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<\/p>\nJust as actors will not say \u2018Macbeth\u2019 for fear it will bring a hex upon their heads, Matt Hancock would not utter the name \u2018Dominic Cummings\u2019. Lip curling like a brandy snap, he spoke of \u2018that witness\u2019 or \u2018some people\u2019 or \u2018an adviser\u2019 but never once resorted to the C word. Salty-tongued Mr Cummings could never have managed such self-discipline.<\/p>\n
During Mr Hancock\u2019s six hours at the Covid Inquiry witness table, not a single rude word was said, though a few were implied. The former health secretary was combative, quick, competent, on top of the detail, and an easy match for the inquiry\u2019s lead counsel and matinee idol manqu\u00e9, Hugo Keith KC.<\/p>\n
The sole linguistic sensation was when Mr Hancock said \u2018there\u2019s so many questions\u2019 and Judge Hallett butted in to correct his grammar with \u2018there were\u2019. Hancock paused just enough of a nanosecond to indicate that he considered her captious.<\/p>\n
Old goose Hallett was less puddingy than normal. Stung by certain recent criticisms, perhaps. Yet there was no escaping that this inquiry again felt interminable, pettily political and over-lawyered. You could see them milling around, mining their ear wax, smirking with neighbours, a great hornets\u2019 nest of scratchy scriveners; and so many of them bright young things. With supermarkets crying out for shelf-stackers, it seems a waste.<\/p>\n
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Just as actors will not say \u2018Macbeth\u2019 for fear it will bring a hex upon their heads, Matt Hancock would not utter the name \u2018Dominic Cummings\u2019<\/p>\n
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Lip curling like a brandy snap, he spoke of \u2018that witness\u2019 or \u2018some people\u2019 or \u2018an adviser\u2019 but never once resorted to the C word<\/p>\n
When Messrs Hancock and Keith arrived in the inquiry room at ten o\u2019clock it became apparent we had a fashion clash. Both were wearing pink ties. Mr Hancock\u2019s was one we saw often when he was a cabinet minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alongside handsome Hugo\u2019s, it looked a little Tie Rack, or at best Marks & Sparks. Pukka Mr Keith KC is one of life\u2019s charcoal-double-breasted New & Lingwood men and his neckwear was altogether more gorgeous, a richer coral, a heavier momme.<\/p>\n
He had come to sneer at little Hancock and was soon pooh-poohing some Covid memoirs (imprecisely entitled \u2018diaries\u2019) that Mr Hancock published. Sir Patrick Vallance, in his own diary, criticised Mr Hancock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Hancock retorted that Sir Patrick\u2019s diary was partly composed months after the event. \u2018It was made more contemporaneously than your diary,\u2019 drawled Keith KC.<\/p>\n
But Mr Hancock is a tough little scrapper. He has been through the mincer of politics and knows how to fight for himself. He got his own back. At one point the KC started to repeat an old argument that he had already lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019ve made that mistake twice,\u2019 said Mr Hancock briskly. The judge this time took his side, telling her counsel, \u2018I think we\u2019re going round in circles\u2019.<\/p>\n
Indeed we were: once again the inquiry was pushing the lazy line that lockdown came too late and that the politicians were useless buffoons. Actually, they have been rather more impressive so far than the aides and civil servants.<\/p>\n
Mr Keith tried to spear Hancock on the date he urged Boris Johnson to do lockdown. After the break for elevenses, Mr Hancock produced an exact hour for the very telephone call in which he claimed to have put this case. Mr Keith clearly doubted his honesty and made a couple of sarcastic digs about it.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
During Mr Hancock\u2019s six hours at the Covid Inquiry witness table, not a single rude word was said, though a few were implied<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/30\/21\/78443125-0-image-a-58_1701380359148.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The former health secretary was combative, quick, competent, on top of the detail, and an easy match for the inquiry\u2019s lead counsel and matinee idol manqu\u00e9, Hugo Keith KC<\/p>\n
But there were no flies on Hancock and he came back from the lunch break with another detailed piece of evidence, this time to rebut a Twitter claim from Mr Cummings that he was lying.<\/p>\n
Mr Keith, serving, kept talking about theories being \u2018promulgated\u2019. Mr Hancock, not to be outdone, returned with the word \u2018contradistinction\u2019. Mr Keith tried to match the volley by saying \u2018disinterested\u2019 but he meant \u2018uninterested\u2019, which is something different. You\u2019d expect a KC to know that. Advantage Mr Hancock.<\/p>\n
What did we learn? Little. Save that Mr Hancock loathed The Man He Would Not Name. Mr Cummings was \u2018a malign influence\u2019 who had tried to seize executive decisions out of the hands of our elected PM. The proper systems had been \u2018actively circumvented\u2019 in \u2018a power grab\u2019.<\/p>\n
In a way, we were back to the Thane of Cawdor.<\/p>\n