This Zoom trick would have spared swearing politician’s blushes

“What the f*** is the matter with her?”

Vaughan Gething's unmuted Zoom outburst about Jenny Rathbone

As BBC News reports, Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething made a schoolboy error while on a Zoom call earlier today.

Jenny Rathbone, a member of the National Assembly for Wales, had been asking questions about the Welsh Government’s Coronavirus response.

Off-camera, Mr Gething could be heard muttering, clearly unaware that his words were being broadcast to everyone attending the conference call:

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“What the f*** is the matter with her?”

The minister’s fellow politicians were left open-mouthed, laughing, and – in some cases – covering their faces in embarrassment for him.

The Zoom meeting quickly came to an end, and Ms Rathbone stood up and walked off camera.

It’s the kind of awkward incident which is probably being repeated time and time again around the world as people find themselves using video-conferencing apps to do business as the Coronavirus pandemic prevents face-to-face meetings.

The good news is, it’s an easy problem to fix.

Zoom has a “Push to Talk” feature which ensures that your microphone remains muted throughout your online meeting. If you do want to speak, you simply hold down the space bar to temporarily unmute yourself.

Mr Gething has since tweeted an apology to Ms Rathbone:

Let’s hope he’ll take advantage of the “Push to talk” feature next time to prevent future unnecessary embarrassment.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon, or drop him an email.

One comment on “This Zoom trick would have spared swearing politician’s blushes”

  1. Alfonso

    Outstanding! Politicians >?<

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