"Journalists and media need to be more balanced" says @NadineDorries "Media hype" suggesting testing is a "miracle cure".
Has anyone seen any newspaper/broadcaster/Tweeter suggest such a thing?
(1/?)

It is quite unusual for a Conservative politician to see the usually supportive press lined up to attack a Tory government.
But none of them says testing is the cure. BJ, on the other hand, says it's the way out of this mess, the key to the puzzle.
(2/?)

We are supposed to be a democracy, but we are being governed as though we live in a one-party state.
Parliament is in recess. The three men supposed to be dealing with this crisis have been in hiding (sick) for a week.
The opposition is invisible.
(3/?)

Because we're all supposed to be in this together and, as with Brexit, to question our leaders is somehow unpatriotic and unhelpful.
Ministers dodge questions or lie with impunity at the daily press conferences, which are basically propaganda exercises.
(4/?)

So when the Press actually does its job and says "You're making a pig's ear of this and killing people", it comes as a shock.
Especially when even @telegraph joins in the questioning (more on them later)

(5/?)

Johnson hid from view during the Tory leadership election
Johnson hid from view during the general election (in a fridge at one point)
Johnson hid from view in Chevening when the first #covid19 cases arrived in the UK
(6/?)

He miraculously reappeared to announce that he had impregnated another woman and might one day marry her.
He then shut up parliament.
For a few days he did his job before again hiding from view, in covid isolation, for another week.
(7/?)

(Which did prompt his friends at the Mail to ask whether he had been ignoring the rules he had imposed on the country.)
Parliament is not due to return for three weeks.
Another three weeks of unaccountability?
(8/?)

In any other national crisis, Parliament would be recalled.
Yes, there would be physical problems with the Commons sitting. But if other walks of life can work out a video conferencing system, so can Parliament.
(9/?)

Johnson has, indeed, apparently been directing operations by video.
The daily propagandafest (sorry, briefing) is conducted by video.
There must be a way to allow for MPs to play their part in dealing with this crisis.
(10/?)

The lack of any pressure for this to happen is baffling. Maybe things will change at the weekend once Labour has a new leader.
(11/?)

For now, it comes to something when the former Tory minister widely blamed (rightly or wrongly) for wrecking the NHS and Johnson's biggest cheerleaders in the Press are the only ones pointing up this shambles.
(12/?)

....and while the Press is calling Johnson and his team out, they are simultaneously trying to distance him from the worst. A difficult trick to pull off.
Here's the Mail telling him to get a grip while renewing its attack on NHS "fat cats" and blaming red tape

While others say "look over here". The Express attack on the banks is a legitimate angle, but the testing shambles is reduced to a single on the second of four inside #covid19 spreads. A 2nd leader is uncensorious, saying simply that the Govt needs to "get on top of the problem".

The Sun, meanwhile, thinks that the most important issue of the day is that we all stand on our front doorsteps and clap at 8pm tonight.
I know we need to show more appreciation of these people putting their lives on the line...

...but, dare i say it, i think it's an exercise in virtual signalling and patronising self-congratulation that makes us feel better about the fact they aren't being paid or treated properly. I think they'd prefer the PPE to selfie-stick applause.
but i digress...

back to the Sun. After telling everyone to get clapping, it also homes in on the testing and tells Johnson to get a grip. With the banks next in the firing line

The banks are the subject of the top leader, but then the paper gets back to the testing and the need to "get a grip" (apparently today's three-word slogan of choice).
The Mail throws @MattHancock's words from two months ago about our "world-beating test" back in his face

But even in their condemnation, they give Johnson wiggle room, saving their biggest barbs for Public Health England, which the Mail describes as
"a corpulant quango stuffed with legions of appallingly overpaid panjandrums".
Doesn't look as though they're ready to ditch Bojo yet