Abbott's interview

Here's what I think happened.

1. She made a mistake. £300 thousand for 10 thousand cops is obviously nonsense.
 
2. The mistake was pointed out to her. She realised that this meant £30 per cop, and that she'd got it badly wrong.
 
3. At that point, she should have said "Oops, I means £300 million, silly me. But instead, she paniced.
 
4. In her panic, her mind went blank, as it does. She couldn't hink what to say. She was pressed for an answer, so she made one up, £80 million. Which was also bad, at £8000 per cop.
 
5. Everything went downhill from there on.
 
6. Eventually, she got to £300 million, which looks sensible, at £30,000 per cop.

But she's been pilloried for what I think was a simple mistake followed by her panic responses.

I feel sorry for her, which is a new thing for me with respect to Abbott. But the real problem wasn't the original mistake, it was the subsequent panic.