To not understand the outrage at Dominic Cummings?

[Wow123]

Please don’t flame me for this. I’m not posting this to be controversial. I am someone who always tries to see the good in people which has been to my detriment at time’s in the past so I’m very well aware that maybe I’m missing something here and being too kind when he possibly doesn’t deserve it.

My understanding is that Dominic Cummings is saying that he only returned to Durham on one occasion which was because he had fears about potentially being unable to look after his child if him and his wife both ended up too unwell with Covid. I can understand the logic in that.

I appreciate the government advice at that stage was to stay home but if he genuinely didn’t have anyone to help with his son, then I can understand his fears and that he was trying to put his child first as any parent would.

My understanding is that a matter of days after, the government did clarify that travelling in the event of needing support with children if you had caught covid was an exceptional circumstance and that travel in that instance was acceptable.

I personally live hundreds of miles from family and don’t have anyone I could ask for help in the local area was I to become unwell with Covid so this does resonate with me.

I understand that there were sightings of Dominic Cummings on other dates in Durham which indicate that he travelled back up there. If this is true, I definitely agree that he needs to be sacked, but at this stage, there is no proof of this.

Am I missing something here?

If he's such a genius maverick why didn't he cover his tracks better, or is it all deliberate?
It looks like he wanted to be spotted 🤷🏼‍♀️

We should all be outraged. By their actions the government has proven they are happy to lie to the people even if it’s risks thousands of lives. If there is a second wave the prime minister is directly culpable as by his actions he has put the covid control measures that were implemented in doubt. They are not fit to govern.

@wow123 I agree with you that people should not be rushing to judgement on this. I've never voted Tory in my life, voted against Brexit, and hated the way Dominic Cummings influenced it, but I'm horrified at how he's now being treated.

If he stopped at a service station, if he had alternative childcare options then there's a problem, but in his shoes I wouldn't have made that journey unless there really was no alternative.

He clearly expected to be hit hard by the virus and was worried ... we don't have access to his medical records, and don't know his personal circumstances in relation to support options in London, so unless it can be proven he and the prime minister are lying, we should keep an open mind.

If his wife got the virus before Boris Johnson, I imagine he saw the writing on the wall as regards the path of infection, and potential outcomes, and needed to seek the support of people he could trust. It's s very human reaction.

Give him a break, it's over and done and in the past, he's just a person who might have made a mistake or a show of poor judgement but nobody is hurt and I can't bring myself to wish any ill on him.

he's " just a person" ( architect of the lockdown rules)

who might have made a mistake ( no he says he didn't and our PM says he didn't)

nobody is hurt ( apart from morale, credibility, consensus, an entire nation's lockdown campaign )

FFS

Well said NailsNeedDoing - my thoughts exactly

Can we have a roll call please for the Tory press office people
just so everyone knows who they are🙂

but her tweet last night (drawing a parallel to Calderwood) was excellent

It was ridiculous. She spent the best part of two days defending Calderwood and only “accepted her resignation” (didn’t even sack her) when the public outcry made it the obvious choice.

Disingenuous of Sturgeon to suggest she did it right. Like everything with SNP they will sweep their faults under the carpet any time they want to try to score political points with Westminster.

It would be in the past if when the first part of the story broke they’d just admitted fault and apologised. Instead they’ve got themselves into a knot and ended up undermining their own policy by pretending that the lockdown rules where something they weren’t.

piggy I suspect the half a dozen or so SAGE advisors that cane out and openly criticised the government last night indicates they have indeed had enough of trying to cover people’s arses. Suspect it might be dawning on them exactly who is eventually getting the blame for mishandling the COVID crisis.

I suspect the Barnard Castle thing will be said to have been a stop on the way home.

Anyone who lives in the area will know that is rubbish but will be gaslighted.

The tripping through bluebells on the 19th is yet to be pushed by journalists but it is a matter of time.

There are pretty solid sightings of him on May 10th as well.

@wrinklin what do you think about his wife’s lockdown blog?

Give him a break, it's over and done and in the past, he's just a person who might have made a mistake or a show of poor judgement but nobody is hurt

He's not "just a person" is he, @tawnygrisettes? He's the person who basically tells Johnson what to do, up to and including that incredibly ill-advised press conference yesterday. He's the person who ignored the policy he was heavily instrumental in drawing up. He's the person who had cabinet ministers out obediently defending him yesterday - the same ministers who appeared before us, day after day, behind podiums bearing the "Stay Home" slogan that he ignored.

How do you know nobody is hurt? Apart from the people he chose to risk infecting during the course of his journey, how about all the people who struggled through staying at home looking after their children when they were ill because they accepted the advice which he chose to ignore? How about all the people who may now become ill because he has chosen to say that the advice didn't mean what it very plainly said?

What a load of horse shit wrinklin.

