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?

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.

can not believe the rubbish on here😂😂😂😂

Even the Daily Mail is " using it as an opportunity " Did you notice?

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.

But we all know what he's done wrong, @Livelovebehappy. Why do you or anyone else need it be repeatedly spelt out?

@wewereliars totally , it is so far reaching because it undermines the principles of our political system

Totalitarian state !

Mary is that you?.

I'm not sure he was on the City centre was he?
"Piggywaspushed

I suspect the Barnard Castle thing will be said to have been a stop on the way home."
Was just about to point out how ridiculous that would be but you've already done it. Unless of course he has a third holiday home in the Lakes, then a stop in barnard Castle makes perfect sense.

I can understand it. I don’t get the justification at all.

We all knew that if you had symptoms you had to stay home. When did they say it was ok? Date and words

Livelove

We don't need to put the boot into the Tories. They're doing a pretty good job themselves!

I think they're genuinely surprised that it seems that them saying D.C. did nothing wrong, thus doesn't need to apologise- nay, can be so breathtakingly arrogant- has been called out.

They appear to be saying 'C'mon chaps, the rules were meant for you, not for us, do keep up!'

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.

Why is he special that he didn't have to isolate for 14 days when his wife got the virus.

Why is his childcare considered to be more important than the lives of the people in the service stations they stopped of at or the people of Durham.

There were clear rules to mitigate the spread of the virus and he didn't give a shit.

Plus the childcare story keeps changing. First it was his mum helping, then his sister, then nobody because they were just bringing him food.

I appreciate it may have been a tough situation but so many people have been in it and stuck to the rules.

If he had shown contrition and held his hands up (fat chance) it’d be different. But Johnson visibly showing he is his mouthpiece is beyond the pale.

We did marsha. Around me people were staying in in households when anyone had symptoms, including times they thought it probably wasn't covid, just a cough. But rules were rules. Everyone was doing their bit. Everyone was sacrificing their way of life and more in many cases. Well, almost everyone.

But minty the big difference is that Calderwood apologised.

Again - eventually. She spent a day defending her actions.

well, if you can't understand why some people are so cross, what is the point in explaining again?

STAY AT HOME.

they put their child at risk by being in the car with him for a prolonged period when the infected person was supposed to be isolating within the home. Not the actions of a loving parent.

I'm outraged because:

1. However much it was ok for a percentage of people to be a bit less strict about lockdown, it was never ever ok to leave your house when you knew you were infectious. People have made huge sacrifices as a result. It is offensive for Boris to say this is ok when people have been through so much.

1. He's arrogant. Telling the press it's not about what they think, because opinion doesn't matter to him.

1. You don't ask people to do something you won't do yourself. If I ask my team to work Christmas, I do it too. How do us mere mortals without a 2nd home and a secret insight into rules that weren't announced to anyone else cope? A couple of years ago I was really ill with what turned out to be pneumonia. Looking after my DC was hard, but no harder than things other people are doing everyday. It was not exceptional.

1. if you work in the civil service you toe the government line. It's drilled into you.

If I was in DC's position, I would choose to live in a self-contained part of my parents' property 264 miles away in case we became unwell enough to care for our young child rather than with relatives close by who probably don't have a separate self-contained area. If we both became very ill, I wouldn't want to risk my asymptomatic child passing a deadly virus on to other family members.

So which is it? Was he travelling to Durham for childcare, in which case there was a risk that the child would pass on the virus to other family members caring for him. Or was the child never going to be in contact with other family members, in which case the family could have stayed isolated in London.

Yes they do. Clearly this "childcare" issue is just a story he's concocted.

I’m laughing at the suggestion that just because he had family close he must have had childcare. Our closest (geographically) family are my BILs. They’ve seen DD a handful of times and most of them have been at bigger family gatherings. She’s 11 and has a disability. There is absolutely no way we could rely on them for childcare. We’d choose my sister, who lives 200 miles away before we went to them.

I'm laughing at the suggestion that a family living in london could not possibly cope for 2 weeks. I haven't been to london recently, so do they not have the internet? Telephones? Delivery services?

Fuck off.

Also Johnson saying he had a ‘long chat’ and it’s all fine, as if we will believe the word integrity from them.

They show their contempt for everyone and right now I loathe them back.

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

I've seen quotes from it but haven't read it. Was there a specific point you wanted to make about it?

In general I'm more prepared to believe that someone making money from writing a blog might fabricate or spice up some details than I am to believe that a family would relocate from London to County Durham during lockdown without a Very Good Reason, or to believe that Dominic Cummings isn't clever enough to make sure he's not breaching any rules or guidance by doing so (even if that meant him inserting a pre-emptive clause here or there).

If you haven’t already.

www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-dominic-cummings-must-be-sacked?recruiter=858032924&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=whatsapp&recruited_by_id=97e9ef50-149a-11e8-ace3-0dfd05298dfe

I also have an autistic child, at that age I had no one to care for her apart from us locally (no family for 100 miles and as we had just moved continents, no good friends) and in those circumstances I may well have made the decision to travel, dd was very unreliable then and had to be kept separate from her sister unless a referee was available, she was physically violent to us, especially her dsis. My parents were much younger though, the age I am now. I also did travel to check on dd (also other reasons quite outing) so I'm sympathetic. BUT he's a government advisor and along with ministers are under far higher scrutiny, you cannot make the rules that cause hardship to so many then break them yourself. If his parents had collected the child fair enough, a far more reasonable solution if other relatives weren't able to care for him (not everyone can deal with autistic children, trust me, I went 9 years without a single night off!)

he decided to ignore his brother in law (living two streets away apparently), and any local friends who could help, and instead drive while infectious to a then comparatively uninfectious area of the country.

An area which now has one of the HIGHEST infection rates in the country!

And rather than apologise and say "I behaved inappropriately." he has lied, blustered and obfuscated to try to justify hie entitled and self-serving behaviour.

And so has a large proportion of his fellow Tories.

It beggars belief that some people still don’t see there’s anything wrong with transporting virus from one part of the country to another during a a pandemic.

I live within half a mile of the guy. There is no shortage of local support. Even if you didn’t have family in the area (which he does) there are at least 3 local volunteer groups that I can think of off the top of my bead, providing practical support to those who are self-isolating. Not to mention a plethora of supermarkets and independent grocers, butchers, fishmongers, wine merchants etc who are doing doorstep deliveries. This area was badly hit by the virus in March/April. Nobody thought it would be OK to go on a road trip of any sort, let alone while anyone in the family was symptomatic.

For those who thing we were all mugs to observe blanket rules laid down by the “nanny state” - are you this flexible about speeding laws? Drink driving? Burglary? Where do you draw the line in disregarding the rule of law?

Yes, it’s laughable.

I’m not threadjacking but I am basically completely alone. I don’t have any family living, I moved to a new city a couple of weeks before lockdown, and all my friends are hundreds of miles away. When I became very unwell (not with COVID, as it happens) I was given so much support by strangers. I’m still being offered free food. My area has a very active support network full of people desperate to do anything to help.

If one isolated person has that help and support, there’s no way one of the most powerful men in the country would be left alone.

He’s not some random bloke who’s struggling. If he needed childcare, if he needed anything, all he needs to do is click his fingers and it appears. That’s life for the super elite who run the country.

*top of my head

The fact that Boris Johnson covered Cumming’s arse yesterday with made up absolute wibble only emphasises again how weak he is as a PM, that it is more important to protect his chief henchman than that British public though spouting mixed messages, and that Cummings knows where the bodies are buried. Johnson is risking his own career for the sake of a jacked up civil servant’s.