been down there but yemen and yemens a government today. Zeile is saying that the largest environmental catastrophe in World History could be happening because of an oil tanker it has data port leaking oil into a gin and the red sea here anything about that and do you think that will affect coastal communities. I have no more information to the to this forum sorry about that so when the trumpet ministration announce 225000000 dollars of emergency food aid which you i presume welcome would you want as part of that program some of that money to be gone going on the p. P. And that its a hands out as as it were definitely more need more p. P. Its far on start far but there was immediate cause the. Facilities are men but we also need the money to be able to maintain our Cash Assistance Program on. The largest castro ground floor or internally displaced yemeni. And issues really a lot line i did time the greater need because they cannot because of curfew because a club gone because theyre losing their job because of this running down of the economy because that stigmatized because that seen as a want to move and then fall victim to out of the car and that violence we cannot our fault not giving them a bit of cash for them to buy basic food medicine cruel or even pay rent for their family trip a roof above their head these casualties will have the local community that have them by injecting a little bit of money into the local economy so we need really a comprehensive response 1. 00 which combine wars that have super active but also all of the us that you manage and meets which have a well known in your neck well assuming theres no war bombing before next week are you hopeful the end of next weeks conference that these some of these issues are going to be resolved. So you have a thing at is a pledging conference which with good thing the kingdom of saudi arabia and yes youre in a chance of a hopeful of that that wall will not forget your man despite that we are well aware western societies and gulf countries are also looking at the amount of money they need to transcend there to be cathy stamp drag dress and need to get the sense youre going to be king factor. In their own society but nobody will be seeking that what if we dont make a country like you men. Are and i bow he says well ok well just finally them the as i say the british backed war lots of western players there you think theres any truth that yemen may be wiped off the face of the earth but coronaviruses been said the reference to game ending wiped out wife made by a medical doctor. A man. I cannot really comment on that what i cant comment on is that we the human attend no heart attack the most unique ability in yemen we need the support and this is a duty of the International Community to do what is right not what is right not only on a you many 10 and it occurring perhaps you call that you many population but what you describe also for the rest of the wall to wall these Constant Movement it will be missing a plant if we seeing that by not addressing the humanity and needs in yemen including copied we will not treat endangering the pick out for all of their communities yong including india u. K. And thats where people around them move the virus is going to stay with us we need to address it year and now joining us thank you. Thank you very much for keeping your man on your object now nessie thats it for the show will be back on saturday 63 years to the eve of the conviction of playwright often mila married to Marilyn Monroe for refusing to communist to the u. S. House Unamerican Activities Committee until then. Join the underground by following up on you tube Twitter Facebook instagram and. Martys Holiday International memorial awards are now open for entries the media professionals are eligible whether youre freelance journalist work for alternative media or part of a global News Platform to participate in the show published works in video all written for much go to award dot altie dot com and enter now. And. Wait for a food. Itself. Plus we got to go through the thing in the decide this. And i know from the start that i think. This is the only think we do is music because everybody fights in his way to. The floor and you can. Call even at. Home. What i think is this is the fans that is something. This is our to u. K. Welcome to our viewers from around the world were live from Central London and were currently waiting for the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson to appear before the influential Liaison Committee of the house of commons and hes going to be quizzed on all aspects all of the virus response but of course 1st of all on the behavior of his chief advisor and that ill fated locked down trip to dharma of course the money coming in already has faced the media and well be hearing now what Boris Johnson has to say meanwhile our headlines at this hour. As ive just mentioned the Prime Minister is moments away from a showdown with parliaments most powerful committee where hell be forced to answer questions about the in the coming days this jury locked down and ill be talking to a political expert who thinks the government has lost control of the crisis thanks to this scandal. President Vladimir Putin says the worst Case Scenario has been averted in the russian capital that says the moscow may have so shops will slowly begin to reopen in june. And they report claims u. K. Health Service Propositions the ongoing failures to get protective kit to medics and carers treating coronavirus patients on the front line. Well as promised promised to force johnson is now facing the Influential CompaniesLiaison Committee and we can cross live to that right now here not you can focus on the Coronavirus Crisis but there remain very many other policy areas such as breaks it International Issues trade agreements other domestic policies that require cross departmental scrutiny so a Prime Minister can i just ask you for the housekeeping point. Can you commit to attending regularly. And preferably before the house rises again for the summer recess well