If you are a Conservative voter how do you feel about Dominic Cummings apparent power over Boris Johnson?

[applesnotoranges]

Just that really. When scientific advisors have been sacked for flouting the rules and Boris Johnson comes out and says Dominic Cummings did nothing wrong how do you feel?

My father has been taken into hospital today – not covid related – but my mum is on her own. They have been in isolation since the beginning of lockdown. My instinct is to go and be with my mum as she is 200 miles away and alone.

@PigletJohn, I completely and absolutely agree with every word you typed. I'm the four or so years I've been on this site, I've never read you express a political opinion. I've only read you come to the help of others.

It's refreshing to read a cogent and well argued point

As long as he helped us inflict Labour’s worst defeat in 84 years, he’s all right by me

@CendrillonSings I think you might be giving too much credit to him- he was shooting dead fish in a barrel. Labour brought about its own defeat -pretty much unaided. (I am looking forwards to the day when we have two good choices instead of two bad ones.)

@PigletJohn you are impressive. Have you thought of standing for office? We could do with some high-level coherence.

@user1471453601

@PigletJohn didn't express a political opinion until much later on in the debate when he succumbed to calling Dominic Cummings as they did.

In ten years and then some on here, knowing PigletJohn as a respected poster in property here and other sites, it was a surprising response.

Still, there is nothing like politics to divide a nation.

So you'd support transport of his nieces to London but oppose his taking one household to Durham?

Assuming the niece wasn't travelling the length of the country with the full knowledge they were carrying a deadly and highly contagious disease that could kill anyone they happened to come into contact with, I would. Although I can't imagine even wanting to expose the niece the only time I'd imagine doing so would be if both adults had to go to hospital.

I naively thought that if anyone started to show systems of covid the first thing they'd want to do would be try their very best to stop others from catching it. In my house we had already worked out were we would sleep etc to try to isolate, even from our own household, in the hope of not spreading the virus to each other. The idea that any of us would leave the house with the virus, apart from an extreme medical emergency, is the absolute last thing we would do. Obviously Tories don't think this way and put their own comfort and convenience first, if somebody else catches it and dies, "too bad". This attitude might explain their shockingly bad response to the covid crisis and our terrible high death toll.

Obviously Tories don't think this way and put their own comfort and convenience first

That’s some first-rate bullshit you’ve got there. You must be mystified that offensive smears of that sort don’t lead people to support your point of view!

So you'd support transport of his nieces to London but oppose his taking one household to Durham?

Well, at the point he made the journey north his circumstances were not exceptional. He wasn't even knowingly unwell himself (apparently).

If it had reached the point that both parents became unwelcome and unable to care for their child, then the circumstance would change. You were, after all, permitted to travel for the purposes of caring for someone who was unable to care for themselves. You weren't permitted to drive across the country with suspected Covid to seek such help.

Actually not at all. The scales fell from my eyes a long time ago on this. There is NOTHING the Tories can do to turn their core voters away and they know this.

I find it ironic that Brexit was all about unelected officials governing us .. and what have we settled for?

And besides, are you saying that DC DIDN'T put his own comfort and convenience over public safety? DC and family could have spread the virus to multiple people on that journey. Even just leaving the house to walk to the parked car was an opportunity to spread. The car could have broken down or burst a tyre or something on route, they might have had an accident. Kid might have need the toilet, wife might have felt worse and stopped to be sick. Delays might have meant they needed to stop for food, the police might have stopped them to ask where they're going. All of these are predictable risks to spread the virus that DC and his family chose to take. Now none of those things might have happened on route. But now the public know that it's not pubic safety and preventing the spread of the virus that come first, it's what we think is best for ourselves, many, many more people might follow his example.

If I wanted to check my eyesight, I would DEFINITELY drive sixty miles with my four year old in the back. There is no other possible way.

It feeling a bit like gaslighting.

We were told "stay at home if you have symptoms". We were told "don't travel to a second home". We were told "only leave your home for these essential reasons".

And now we are being told - there is nothing that says if you have CV symptoms you can't jump in your car and drive to stay in another house on the other side of the country.

There is NOTHING the Tories can do to turn their core voters away and they know this.

Yes, I agree with this completely. What Theresa May taught them is it doesn't matter what you do or how ineffectual you are or how much the country/government/your own party dislike you, when it comes down to it as long as you can portray the "left" as a bogeyman you are untouchable.

I find it ironic that Brexit was all about unelected officials governing us .. and what have we settled for?

And this with knobs on.

Yes, I agree with this completely. What Theresa May taught them is it doesn't matter what you do or how ineffectual you are or how much the country/government/your own party dislike you, when it comes down to it as long as you can portray the "left" as a bogeyman you are untouchable.

There is a lot in this but the bogeyman has left the building for many. Starmer is excellent at beating them on a more competent ground. Floating voters around the centre can return. Not sure if it’s enough, but we’ll see.

DC maybe didn't break the rules but he sure as hell stretched them as far as they would go!

Did he actually put anyone in danger? No. He socially distanced and isolated in his car and a house. Which is better than many people who have blatantly broken the rules long before he became sick.

If my child was as risk I would have done the same. Everyone puts their child first.

Should Boris sack him? Suspend him for 2 months, even if it's just to recover fully as DCs actions were clearly skewed by his illness.

I don’t see it as one of them having power over the other, I see it as loyalty. I’d defend my friends too, even if they did make a mistake.

He didn’t socially distance though, did he? He went on outings to a forest and a castle, and during both he interacted with the general public.

Interesting that the old rumours about Johnson and Mrs Cummings have resurfaced.

But there were members of the public there, who spoke to him, so there must be a right of way or a footpath.

@begoniapot He did put people at risk because his wife(who supposedly had symptoms) took his child to hospital while they were in Durham. We were explicitly told not to relocate because this would cause greater strain on local hospitals.

His child would not have been placed at risk by staying in London. It turned out that he didn't need childcare. If he had, his brother in law and sister in law both lived nearby in London.

According to DC, he went on a 60 mile round trip to test out his eye sight because he thought that he might not be safe to drive. If your child's welfare is your priority, would you really strap them into the back of the car for such a test drive? Why not just suggest that your wife drives back to London?

@ChocolateyAsFuck Yes, there's a public right of way through the woods.

If his parents' land is big enough to hold at least 3 houses and a wood, then surely there were a few tracks that would have been more suitable for an impromptu eye test than a public highway.

But perhaps none of these tracks went to a place suitable for an outing with wife and child on the wife's birthday.

Come on, nobody believes that "went for a 60 mile round trip to see if I could drive safely" nonsense.