Well, yesterday, Wes Streeting was asking households to prepare for emergencies and hostile acts.
His warning includes cyber attacks and disruption alongside preparations for floods and wildfires.
It comes as military leaders press for a public conversation about preparing for war.
They require clear evidence, precise language and a public willing to believe the person speaking.
As Health Secretary on the 5th of July 2024, Streeting announced, From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
Well, we all know it was a sweeping, misleading description of a service whose failures and achievements deserve much more care.
Patients facing intolerable waits had every reason to demand change and staff working under impossible pressures needed help.
Neither was served by a slogan that could make the whole institution sound beyond repair without a minister's heroic intervention.
When the same politician moves to another department and delivers another grave warning, I find myself asking, why should I trust him? My distrust of the messenger can't tell us whether a threat is real.
Ministers must understand the consequences of language that costs them credibility.
They may need that credibility later when asking the public to stock up on medicines and bog rolls.
Well, yesterday, Wes Streeting was asking households to prepare for emergencies and hostile acts.
His warning includes cyber attacks and disruption alongside preparations for floods and wildfires.
It comes as military leaders press for a public conversation about preparing for war.
They require clear evidence, precise language and a public willing to believe the person speaking.
As Health Secretary on the 5th of July 2024, Streeting announced, From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
Well, we all know it was a sweeping, misleading description of a service whose failures and achievements deserve much more care.
Patients facing intolerable waits had every reason to demand change and staff working under impossible pressures needed help.
Neither was served by a slogan that could make the whole institution sound beyond repair without a minister's heroic intervention.
When the same politician moves to another department and delivers another grave warning, I find myself asking, why should I trust him? My distrust of the messenger can't tell us whether a threat is real.
Ministers must understand the consequences of language that costs them credibility.
They may need that credibility later when asking the public to stock up on medicines and bog rolls.
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