without 1st to say thank you very much to you and. Committee for your invitation and im delighted that were able to have this this session. If youre very kind to want to see me again more more frequently can i inspire you but even before weve completed this one we can carry possibly get back to you on that i was you know there is a a lot on the moment we have a big a National Campaign to defeat the coronavirus. Get a cut tree on its feet and theres a huge amount of work that were involved in trying to sure your committee will appreciate that i have my time is scatman but we will do everything we can to oblige although i know its not a commitment but i must insist that that was a very very strong message the committee wanted me to a convey i understand my dad and i like to be a day and the. Colleagues have assured me that questions are going to be very short to the point and i would be grateful if you confirm that you will get short and direct. I will i will do my utmost submitted and thank you like an advance copy of the announcement youre going to make in the committee. But with that time to scrutinize it in any debt the committee is concerned that it does not wish to be discussed from the questions we got and if you are not answer and his lengthy im afraid it will cite elects in the proceedings i just want your im sorry but if you can keep your questions short that will help. Course the ill go straight in the committee. Is obviously extremely concerned about the issue of your senior advisor. This post suggests a large majority of the public believe that your advisor did break the lock down rules how much do you think this is undermined the moral authority of the government with the public at a time when Public Confidence in the government is so important. But what about the thank you very much and i wasnt going to make a long announcement today about the protest price scheme but i hope that your committee would like to interrogate me about you just have a chance to to read what were doing but on that particular matter all i would say is that this has really been going on for several days and all in the media at least and. I of course. Deeply sorry for all the. Pain in and. Anxiety to be able to be getting through to write this this country has been going through. A frankly most different time were asking people to do quite exceptionally tough things separating them from their families but i must say that i feel that from my brain as a senior weve heard weve had quite a lot of autobiography recently ive commented on it i think people know my my views i really didnt i proposed to add to it i think what the public do want us to focus on and they define mase i think they want to focus on. A star as we possibly can possibly can on uniting on this speech to get here to see your point and focusing on the needs and explaining kathleen what needs to be done next to get our country through this epidemic. I mean as you said on the 24th of may the dominant coming said acted responsibly legally and with integrity and that reflects that special advisors are bound by the section on integrity in the Civil Service code why have you not invited the cabinet secretary to conduct its own independent inquiry in order to give you independent advice well i do think thats you know thats a reasonable question to ask but as i say weve had a huge amount of expertise this a discussion of. What happened what to do i did my advisor between 27th of march and on the 14th of april and quite frankly i do not certain right now that an inquiry into that matter is a very good use of the shoot time were working flat out on credit cards and what advice do so from the cabinet secretary. Compacts with the code and that matter of integrity in the code well i i have no reason to believe that. There is any dissent from what i said a few days ago and has he had an opportunity to ask his own questions of your Senior Advisers but im not going to go into the discussions that are taking place but i i have no reason to to depart from what i but i will reset. Of course it is unprecedented for especially pfizer to have their own press conference in the rose garden downing street. How did you consult the cabinet before agreeing to this. Well i thought i had i thought that it would be a very good thing if people could understand what i had understood myself previously i think on the previous day about about what took place and. There you go we we had a we had a long go at it and yeah look its been a very very frustrating episode no understand why white people are so i have been sick and tired because of this countrys going through a higher industry difficult time. But i really think that insofar as that what we need to do. Is to focus on getting the message right which is probably Common Ground with your committee then i think what we need to do really is to move on and to. Get on to our get into sort of the current market is really i think that the priority given will be priority of the people of this country we have a plan weve been going through it its working we know coming tomorrow the 28th of may very important next stage they were shot thank you and and a good as new Prime Minister and as. The years went to betty and the last time ever can i stop a cynthia i actually think that youve been quite brief but even the way that you can appear to sacrifice a credibility in. Your government just to stand by your man youve done something never seen done in the 20 years ive been in the house somehow managed to unite and mission and condemnation and indignation over your huntly officer cummings and this of this juvenile who to each saint of the British Public know think the money coming little 60 percent said you should sack of the most what do you think Prime Minister is 65 percent see his conduct makes all less likely that the public will know for who what the rules should really i mean us surely no man is more important and keeping this nation safe. Well pete if i may respectfully say. In addition to what ive already said about that particular matter a lot of what was