Steerpike

Here in the UK, Britons are regularly told that the country's handling of coronavirus is mocked right across the world. There have been countless round-ups of international press cuts in which Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised – even if the author is often a Brit known to harbour little admiration for the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, so-called liberal lights such as Emmanuel Macron and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are praised for their response – even if the death toll also makes for a bleak picture. So, in the interest of international balance, Mr S was intrigued to see an article in the New York Post suggesting that Cuomo's current handling is poor – and the lockdown need end now.

As scientists around the world race to find a cure, treatment or vaccine for Covid-19, the US president Donald Trump revealed that he had been doing his bit of medical experimentation this week. At a press conference last night the President revealed that he had been taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine every day for a week and a half, to ward off the virus. Trump said that ‘a lot of good things had come out about’ the drug, that frontline workers were using it, and that there was no harm in taking it, even if it didn’t stop the disease. Hydroxychloroquine has been touted as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after French studies seemed to show that it inhibited the infection of cells.

Nothing causes Whitehall headaches like a government IT project. Remember the Ministry of Defence digital upgrade back in the 2000s? MoD officials originally told MPs that the software roll-out would cost an eye-watering £2.3 billion. The upgrade, which suffered multiple delays, eventually ended up costing the taxpayer somewhere north of £7 billion. Or cast your mind back to the NHS's national programme for IT, a £10 billion flop that was scrapped after the public accounts committee blasted the project, saying that 'the biggest IT project in the world' had become 'the biggest disaster'. The history of Westminster web projects is littered with costly mistakes.

Boris Johnson continues to enjoy healthy ratings in the polls but not all of the Prime Minister's Tory colleagues are pleased with his performance. Conservative backbencher Peter Bone has just taken a pop at Boris in the virtual Commons, slating the PM for revealing his lockdown plan on television on Sunday night rather than in front of MPs:  'The television presentation by the Prime Minister was plain wrong. Too many of the Prime Minister's special advisers and aides think they are running a presidential government. That the Prime Minister goes on television and announces all sorts of executive orders without any reference to parliament. Many of them have clearly been watching too many episodes of West Wing'. https://twitter.com/petesaull/status/1260235765189091328?

Matt Hancock has announced that the government has managed to meet its 100,000 coronavirus tests a day target. The Health Secretary confirmed at a Downing Street press conference that on 30 April, Public Health England carried out 122,347 tests – suggesting the government not only reached its target in time, but also over-delivered. But look at the small print and there were barely 73,191 people tested yesterday. There is another mysterious second category, now introduced, that takes the figure over 100,000. Here's the graph: So what's the trick?

Oh, the joys of Twitter, brimming with experts ready to share their razor-sharp analysis of the day's events. Today's question? Why Boris Johnson wouldn't be doing Prime Minister's Questions. The social media site was this morning awash with pundits speculating as to the reason for the PM's last minute absence and delivering their blistering hot takes on what the non-attendance means.  The real reason, however, became obvious just minutes after No. 10 confirmed that the PM would not be attending the weekly Commons grilling – Johnson's fiancé Carrie Symonds has just given birth.  Not that the Twitterati were able to wait a few minutes to gather their thoughts.

The House of Lords may be the place of hereditary peerages, woolsacks and arcane procedures, but today the Chamber ventured into the 21st century when it trialled virtual proceedings for the first time, using Microsoft Teams. Peers across the country dialled in to a giant conference call chaired by the Lord Speaker, as ministers fielded questions from living rooms and kitchens. And while things went surprisingly well considering the the average age of the House is 70 and the technology was being used for the first time, there were a handful of rather amusing incidents along the way.

So far things have gone rather well in Westminster as Parliament for the first time allows MPs to ask questions over the Zoom video conferencing software.  Over in Wales though, it appears Assembly members might be struggling a bit more with the technology. This afternoon, the Labour Health and Social Services Minister, Vaughan Gething, didn't realise his mic was on and accidentally announced to the world his dissatisfaction with the proceedings. The Labour politician was caught on mic asking the crowded Zoom call: 'what the fuck is the matter with' one of his fellow Assembly members.  Whoever said that politics wasn't civilised? Watch here: https://twitter.com/Alain_Tolhurst/status/1252987981163630594?

Today, the House of Commons finally reopened for business, after it closed its doors early in March due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Those who tuned in to the first debate since the break found a rather unusual spectacle awaiting them. Only a handful of MPs and officials turned up to the sparsely filled Chamber, which was filled with tape markings and warnings to ensure that all members remained socially distanced. But arguably the stranger sight, was to see the Commons’ arch-traditionalist Jacob Rees-Mogg leading the debate on behalf of the government for future Commons proceedings to take place via video link.