Did Boris Johnson just call us all bad parents?!

[Hermagsjesty]

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?

There's a suggestion on Twitter that the child has severe autism and can only be cared for by peope he trusts. Would/does that change the complexion of the whole story?

No. It makes it worse. There are parents up and down the country who are in that exact situation for a fact, no suggesting about it. Those families have struggled through this, abiding by self-isolation without guidance and without their usual routines. Are you suggesting that the advisor to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister actually understood how difficult self-isolation was for such families and yet deliberately avoided clarifying that this loophole existed?

@Walkaround
Yep. They have shown contempt for the country and the sacrifices millions have made the past two plus months.

@DioneTheDiabolist Jesus Christ! I wouldn't have that conversation with my only child, he's 6, you would have to literally wrench him from my parents arms in those circumstances - there's no way he'd go to a bloody "hub" - my parents are the closest family to us, over an hour drive away, both in their 70s and my dad is still WFH. I would never do that to my child - but as I said upthread, each to their own, I don't think we can compare with what others would do, so how can we pretend to know better in DC's circumstances??

@Institutkarite you are absolutely entitled to disagree with me but there’s no need to be rude about it.

Of the 700+ people who have responded to the poll on this thread, at this point, 92% don’t think I’m being unreasonable. So, I honestly think that if the government didn’t intend for their wording in defence of Dominic Cummings’ to be interpreted in this way then they should have taken more care over their phrasing. Phrases like “instincts of every parent” (Boris Johnson) and “protecting one’s family is what any good parent does” (Suella Braverman) are incredibly loaded. To throw them around so carelessly when so many other families have made different choices shows a stunning lack of empathy.

Minute no it doesn't. The rules still state travel to provide care. The trusted person should have gone to the. And SI in their home for 14 days whilst caring for the child. Nowhere does it say it's ever justifiable to take an infected person halfway across the country to seek care.

From me, single parent, who had suspected covid, and has a child with a physical disability and autism.

If they had Noro, should they have travelled
NO
If they had chicken pox, should they have travelled
NO
If they had covid should they have travelled
NO

its got _nothing to do with the kid, with lockdown or any of that shit
if they were ill they should have stayed at home

if they were not ill they broke the law
simples

Thing is (and that isnt to say he is completely wrong because he was) but why do people automatically go to the fact that they were somehow saying everyone who made a different choice is a bad parent.

The justification they are (stupidly) trying to make is he made a decision for the best of his family why do we automatically go to any other decision is wrong (not just in this?)

@pothole that's my issue with it more so that they could of been upfront when it happened so others in a similar position would know they had this option
Personally speaking if I had young dc and thought I would struggle I would prob break the rules but many wouldn't
If he had been upfront and explained all this as it happened I think it would of been accepted more widely

Wow, even the Daily Mail has turned on them

I don't think Boris inferred others are bad parents though . All he was trying to do was justify Cummings to make people accept it more ( although that won't work ) I will be surprised if DC doesn't resign by end of the week as this one isn't going to just go away I don't think

@Hermagsjesty
I really struggle to understand why you think Boris said that you are a bad parent. He didn't, you know he didn't say that.
I've seen many threads discussing what did Boris mean when he said this that or the other.
Why is it so difficult for people to understand what someone means.
Boris most definitely did not say that you are a bad parent.
You know that, you do know that.

@Quartz2208 I think that’s a fair and interesting point but the fact is we do, because the choices we make about our children’s welfare are often intensely emotional. That’s exactly why I think the govt should have chosen their language with much more empathy and care. The public messaging throughout this crisis has been around coming together for the common good. To me, suddenly suggesting you could have just dome whatever you liked as long as it was best for your own little family unit completely undermines that. As I said right at the start, if they’d have come out and said, “we were ill, we were frightened and we made a judgement that we felt like was the best choice for our kid at the time. In hindsight we understand why some people might see this as a mistake & we apologise” or anything along those lines then I think people - parents in particular - would have had a lot more sympathy with that.

No OP, Boris Johnson did not call the rest of us bad parents.
I have no idea what happened or why it happened but it's not looking good
I do have an idea though that this is all about left-wing media and left-wing MNers thinking this is a chance to bring down part of the Government. All a bit of an echo chamber to be honest.

This whole debacle does allow the people who don't want to follow the rules (and there are millions of those) a justification for doing what they were going to do anyway.

But I agree with the point that public figures should admit they've made mistakes. If it was me I would just put my hands up, say I made a regrettable decision and ask to be forgiven. Seems that all sorts of people can't bring themselves to do that

Walkingtheplank even the Daily Mail have turned against them, judging by tomorrow's headline. It really isn't just the left.

I do have an idea though that this is all about left-wing media and left-wing MNers thinking this is a chance to bring down part of the Governmen

I do have an idea though that this is all about left-wing media and left-wing MNers thinking this is a chance to bring down part of the Government. All a bit of an echo chamber to be honest.
This isn't a 'bring down the government' level scandal.

But equally, this is not partisan criticism. The right wing media are criticizing Boris and Cummings as robustly as the left.

I do have an idea though that this is all about left-wing media and left-wing MNers thinking this is a chance to bring down part of the Government.

Have you seen the Daily Mail? The Times? The Sun? Financial Times? Are these left-wing media?

I think there are people on the left and the right and everywhere in between who would like to bring down Cummings, many probably with very good reason,

Bloody Left Wing Daily Mail

Ok, perhaps not left-wing media (although I would label the Mirror and Guardian who broke the story as left-wing), but the media (including the Times and Mail (that has been in faux-outrage since March) have been obsessed with getting a Gotcha - which Cummings has served them up on a plate.

The press conferences for example have been all about catching out ministers, usually on the same point repeatedly in a specific press conference rather than asking a range of information gleaning questions.

And those who voted for Brexit (I'm a Remainer by the way) are not going to suddenly think they were wrong to vote for Brexit or Tory.
So its just an echo chamber.

So it's not the left wing media? That was a quick turnaround!

So its just an echo chamber

What does this mean?

And this thread, like all the other similar ones with slightly different titles is just a way to slag off the nasty Tories.
There have been far too many people, in postions of authority who have been party of sharing the message of Stay at Home or Stay Alert who've thought that they are above the rules - but as they weren't Tories it didn't evoke quite so much fury, or so many threads I suspect (I wasn't counting).

There have been far too many people, in postions of authority who have been party of sharing the message of Stay at Home or Stay Alert who've thought that they are above the rules - but as they weren't Tories it didn't evoke quite so much fury, or so many threads I suspec

How many of them had the disease?

Personally I think the biggest problem is the shit stirring journalists.