written and said over saturday and sunday was false in respect of my advisor it wasnt correct and i think that. It had not been heater to clear the matter up and notwithstanding the barrier if Party Political points that you may seek to make i think the better and if your point about the message i respectfully disagree i think actually the best with a 2 to clarify the message the best way to the people to understand what we need to do next is for us all to move on and focus on what were doing tomorrow what were doing what were doing. Is really Prime Minister have you had a look at your inbox my inbox like m. P. s across the new key is filled with people who are sacrificing to follow instructions that you say i think could stick children havent been able to see the grandchildren and families for months people not being able to visit dying relatives or to any funeral questions you know what this looks like today and one rule for laws of the heart of government and another rule for everyone else he would treat saudi when you see sordid has been well ill call pete i am sorry so the pain as i say the anguish and the heartbreak of so many people in this country over and by the way there are there are people across government. At every level who have been going through the exactly the same privations and and difficulties and of course we we all understand that and. All im saying to you is that i think that what we need to do now is. As leaders if we possibly can is to set aside this raw because im afraid. A lot of the allegations turned out to be totally false and to move on ive said what ive had to say about the matter i think that in so far as it is correct to say that it is a distraction then by that very argument nows the time to leave it aside and and move on but the this is just growing and growing Prime Minister and you know as fevered pitch writing the show just looks like petulant defines us because were fresh and no good ing the nishan you know that eventually. Why dont you know just going on and on for Prime Minister thank you so much birth to your point i consider that to be a very real its a you know about little piece of. You know youre making a political point in a piece of political advice i can sort of that this government what is government need to do is is focus i dont own the needs of the nation on sorting out this problem and on getting our message across and thats what were going to do even. Youre muted going after the Prime Minister and you talk about the enormous National Left that you talk about the nation but how frustrating for you is it that you as the u. K. Prime minister during this enormous peaceful crisis the fact that weve not been able to act as one United Kingdom with one single cent clear rule one joined up strategy would you actually think that the variable geometry of the 4 nations approach actually rests strength of the union at this d time well its this team really good question and actually one of the interesting things which you wouldnt probably get through migraine just now i would be sure theres been fantastic co or asian collaboration between nations of the u. K. If you look at that the differences between our approaches are very marginal and to get your point it is very important that when the there is a slight difference in the are. Between one part of the u. K. Or another or d when one of us has a slightly different problem with have homes or were seen in scotland or wales it is it is it entirely sensible that there should be strikingly different approaches and thats indeed what we have what we have seen and if you hear them in many many European Countries fact thank you promises to cost you that point about collaboration in france and how influential the criticisms of the scottish and welsh 1st minister the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson taking questions from the commons Liaison Committee and the hearing will continue for at least another round or take a shot it was dashed he is with me here in the studio and showed up our star who is still sticking to it the defense of his chief advisor at city parsed as the Prime Minister really sticking by his side of course we know that down in favor of really trying to starve the story of occident empire started today really having to write a tout yet again who did that face some tough. Question but he remained with his line of 2 days ago that Dominic Cummings acted reasonably legally and with integrity now pete wishart now he is the one that really is trying to hold Boris Johnson to account with all of this trying to raise the issue of how can this public anger really subside if a top top adviser to the government is behaving in such a way they too would then argue convey reinterpret the rules and potentially flout these lockdown measures as well so he was saying using quite colorful language saying that as the Boris Johnson sacrificed the credibility of the government by defending saddam and it cummings he says that the United Kingdom is not any longer united in that position when it comes to the current virus crisis and how the government is handling it now Boris Johnson in this part said that he was trying to make this issue Party Political and trying to shut peter shot down and he said now is the time ready to move on essentially they have passed the peak of this crisis when it comes to Dominic Cummings. Trying to push him even further saying its one rule for those at the heart of government another rule for the rest of the public but Boris Johnson vertical face some other very uncomfortable moments in todays Liaison Committee of course theres been various blunders when it comes to the Coronavirus Crisis since the height of the pandemic and this Committee Meeting will move on to various different issues including the issue of p. P. Testing and care homes we know care homes this was all been at the heart of the blunders of the government at the beginning of the crisis Boris Johnson saying that its unlikely that care homes would be affected now we know that deaths in care homes equate to 40 percent of the