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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not understand the outrage at Dominic Cummings?

999 replies

Wow123 · 25/05/2020 08:08

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Mumratheevergiving · 25/05/2020 11:00

Things I’ve learnt in lockdown:

  1. the police OR No. 10 lie -who stands to gain more from spinning a lie here?
  2. our PM won’t answer legitimate questions (this would quickly and easily stop the ‘baying’ journalists and provide transparency about the whole sorry debacle)
  3. the ‘instructions’ from the Government that Dominic Cummings was instrumental in creating were clear ‘Stay at Home’ Or perhaps Cummings used invisible ink and the message really read ‘Stay in the most comfortable circumstances for you at ‘your childhood’ home’ !?
  4. The rules prevent me visiting my grieving mother who has been sitting on her own for 9 weeks. If I develop Covid19 symptoms then we can hotfoot it across the country to visit Grandma

Lies, hypocrisy, lack of transparency and mixed messages from our PM, the cabinet and their closest advisors are incredibly damaging at a point you need public trust and compliance in public health campaigns.

It is clear Cummings and Johnson do not care an iota about how damaging this is to our national effort or he would have had the decency to step down or Boris would have the balls to tell him to go for the good of the country.

Tanith · 25/05/2020 11:06

If he'd had the grace to apologise and to acknowledge the sacrifices ordinary people have made to keep the rules that he helped put in place, there might not have been the anger we've seen.

People whose family and friends have died, who have seen their incomes dwindle to nothing, who have had to cope alone when they were ill are reacting very strongly to the arrogance and lies.

Treat people with contempt and they'll react in kind. It's a lesson he'd do well to learn.

JudyCoolibar · 25/05/2020 11:06

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 really wonder whether anyone (other than the terminally stupid and/or deluded) actually believes this. I think we are still seeing that proposition being put forward repeatedly because Tory Central office desperately hopes it will work. When they realise that it isn't working, and that in fact it's damaging them, we will see an abrupt U-turn and all the bots will disappear off social media.

Horsemad · 25/05/2020 11:07

Do the DC supporters seriously believe that this odious little shitbag - someone who has the best contacts in the UK could not have called on them for help/support if both he and his wife were incapacitated?

I despair for the state of our country if this is the calibre of people's intellect.

C8H10N4O2 · 25/05/2020 11:08

Also DC's uncle, Sir John Grant McKenzie Laws, was gravely ill in hospital with Covid-19 at the time DC took his family to his parents' property. He died on 5th April

So what? Or is your point that his uncle, like Dominic, was part of the elite and therefore special, unlike those of us common plebs who have just lost common family members who don't matter?

I frequently travel 210 miles and don't stop for loos. I could go 264 miles

With a four year old?

Sure you do.

wrinklin · 25/05/2020 11:10

@ChocolatelyAsFuck: 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 you were Dominic Cummings, or any other media hate figure, it would be impossible for you to use these networks because someone would have sold the story. Being rich does not buy round-the-clock childcare in a pandemic, or push you into the supermarket priority-delivery category.

TheRoyallingStones · 25/05/2020 11:10

It’s not just what he did, it’s the arrogance of him acting like he wasn’t wrong to do it. The cover up from Boris and the his cronies. The suggestion that any of them have any understanding of “integrity”

MitziK · 25/05/2020 11:10

Let's face it, he did what plenty of men have done before and since. At the first sign of having to look after his own kid, he thought 'fuck that' and dragged them across the country so his Mum/Sister/anybody could do it for him instead. Then promptly took himself off to bed so his wife crawled out to do all the heavy lifting because she didn't want to kill off his parents. She then had to try and cover for the poor dear rather than say he was a prick who wasn't even that ill/put it on for a couple of days, hoping nobody would have noticed them.

And now it's been noticed, there have been lies after lies, culminating with his mate blatantly backing him up as some sort of fucking hero for it.

ChocolatelyAsFuck · 25/05/2020 11:12

If you were Dominic Cummings, or any other media hate figure, it would be impossible for you to use these networks because someone would have sold the story. Being rich does not buy round-the-clock childcare in a pandemic, or push you into the supermarket priority-delivery category.

Is this a joke?

User56781234 · 25/05/2020 11:13

I’m not posting this to be controversial.

I don't believe you.

Have my first Biscuit

Cutekittenlyingthere · 25/05/2020 11:14

How much are they paying you OP for your ONLY post?

