to think Cummings is being blackmailed?

[randomer]

Why now? Why has it come out?

how the country can stomach the guy who used to go on about the arrogance of the metropolitan elite thinking their better than the normal people, or how the power of the unelected bureaucrats needed to be reduced - fuck knows!

The fact that they are still trying to defend him despite evidence of at least two further Durham trips strongly suggests that it's Cummings doing the blackmailing.

i dont think its blackmail as such- but what is is i dont know.
theyre making utter fools of themselves- and lockdown- bu defending him.

I don't think he's being blackmailed.

The general public are just fed up with the ones who are sticking to the guidelines while the people who made the rules are seeing them break them as and when they feel like it.

There was no reason for Cummings and his wife to go anywhere. They just did for their own comfort.

Sorry posted to soon, If the government doesn't come up with clear plan as to how we are going to come out of lockdown and time scale then the general public are going to start doing what they want to.

And we don't want another pre recorded pile of shite that Boris gave us last time. He needs to act like the Prime Minister he is supposed to be, and not the wafferling, talking in circles act he puts on.

I don't think he's being blackmailed but I think he has a lot of info on Johnson and I think there are a lot of people who don't like the influence he has on Johnson. The memoirs will be interesting in about 10 years time.

i dont even think its info - i think they all owe him their jobs and they dont think they can function without him - which is quite possibly true.

He knows where the Brexit bodies are buried. I don't think it's any more complex than that.

PS: at least three lockdown awaydays. The rules only apply to the plebs.

I agree with Helmut. Johnson relies on him to do his job. Others too.

It’s not the having dirt thing (you meant he’d blackmail others?).

Dominic Goings 😂

Rules are for the peasants.

We've come to a stage where they can do what they want and no one is going to stop them. In the past Johnson would have definitely resigned. The press would have hounded him out. There was enough evidence of at least the appearance of impropriety in the Jennifer Arcuri case for previous PMs to be forced to resign.

But they know they can just weather the storm and get their Twitter elves and Facebook imps to spin in their favour. Plus the right wing press has given up even any attempt at objectivity these days.

Brexit has shown that the great British public can be manipulated in their droves with a bit of handy spin. Get a cute dog, have a baby, simper at the cameras and make a few jokes, lie about what you're going to do for the NHS, make the odd crack about immigration and they'll lap it up. You don't actually have to govern effectively, tell the truth, have any integrity, work for the greater good or not be a hypocrite.

Cummings will stay. Boris will remain unimpeached. And we will all pay.

Can't believe the craven way he allowed himself to be photographed with his child to try to get some sympathy - if anyone had photographed his child before this he would have had them skinned alive

@Pinklynx sadly I agree with everything you say.

There are petitions

www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-dominic-cummings-must-be-sacked

Why now? Why has it come out?

Because it takes time to verify facts and the credibility of sources, and because the Guardian has been very patiently asking Downing Street to confirm what they knew and waiting (and waiting and waiting) so they could comment (which they never did). The only odd thing is that despite having nearly 2 months to get their story straight, yesterday's shower is apparently the shoddy best the government could do. The precise timing of the story breaking is because at 7pm on a Friday it would be much harder for the government to bury the story with an avalanche of distraction.

And lol (and Kevin Maguire eyeroll) at the pp who thinks this is a witch hunt. This is the kind of comedy gold that keeps me coming back to MN.

It takes time? weeks and weeks, no I don't think so.

Random er doesn't think so, so, that's that then.

@midsomer, sorry? What are you talking about. I thought this was a forum where you could explore thoughts , ideas, opinions?