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Did Boris Johnson just call us all bad parents?!

528 replies

Hermagsjesty · 24/05/2020 18:30

Having watched that briefing I am incandescent with rage, less at what Cummings did - I understand people might have needed to make difficult choices and compromises during lockdown - but at the excusing of it. Why not admit it was an error of judgement and apologise?

I have three children. When my husband and I both became ill with what we believed to be Coronavirus in mid-March, we took turns to watch the children whilst the other slept. I lay on the sofa, feeling the illest I have ever felt, while CBeebies played on loop. We relied on neighbours we barely knew to drop off essentials. We would have loved to lean on family but we didn’t because we believed to do so would endanger them and the wider community.

A succession of ministers - and now the Primeminister himself - have suggested that Mr. Cummings behaved as any loving parent would. But many loving parents did not behave as he did. We struggled and made sacrifices in what we believed was the National interest. Are they now suggesting we just don’t love our kids as much as Mr. Cummings loves his?

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Lordfrontpaw · 24/05/2020 18:32

Loving parent - reckless son perhaps?

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Crabbo · 24/05/2020 18:34

It’s all lies anyway - it has been suggested that it was his mothers birthday that weekend (saw on another angry voice).

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Inoneminute · 24/05/2020 18:37

Someone needs to ask what they did to celebrate his wife's birthday (the day it's thought they were at the castle place)

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TabbyMumz · 24/05/2020 18:37

What utter nonsense. Everyone has choices and makes them differently. Just because he is saying Cummings "behaved as any parent would", doesnt mean everyone else is a bad parent. He made a choice which was different to yours. End of. He probably questioned what would happen if both him and his wife were seriously ill and the child would then be at risk. He went somewhere where people could check on them.

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Goldencurtain · 24/05/2020 18:39

Yes, that's exactly what he meant.

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Fedupwiththemedia · 24/05/2020 18:39

No he didn't say that.

That's what you said. Not him.

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Ratasha · 24/05/2020 18:40

While the Cummings saga is outrageous, this is what people voted for. We knew Boris was a spineless, corrupt dishonest weasel and he won a landslide.

Quite why the British people want to be treated with contempt I don't know, but it's what we chose.

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MaxNormal · 24/05/2020 18:40

That's a good excuse for the first trip up, I'll grant you TabbyMumz, but not sure it's washing for the subsequent trips when he was well enough to enjoy bluebell walks and parties.

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MaxNormal · 24/05/2020 18:41

Or hang on, wasn't the party during the first trip when he was so unwell he was "doggo", according to his wife?

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Kinneddar · 24/05/2020 18:42

Having watched that briefing I am incandescent with rage

Seems a bit of an over reaction

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FreddieMac · 24/05/2020 18:42

God I hate them both. Is this what we’ve come to? Such spineless weasels

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Inoneminute · 24/05/2020 18:43

How long will the Guardian wait to show their hand wrt the other trips and how can they possibly be defended?

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pontypridd · 24/05/2020 18:44

Why is OP overreacting Kinneddar?

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Lockheart · 24/05/2020 18:44

It's brave for Boris is talking about what every good parent would do on television, given his parenting record.

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Starlightstarbright1 · 24/05/2020 18:44

Well I am a Lp if I become ill I have no one to look after my Ds. However I have stayed home .

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RuffleCrow · 24/05/2020 18:45

You had the luxury of having your husband present to watch the children whilst you were ill. It's not comparable to him being in London and you in Durham.

Lockdown always allowed for travel to care for someone vulnerable. A 4 year old child with a very poorly mother is extremely vulnerable. I'm not sure what's driving this collective amnesia but taking his claims on face value he did nothing wrong. I'm no fan of the tories and would vote KS in as PM tomorrow btw.

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TheoneandObi · 24/05/2020 18:46

I don't understand what was so special about Cummings' circumstances. As I u defat and it it was his wife who was ill when they travelled. Why couldn't he look after her and the child and get supplies dropped off? I'm sure his house is huge with a nanny annex where she could have quarantined. Instead he loaded her, himself and child into a small metal box and drove hundreds of miles, probably stopping at services on the way.

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Piggywaspushed · 24/05/2020 18:48

Under the rule, DC's wife was supposed to isolate herself from the rest of her family in a room with the door closed. That was actually really really clear.

He was then supposed to care for the child.

I know he ultimately became ill : but that was not part of his story.

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Clymene · 24/05/2020 18:48

His sister lives two streets away from him. His brother in law also lives in London. The only reason he drove to Durham while he was supposedly at death's door was because he wanted to.

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ThisAintNoPartyThisAintNoDisco · 24/05/2020 18:48

Ooh an incandescent with rage post..

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BlackberryCane · 24/05/2020 18:49

Quite why the British people want to be treated with contempt I don't know, but it's what we chose.

Well, only 43.6% of those voting did. I'm not trying to excuse a single one of those votes, but most of us didn't choose it.

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MaxNormal · 24/05/2020 18:49

You had the luxury of having your husband present to watch the children whilst you were ill. It's not comparable to him being in London and you in Durham.

They both live in London though. It's his parents who are in Durham.

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UnaOfStormhold · 24/05/2020 18:51

I feel Johnson knows no more about being a good parent than he does about integrity.

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Inoneminute · 24/05/2020 18:51

Did you miss the bit about other trips Ruffle?

I think if the story had been consistent and upfront the childcare thing may have (just about) washed but wasn't it about groceries this morning? Plus his wife wrote an extensive account of their isolation experience, which definitely inferred they were in London, so she knew they shouldn't have gone.

Then there appears to have been other trips, which whilst the PM said some are false he didn't actually say they all are. The Guardian will have evidence but it should be easy enough for them to remember where they were on his wife's birthday so they could put it to bed by saying so, but they haven't.

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Hermagsjesty · 24/05/2020 18:53

@TabbyMumz of course I understand every parent makes different and sometimes difficult choices, I acknowledge that in my original post. But the Prime-minister’s wording suggests he believes Cummings made the morally right choice. Which makes a mockery of the lockdown, no? Why not just say Cummings was scared and under pressure and he made a judgement which in hindsight was ill-advised given the sacrifices the rest of the nation have been making?! Why pretend there is nothing to see here?

@RuffleCrow I hear you and I know every family’s circumstances are different but if Cummings and Wakefield believed what they did was both morally correct and in-line with the guidelines, why not mention their trip to Durham at all in her long and personal article of their families experience of the illness?

I’m sorry but it absolutely smacks of one rule for them and another for everyone else to me.

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