He did wrong, he should own it.
I am fed up with one rule for the elite and one rule for the rest of us.
He could have asked a member of his wife's family (who live near to them in London) to help, if it ever got to that stage (which we know it didn't) or he could step up and parent his own child!

But minty the big difference is that Calderwood apologised. When the public said that wasn't enough, she was stood down.

No apology, humility or explanation form or about DC.

He probably shouldn’t have done, but if the public really are stupid enough to take unnecessary risk for themselves on the basis of one politician making one journey that he could have avoided, then this country has much bigger problems than one renegade Politician.

Cummings isn't a politician and it's odd that you think he is. He is a senior adviser. The difference is important. Cummings is not elected so the electorate do not get to decide on this and boot him out if they feel he is incompetent and corrupt. If people cannot get the basics right, then the rest of their argument looks even shakier.

Flaunting them would involve sort of waving them around on a bit of paper.

ok we get it you're really really clever. And it's gutting that you actually agree with the masses that what he has done is disgraceful.

Saw that rafals. Brilliant!

The press are certainly hypocrites. They were all bunched up rubbing shoulders with each other trying to get the best photo while accusing him of not socially distancing.

Cummings, BoJo and the cabinet have behaved exactly as I wouldn't have expected them too. Lie, cover up and dodge responsibility. I suspect that many of them were flouting the rules regularly. Of course there is one rule for us and one rule for them - that is what people voted for when the votes Tory.

I personally think there could be video evidence of Cummings in Durham on the 19th and they's still find an excuse for it. He is too important to the project.

Yes Calderwood was told to resign by Sturgeon when Sturgeon realised the public weren’t happy and it could effect public buy-in to guidelines. She admitted that this morning. She wanted her as adviser but realised it couldn’t work. That’s honesty.

Ridiculous.
My chin dropped when BoJo said 'integrity'- what on earth do either of these men know about integrity???

Neither of the Cummings were gravely ill. Neither of them were in desperate need of childcare. It's all crap. I'm sorry. Parents all across the country love their children and AS PER INSTRUCTION did what was best for their children, even if the parents were ill themselves. They stayed at home to protect the NHS and to save lives. IT WAS CLEAR in April. You self isolate for 14 days.

What other excuse did Cummings give?Need food on their doorstep?What about online food deliveries??

Have family in London? Get one to drive to you and take your son- no need to drive the virus from a highly infected city at the time, to an area of England with low infection, pit stopping and spreading the virus on hard surfaces.

Poor of Johnson to say that Cummings only did what parents who really love their families would have done. How dare he?

He just spat in the faces of healthcare workers who have had to move out of their homes, to protect their families. Spat in the face of all those that haven't seen their vulnerable family members, or to even bury them.

Childcare? I'm fuming!- what an insult! My neighbour is a single parent to 3 young children, one with down severe disabilities- she, like many, has had to make sacrifices, and she hasn't seen her mum, WHO LIVES IN THE SAME CITY since March.

Clear message by Johnson on the 23rd March " YOU MUST STAY AT HOME"

No one pops into a car, travels 100's of miles, ' just incase' they need childcare.

Am I surprised? Not at all
Am I disappointed? With this govt? Reaction to this crisis? Always

It’s ridiculous piling on of anti government sentiments. Funny how on social media a few minutes ago someone was absolutely kicking off at the situation, but when asked what he had done wrong, she couldn’t even say what he had actually done. People really don’t care - just an excuse to put the boot into the Tory government.

Daffodil- after I hit Post, I realised I'd used 'flaunt' instead of 'flout' 😂.

I don't mind it being pointed out because words matter.

Like rules you've helped draft yourself, dripping Classic Dom snappy slogans- matter.

Durham is a small city. The streets would have been extremely quiet. He would easily be picked up on cctv in his no doubt distinctive car.

If he stopped at a service station, if he had alternative childcare options then there's a problem, but in his shoes I wouldn't have made that journey unless there really was no alternative.

The trouble is that we know he had other options. In the final analysis, if there really were no friends or relatives who would help, social services. Other people had to go down that route, why shouldn't he?

If his wife got the virus before Boris Johnson, I imagine he saw the writing on the wall as regards the path of infection, and potential outcomes, and needed to seek the support of people he could trust. It's s very human reaction.

But the rest of us in that situation had to go with the second or third best options because we accepted the guidance he helped to formulate.

If it was just a human reaction and a mistake, I would have so much more respect for him and Johnson if they just put their hands up to it and apologised. The problem is that they have chosen instead to lie about what the rules said and depict him as this incredibly wonderful parent making the only possible choice. It's really nauseating.

This is a huge issue because the most senior advisor to the government is in a position where he can do what he likes. The same advisor who has been found in contempt of parliament. That means democracy in this country is being destroyed. Why does he have so much power over Johnson? Why has the Russia report not been published?