A voice bursting with pep and vim insists on CONFIDENCE in future
When his career in politics eventually comes to an end, Matt Hancock could make an excellent living as a presenter on a TV shopping channel. He’s got just the right type of voice for it. So keen, so earnest, so bursting with pep and vim. The STRESSES! The EXCLAMATION marks! The sentences that go up at the END! Just listen to him addressing the Commons, in his new role as Secretary of State for Health. “We are DELIVERING modern technology in the NHS,” he’ll proclaim, “and it is UNDERPINNED by a RECORD commitment of £20BILLION extra … We have RECORD spending going in … There’s been £16BILLION for public health … RECORD numbers of GPS in training … TEN per cent up …”
The curious thing, though, is that while he sounds bright and buoyant and tiggerish, he doesn’t look it. His default facial expression is one of furrow-browed anxiety. He looks as if it’s suddenly struck him, midsentence, that he may have left the iron on at home, and he’s now desperately rummaging through his memory in the hope that he’ll recall switching it off.
It’s fascinating, this discrepancy between worried face and confident voice. I don’t know what would account for it. Perhaps he hopes that if he says something with enough energy and passion and optimism, he’ll manage to persuade himself that it’s true.
Yesterday afternoon he appeared before the MPS of the health select committee. They were investigating the potential impact on the NHS of a no-deal Brexit. How severe, they wanted to know, were the risks to patients? Could Britain run out of medicines? How much was going to be stockpiled, just in case? “We do NOT expect a no-deal Brexit as our central EXPECTATION,” Mr Hancock told them, with his usual thumping verve (while his forehead, as always, looked faintly alarmed). “I remain OPTIMISTIC that we’ll get a good DEAL … The ENGAGEMENT with the pharmaceutical industry has been very POSITIVE … I’m CONFIDENT that we’ll have the unhindered flow of MEDICINES … I want to give the MAXIMUM POSSIBLE reassurance …” The committee’s chairman, Dr Sarah Wollaston (Con, Totnes), noted that there were less than six months to go until Brexit, and that to build the type of warehouse suitable for stockpiling medicines typically took a year.
“I’m CONFIDENT that we will have that unhindered supply of MEDICINES,” repeated Mr Hancock, with a frown. “You mention the STORAGE needs, and the need to STOCKPILE … We’re CONFIDENT that CAN be delivered in time for March next YEAR …”
There was a lot of this, throughout the hearing. Whatever concerns the committee had about a no-deal Brexit, Mr Hancock was CONFIDENT that it would all work out. “I am CONFIDENT … We are CONFIDENT … I am CONFIDENT …” I soon lost count of how many times Mr Hancock assured the committee that he was CONFIDENT, but I am CONFIDENT that it was a VERY high number INDEED. Perhaps even a RECORD.