MANY'S a time the Conservatives have been accused of being less than sincere.
Some have questioned how concerned the Tory government might truly be for child refugees for instance, when they're closing doors on them.
Others have suggested that this concern for families the Westminster administration claims to have might be a bit dubious when they're enacting the rape clause requiring women to declare their child as the product of violence to access lifeline benefits.
But we're in a pandemic that's led to almost 61,500 UK deaths and you couldn't possibly fail to show utter sincerity about that and the new vaccine that will save many more lives. Could you?
Step forwards UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, somehow managing to sully the delivery of the first Covid vaccines by appearing to cry on Good Morning Britain with the same level of gravitas as Ronald Villiers, the gormless actor from Chewin The Fat.
How anyone, let alone a serving UK Health Secretary, can manage to take the shine of what is undoubtedly the best day of 2020 and a truly important moment for public health is beyond us.
But, well, take a look for yourself as he responds to words from Warwickshire pensioner William Shakespeare, who was recieving the jag:
Matt Hancock pretending to cry based on diagrams he saw in a book pic.twitter.com/XUMHQjeMHr
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) December 8, 2020
"I've seen extras in adverts deliver more convincing performances than this," commented one viewer on Twitter. "I had to look away. Cringe was unbearable," said another.
But the reviews weren't all bad. Question Time favourite Laurence Fox — an actual actor — liked it.
Say what you like about the governments handling of Covid, but to see the genuine and heartfelt emotion of @MattHancock is touching and a reminder of how just how agonising this must have been for him personally. https://t.co/JL6G8vd9i3
— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) December 8, 2020
And so did this broadcaster, whose own level of sincerity on this is surely nothing to doubt:
I need to see Matt Hancock up for a BAFTA this year
— Robert Bruce (@RobBruceK) December 8, 2020
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