ITonyah · 25/05/2020 11:14

MitziK ha ha good point!

Alsohuman · 25/05/2020 11:14

If it’s not a intended as a joke it certainly ended up as one.

BoingBoingyBoing · 25/05/2020 11:14

"If you were Dominic Cummings, or any other media hate figure, it would be impossible for you to use these networks because someone would have sold the story. Being rich does not buy round-the-clock childcare in a pandemic, or push you into the supermarket priority-delivery category."

Fucking bullshit.

Even if it were true, do amazon and tesco not deliver in London?

Darcy2 · 25/05/2020 11:15

I get the reasoning behind the excuse - if both of them were to be too incapacitated to care for their 4 year old (autistic I believe?) son, then having a backup family member available is a good idea. However, their plan was flawed, at the detriment of the public and his elderly parents. The gov keep telling us that 80% will suffer with only mild symptoms - so statistically one of them was very likely to be able to care for their child. Secondly, did they actually really drive from one end of the country to the other without stopping for petrol, food or a toilet break? Really?! And then potentially putting service station staff at risk? And what about if they had broken down, or had an accident? They would have put emergency responders or vehicle recovery staff at risk! And lastly, they knowingly carried the virus from the epicentre of the country to an area with less cases. What if they had been as seriously ill as they anticipated?! They would have needed medical assistance, putting more strain on a NE hospital. Lastly, why the hell would you want to expose your child, a potential carrier, to your elderly relatives?! Isn’t that what they’ve been telling us exactly NOT to do?! Hypocrites, the lot of them!

GabsAlot · 25/05/2020 11:15

if it was within the rules why did they lie and change their story-if its not a problem why all the secrecy

because its bollocks-he lied then the gove4rnment lied to protect him-why i dont know

ypestis · 25/05/2020 11:15

YABU. It’s hard to understand how anyone cannot comprehend why it is a problem for two people infected with COVID to travel 260 miles to another part of the country (and lets face it they must’ve stopped for petrol en route) when one of those people is involved in imposing rules saying you should not do this to 65 million other people. What happened to stay-at-home, protect-the-nhs, save-lives.

sleepingpup · 25/05/2020 11:17

If you were Dominic Cummings, or any other media hate figure, it would be impossible for you to use these networks because someone would have sold the story. Being rich does not buy round-the-clock childcare in a pandemic, or push you into the supermarket priority-delivery category.

oh give over. Chief advisor to the gov would NOT " struggle" for food or any necessary help. GET. REAL.

And yes WEALTH would help massively.

Tanith · 25/05/2020 11:18

They accused Durham police of lying. Have they apologised?

wrinklin · 25/05/2020 11:18

@BoingBoingyBoing "Even if it were true, do amazon and tesco not deliver in London?"

No, not at the moment, unless you're on their priority list, which is swamped

sleepingpup · 25/05/2020 11:20

At the first sign of having to look after his own kid, he thought 'fuck that' and dragged them across the country so his Mum/Sister/anybody could do it for him instead. Then promptly took himself off to bed so his wife crawled out to do all the heavy lifting because she didn't want to kill off his parents.

LOVE IT!
so basic.

foxychox · 25/05/2020 11:22

I'm a conservative voter and can see that in the past he has got things done that others were not able to but his lack of consideration and the breathtakingly arrogant way in which he has dealt with this has absolutely incensed me. How dare he behave like that when others have given up so much to abide by the rules? Boris needs to get shot of DC to save himself.....

Happyfuture · 25/05/2020 11:22

Vile human being. Hes the lowest of the low. The tories should hang their heads in shame, but they wont. And as for Bozo standing by him, it shows the kind of hold Cummings has over the PM, I bet hes got a tight grip on a ton of the Tory MP's skeletons from their closets!

Strangerthantruth · 25/05/2020 11:23

What is fascinating watching this is how people don't realise that the sheepdog is not employed to go through the gate with the sheep, but to get them through it.

ChocolatelyAsFuck · 25/05/2020 11:24

The super elite aren’t queuing for Tesco time slots.

If Cummings didn’t bother to cover up actual massive rule breaking, why would he feel obligated to turn down help (which isn’t negative and doesn’t break any rule) for fear of the press finding out?

“Local community rallies to brave hero Cummings, still working despite being ill and self-isolating in London home” would be positive coverage, not negative.