u. K. Total no doubt that really something that he will be scrutinized on when it comes to testing again and we know that the government has a selfimposed target of trying to reach 100000 tests every single day by the end of april since april really failing to meet those deadlines. Other issues are as i say p. P. A. The fact that those on the front line are not being given access and are not fully protected and are exposed to the fire s. And then finally the final part of todays Liaison Committee will be on how the government goes through this road map of trying to lift the lockdown measures we know in just a few days time on monday as schools are likely to reopen will also see nonessential shops reopening and then later in june on the 15th of june retail shops are likely to be reopened and many people saying that in fact this is far too soon so far as john said is not quite of the out of the fire pit just yet but right now it seems he is facing a grilling on his right hand man Dominic Cummings but it seems like regardless of any spanish inquisition he may face it seems like the Prime Minister will stand by his right hand man thank you very much indeed shadier for that update will discuss this all further now joined by politics professor Matthew Flinders matthew very good of you to be with us this afternoon so what did you make of the 1st part of this Committee Meeting we were hearing obviously Boris Johnson of reacting to questions concerning Dominic Cummings what would you make of what he said well it was in the best start 1st of all refusing to commit to a pierogi him from the Liaison Committee and then something about boris wanted to make an announcement which again doesnt really trying with the role of the Liaison Committee which is to scrutinize the Prime Minister but it was very clear the boris was almost belligerent he was fed up he was almost slightly dismissive to some of the questions and he wants m. P. s in the media to move on the fact of the matter is that theyre not and actually the public on either. So why do you think he stuck by his Senior Adviser in his way he obviously thinks its better to have him and keep him on a rather than risk undermining trust in the Health Message well i mean it is an absolutely incredible how much Political CapitalBoris Johnson is pouring absolutely pouring into that bucket to keep Dominic Cummings and whats really interesting now is if you look at the Public Attitude data is not only affecting boris very badly theres also started to affect a lot of the ministers that have come out rather reluctantly to defend Dominic Cummings so that the government itself being defined by this whole issue and you have written that cummings and johnson have lost control of the fear factor what do you mean by that well the fear factor is quite simple one of the most interesting things about the coronavirus was that the public would genuinely fear for all they stayed at home because they were scared of the virus and they understood that they had to sacrifice their own freedom for the benefit of everybody and we were all in it together whats happened recently is boriss self created sort of a double whammy 1st of all there was the quite early moving away from the lock down from a stay at home message to our stay alert message which quite simply a lot of people didnt understand and then just as actually 2 weeks later we have this issue with his advisor driving from one end of the country to the other and boris it was quite interesting boris kept saying that a lot of the elements in the media werent true about what happened with cummings and in reality im afraid that really isnt true the substance of what happened is relatively clear and its the substance theres a lot of people but surely a lot of people would differentiate between the actions of just one man and of course the sensible policy that we should all be following. Absolutely in this way you kind of get to the. That deeper i mean one of the interesting things about special advisers is they are supposed to exist very much in the shadows off stage here you have one organizing is own press Conference Live in the garden of number 10 you could not make it up and what was particularly interesting about the 1st question is are the Liaison Committee was borrowed his answers it seemed that he hadnt spoken to the cabinet secretary about the rules of integrity and also he certainly didnt say it spoken to the rest of the cabinet about giving Dominic Cummins approval to take control of the number 10 garden in quite the way he did so its raising a lot of a lot of intra cabinet tension at the moment about why Dominic Cummings seems to be far far more important really than any other member of the cabinet matthew thank you very much indeed for your reaction to all of this afternoon very good to talk to you live here thank you. During an Online Meeting with president writing a person to set the worst case pandemic scenario has been averted in the russian capital hits a shops will slowed it begin to reopen in moscow next month or to go to dawn of has more moscow is starting to get back to normality indeed ludlum who mistook the message is about in an online Video Conference and essentially now most local authorities here in the russian capital they have rolled out the table that a plot least plan you very short term measures as to how the russian capital will be getting back to normality it is indeed as you mentioned it implies the opening of the nonsense still was also gradually reopening natural. Lot of people having well just slowly to open them and let people walk into their works and also to start to reopen businesses that do not imply a close human contact like for instance the dry cleaners but perhaps even more importantly now moss who is ready to help the regions because for instance the russian capital has a source of dissent in new coal but 19 cases compadre 2 weeks ago more people are being released from hospitals than admit to them so now that i know that there are fewer patients here on the mall not that medics will see time on their hands