I really do wonder if anyone has actually read the original article in the Yorkshire Post about this story.
To clarify, it has never been remotely suggested by the mother that the child was put on the floor by nurses. She was given a chair to wait for a considerable amount of time, her child needed to sleep and couldn’t get comfortable on it and so she put coats down for him to sleep on. The photos published by both the Post and the Mirror were of both him on the chair and also on the floor.
The story seems to have morphed into either a blatant lie (that someone said nurses put him there) or a semantic argument about the Mirrors headline and use of the word “treated”. It was never about that. It was about the fact that there is clearly a shortage of beds when a four year old child with pneumonia is not able to get one. To me, that is absolutely newsworthy and and it isn’t what anyone should deem acceptable.
From Johnson’s perspective, he’s criticised a lack of spending a few times and purposefully distances himself from some of the actions of recent conservative governments. Given that, I don’t understand why he didn’t also use this to his advantage and say “this is exactly why I have pledged to increase spending on the NHS”.
Because he didn’t and tried to deflect, everyone supporting him has done similar and forgotten what the underlying point of the whole story is, or seemingly not even bothered to read it. It encapsulates the lack of empathy and blindness due to partisan politics that has taken over this whole election campaign on all sides and its utterly depressing.
