Highlighting failings in the government response

Mash-up king Cassetteboy has made a new video mocking the government's coronavirus response.

Set to Ian Dury's Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, the satirical track has been released in association with Privacy International to highlight failings in the handling of the crisis.

Harmit Kambo, campaigns director at Privacy International said 'The government continually looks to technology to save the day in the fight against coronavirus, and for delivering public services more generally. But then when it goes wrong they have a convenient scapegoat in "mutant algorithms". 'It's humans that must take ultimate responsibility for the far-reaching decisions that algorithms now make about how we are governed.

'So, while we hope Cassetteboy's video raises a laugh, we also hope it serves as a reminder to our political leaders that their "algorithm shtick" won't wash, and we will always hold them to account'.

The two-minute video splices together clips of Boris Johnson's speeches, manipulating his words to say things like: 'You can tell our technology's going well, we're running this whole thing in Excel', 'So when results are not forthcoming, don't ask me, ask Dominic Cummings' and 'It's not my responsibility. The computer does it all you see'.

Cassetteboy said 'The UK Government's failures in the fight against Covid have largely been failures of technology, caused by hubris, cronyism, dither and delay. These failures are having a lasting impact on the economy and the ever-mounting death toll. This seemed like a cheery subject for a comedy song.'

Published: 15 Oct 2020