they are ready to share their knowledge to ostend their knowledge to other regions of russia was defective by now already most of the leading specialists i mean via Video Conferences they have been doing sending us with their colleagues elsewhere in russia explaining in teaching the posse on their experience as to how to treat as you say people with code 90 and becoming a couple of days the russian capital also said its. Other countries then will travel to their students of the russian region. Where they will be there where they will be staking a should support instance like doug just on all the lot of a region of region and so on and so forth so this is what is happening in russia so it was mostly best and. Rest of russia is now looking for a. Capital and its ready to deliver. Reporters bring privatization of the ongoing failures to get protective kit to medics and cameras treating coronavirus patients on the front line while the government insists the situation is improving campaign as a simplified accountable supply chain is desperately needed. As will the british governments handling of the coven 1000 crisis has come in for sharp criticism especially given the country has the highest death toll in europe 2nd only to the usa globally. Measures Virus Testing and the seeming hypocrisy of those who put the strategy together of all bit on the markets possibly the most controversial has been the ability or inability to source personal protective equipment for those on the front line i think its been its been a real tragedy but more than a tragedy its been a scandal because what weve seen time and time again is that the government. Is you know actually undermining the very organization the n. H. S. And help us get out of bed as many as 200 n. H. S. And Health Care Staff of believed to have died with the virus across hospitals and other settings with relatives claiming a lack of kids and even the British Medical Association backing those doctors who refuse to work without it now reported lay the blame with the Health Service the supply chain and in particular the privatization of the 70000000000 pounds procurement process. The study by we own its a Public OwnershipAdvocacy Group says that the break up of the chain into as many as 11 out for contracts means financial inefficiency and delays the backdrop to this is that the government has been cutting and privatizing our n. H. S. For over 10 years you know so the n. H. S. Doesnt have the levels of funding that it needs and the kind of level that of funding that we see in places like germany and run according to the report the government could tosk Civil Servants would sourcing the kit for the Health Service directly from private Companies Instead the Government Asks private companies who selects and suppliers who in turn select those firms making specific items like gallons or mosques as well as those who deliver the kits and it just trusts of even told not to source their kit but to go through the centralized system and while supporters of privatization say competition saves money the report estimates that the middlemen cost 190000000. 00 pounds in fees alone and there have been high profile examples of system breakdown take those 400000 gallons from turkey an r e f plane went to collect or were found to be below medical standard and useless for frontline staff but despite the obvious issues the government has previously defended its approach to push him into p. P. I can announce that we have now signed contracts to manufacture 2000000000 items of p. P. Here in the u. K. I set a National Challenge and im absolutely delighted that lord dighton has stepped up and is helping us to deliver against it. Around the world weve signed deals with over 100 new suppliers including green contracts for a further 3700000000. While we continue to improve the logistics and work hard to get everyone the p. P. That they need these new supply mean that were not simply keeping up with demand we are now able to begin to replenish our stock we also the problem for health and social care for direct response to the reports on the impact of privatisation on the process but it doesnt get back to us but we do know that profit and efficiency thinking suppose that savings its very unlikely to live and. Have been prioritized over peoples lives so you know the job of the Health Service is to make sure that we can all be healthy that we can be had or. You have to plan ahead you have to have an emergency stop have to be ready for a pandemic the government hasnt been ready inquiry into the coronavirus sponsors is expected to cover the scientific advice and the political Decision Making at every stage of the pandemic but campaigners believe a more fundamental review into the close relationship between private companies and government is paramount if oversight and accountability ought to be achieved especially given that the end result in this case is a life or death issue. And ill be back with more news in just over half an hour including all the latest from the Prime Ministers appearance before that influential committee of m. P. s. Problem drugs dont always come from unscrupulous dealers but from pharmacies to in every state in the United States we see me very sharp increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to prescription opioids oids invaded america under the banner of medicine persisted with the pain but instead of trying to wean him off though she did dose after dose after dose after dose and really became his drug dealer so whos to blame patients doctors manufacturers all the government. You kid up be vocal with yet you want. Hello and welcome to cross talk were all things were considered on Peter Labelle cold war 2. 0 targeting china is off the ground in gaining momentum something china must pay for the pandemic well others claim beijing is an existential Security Threat to the washington centric world still others say washington cant concede we live in a multipolar world now. Cross knocking china im joined by my guest tom what gives a norvelt he is president and c. E. O. Of t w d