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?

To be honest I couldn't give two shits what Dominic Cuntings did or didn't do- he's an irrelevant in my life! Sacking him will not make any difference to his privileged life. The country voted for these idiots, how on earth can the public be surprised at their behaviour! We get the government we deserve!

@Hermagsjesty - I’m with you on this. It’s not what “every loving parent” would do. It’s what “every entitled twat who thinks their circumstances are spesshul and who knows they have their boss in their pocket” would do. I don’t remember when I was last so angry with politicians.

I was also incandescent.

Cummings behaviour was indefensible. And our spineless PM just defended him.

Wonder how Cummings' kid will react in the future when he's aware he was used as a pawn by his Dad to save his job.

Boris won't even confirm how many children he has, so to hear him talk about concerned parents is hard to take tbh.

If DC had any decency he'd resign. He has none. I hope the press keep the pressure on the Conservative Party.

I have high hopes for Kier!

@experimenopsuse .. most sensible thing I've read all day .. he is an absolute moron

Not well enough to look after a 4 year old, fine to drive 250 miles.
This is such utter bollocks. Anyone who thinks this is fine is a fool.
A rich senior MP can’t muster up enough support in London. Really. What a lot of shit.
Peasants know your place!

They really do not care one jot what anyone thinks. Hearing Boris speak today summed up for me, that not only is he a lying, dishonest man, but he is weak and certainly not a leader. If he is taken down with DC, it will be because he lacks the fibre to do the right thing.

He travelled to secure his son was safe and well cared for.

You mean he exposed his son to viral infection at close quarters for fear he would have to care for him? He had absolutely no reason to believe he and his wife would both be too ill at the same time to care for the boy. She was not very ill at the time, she never became very ill.

And if the accounts of his later trip to Durham and Barnard Castle turn out to be true, perhaps you'd like to come up with an explanation as to how that secured his son's safety and care?

Let's face it, everyone knew what the lot at No. 10 were like. They are just behaving to type. This disgrace is just one in a long line for Me Johnson. The fact that the man has the balls to say anything about parenting is laughable.

I'm just wondering if the mirror/guardian team have got another trick up their sleeve for tomorrow now that they've flushed Boris out of hiding? I see that the Barnard Castle source has voluntarily named himself and filed a complaint with the police a about classic Dom.

Where was this guidance & what date did it appear? How come no one knew about it ? Any one in here who did know and did the same ?

Choosing to spend several hours in a car with a person with Covid symptoms is irresponsible . To put a little child (who can have no real understanding or choice) in that situation is negligent parenting.

Oh goodness, @BlackberryCane. I have spent the past two days reading the Cummings news, so I have no idea why you think I am ignorant.

Because of what you've written. You said they were both ill, this differs to their version. That makes you either ignorant of their account or you're doing it on purpose.

However, I will concede that you would judge me because, yes, I would have driven 250 miles in the situation Cummings was in.

I would indeed. Thanks for unnecessarily giving permission, though. That's some shit parenting you're claiming you'd have engaged in there, putting your child in a tiny confined space with a symptomatic person for several hours, and some of us care more about the welfare of our children than having a nicer place to be ill in.

Ah even the civil service think it's diabolical.
Practically everyone does. This is one of those rare moments of bipartisan outrage. From the Mail (and the spectator) to the Guardian, any right minded person knows that the Cummings situation is indefensible.

It's only a few hardline Boris-rimmers who think otherwise.

It's only a few hardline Boris-rimmers who think otherwise.

Lots of whom are pretending, in any case.

”**SusieOwl4

@Doryhunky

It does say in the guidance to do your best but if you have children it is understandable if you can’t adhere to every part of the guidance .

It does say that“

I missed that. So good to know that I have spent weeks leaving my children alone to go shopping and not seeing anyone outside my household and even now unable to meet one other person in a public place as permitted because I can’t take the kids and I can’t leave them. Good to know that I can now also leave my children with other people so I can get on and do my work.

incandescent with rage
There has never been a more appropriate time for this saying.

Ditto. We have one year old twins. I got ill and isolated myself as much as possible at home until my partner got it too and then that became impossible because we have one-year-old twins to look after (gotta be more challenging than a 4 year old). Like the OP we took it in turns to rest and did shifts with the babies. Because that was what we had been told to do. This was when we weren't even locked down, only in the social distancing/isolate with symptoms phase. We had only returned from my parents that evening and I developed symptoms overnight, but we never dreamt of travelling back to my parents for convenience of childcare, because we understood that that was not I. The spirit of the rules. We had my mum on standby to come down to if we got to the stage of not coping, and then she would have isolated with us until we had all completed our 14 dayquarantinee. Which is exactly what Cummings should have done.

If you are angry that Cummings gets to drive the length of the country to see his parents most weekends
when the rest of us abide by the rules
EMAIL your MP
www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/
Tell them how you feel
ask them how they feel
make it clear what you think
but do not stay silent

They have family in London, they have relatives who could have travelled to them if they were both unable to manage a child at the same time. By her own account in the Spectator they were not that ill at the same time. However it was his mother's birthday, he took the virus to her home as a present.

He went north because he wanted to and knew Boris would not sack him, not for any other reason. The feeble excuses trotted out in his defence are quite nauseating. It is very insulting to all those who have really acted with integrity in much worse situations.

A 4 year old child with a very poorly mother is extremely vulnerable

Whoever posted this in support of Dominic Cummings doesn’t appear to have realised that they’re labelling him as an incompetent, neglectful father, incapable of caring for a 4 year old

"On his income, why not employ an agency nurse and a nanny for a few weeks?"

Agency nurses or nannies were not allowed to work.

It didn't say that at the time.

In fact on MN the lack of guidance for parents esp lone parents etc has been flagged on a lot of threads as a massive omission.

The Tories rewriting of the advice at that time is ludicrous as there are plenty of archived pages etc where it can easily be seen.

They are lying about what the rules were.

The latest way they are spinning this is even worse.

1. Bald faced lie. The advice said it was fine. No it really didn't. At that time it was v clear and v strict

1. An enormous amount of people have been ignoring the guidelines. It's common sense to do your own risk assessment and make your own decisions. Well no. There were not an enormous amount of people were breaking it at that point. It was fairly early days. The message was stay at home, protect the NHS. Save lives. To imply people who adhered to the rules are mindless sheep is to insult most of the nation

1. Any parent who did the same, DC loves his children. Well loads didn't because it was against the rules and they felt a duty to society to follow them. Implication they don't love their kids so much is also insulting

The change of tone on these threads since yest is very very interesting..

@Clymene is that confirmed that he has another sister two streets away from him in London?

I wish they had asked Boris what he meant when he said they had now alternative, it seems a bit invasive to want the details of someone's life like that but that is the nature of the case here.