I was right to be suspicious. Turns out the exact number of new ventilators we can expect this weekend is 30. That’s right 30. Not 3,000 or even 300. But 30. Mr Gove’s exact words Tuesday were “the first of thousands of new ventilator devices will roll off the production line”. https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1245032358388084736

It was a circumlocution — rarely has ‘of’ carried so much weight — which masked fact it was not 1000s. But 30. Of course more will come in the weeks ahead. But with only 8,000 ventilators in the NHS and now 10,000 hospitalised with the virus, we are clearly running out of time.