A week after Twitter had a meltdown and the media ran wild about Boris Johnson's mask-free hospital visit, there has been a relatively minor fuss in Wales about Mark Drakeford prancing about mask-free in a crowded Diwali celebration. While many will argue that a hospital is a different ball game to a religious knees-up, it should be duly noted that the PM masked up upon meeting patients and was only photographed mask-free in a corridor. However, the double standard was not Johnson's on this occasion. There is no mask mandate in England and there has not been since July. Wales is different.
Although Wales was the last place in the UK to install a mask mandate, it has never relinquished that mandate. Drakeford likes to pontificate about such measures in the same way that his Labour colleagues in England do, but like them he does not consistently practice what he preaches. His bizarre Diwali dancing video asides (see below), Drakeford and his colleagues appear to mask up only when they feel like it. Unlike their Commons counterparts, Welsh Labour MS's only mask up in some Senedd sittings.
When the topic of Drakeford's Diwali knees-up was raised by a Conservative MS in the Senedd last week, Drakeford was sat there unmasked. Click below for that video and note the response of Labour's health minister Eluned Morgan who deems the issue 'not appropriate' for a statement. Do as we say peasants - not as we do!
Labour MS's were also unmasked when the Senedd re-opened last month, in fact the only people in the chamber who appeared to be masked up on that occasion were Prince Charles and the female harpist. On that same day Drakeford tweeted a series of photos from the ceremony, including two in which he meets the Queen and Prince Charles. Again, no consistency on masks. He wears one when meeting Charles, but not when meeting Her Majesty.
Note also the complete lack of reference to Her Majesty in Drakeford's message. As a hard left socialist it was clearly no honour to receive her and as a hard left socialist he preaches to the proletariat while not leading by example.