Half-cock Statistics

It is a measure of the ineptitude of some members of the administration, that Matt Hancock risked squandering the considerable good will existing in the country towards the government, in its efforts to manage this crisis. He made himself a hostage to fortune by setting the target of 100,000 tests by the end of April, but then could not resist the temptation to fudge the statistics.
 
The real stupidity here was not so much in misrepresenting the actual tests that had taken place, but doing so when it was inevitable that scrutiny from the media and elsewhere would soon reveal where the truth lay.
 
The country trusted the government over lockdown, even though millions would be considerably financially damaged as a result. In such circumstances, trust is absolutely essential. But how can we now trust what we are told, when such a childish attempt at obfuscation has been perpetrated by a government minister at the epicentre of the struggle against Covid-19?