Hancock’s Half Sour

The Secretary of State for Health was rightly under pressure to resign, and he finally gave in. Video footage of him discreetly closing an office door in order to secretly kiss an aide has created a storm. As a married man, we might expect a Minister of the Crown to be faithful to the vows he made to his wife. If that is not enough, the charge of hypocrisy is levelled at him. When Professor Ferguson, another government lockdown enthusiast, invited over his lady for an afternoon's pleasure, Hancock said “It’s extraordinary…I am speechless. Professor Ferguson took the right decision to resign.” A picture of our widowed Queen perched on a pew at her husband's funeral, sitting all alone, provides quite a contrast to the Right Honourable gentleman’s lover's embrace. While the nation was told to stop visiting granny and not to hug relatives, the Health Secretary was doing the opposite. 

Calling for his resignation is a popular thing to do. Indeed, there were many demanding it well before this scandal broke, based upon an assessment of his department’s competence at managing the pandemic. It would seem that, in modern, godless, all-may-do-as-they-please Britain, the crime of hypocrisy will still provoke a tolerant public to outrage. Many are on record saying that what he does in his private life is up to him, but the hypocrisy is the problem. I would suggest that the state has sought to regulate everyone’s private lives these past 18 months, from how to worship, when to marry, how to dress, when to leave the house etc, that no minister should be able to hide behind the ‘private life’ defence. Still, it is the fool's wife and children for whom we might still have sympathy.

Fervent lips with a wicked heart, are like earthenware covered with silver dross. (Proverbs 26:23)

Image by Steve Watts from Pixabay