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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:
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6
JudyCoolibar · 25/05/2020 14:12

Yes it is hysterical, pitch fork waving disturbing behaviour.

Of course it isn't. We can see that for ourselves, so it's utterly pointless trying to change the facts about responses on here to suit your agenda.

And please don't use sexist abuse on here.

GetOffYourHighHorse · 25/05/2020 14:12

'He was on SAGE, he was controlling the government response he was the architect of lockdown rules.'

Oh good grief, is that your Piers?!

He sat in on sage meetings to you know, inform government. I doubt he was 'controlling government' but you illustrate exactly the real reason why people want his scalp.

Do you not understand the exeptions to rules, that the welfare of a DC is one of them?

Do people approve of the media scrum on his doorstep and neighbours shouting insults at him and his family?!!

Vanhi · 25/05/2020 14:14

He is one of the most senior, important people in politics whether you like it or not. With his wife already ill how is he expected to carry on working continue to support the PM if he has a 4 year old (possibly with ASD) to look after. Not exactly the same set of circumstances as most parents who are having to juggle work and childcare. I don't want the most senior advisors to the pm to be distracted by having to do dinner and bathtime for their kid during a pandemic. Anyone who doesn't understand this doesn't have a senior enough job so doesn't know what it's like to be under that much pressure.

Oh, nice touch. 'If you don't agree, it's because you're not important enough yourself'. It's nice and might be effective, but possibly not the best strategy if you're trying to defend someone who's being accused of arrogance and self-importance.

No-one should be so important to a government that that government cannot get by without them. People get ill, too ill to work. People need time off (even really important people with really high pressure jobs). The government needs to have plans in place for when a senior adviser is not available, whether they're off on holiday or having to look after a child whilst other child care isn't available.

JudyCoolibar · 25/05/2020 14:15

For the record, I've never voted Tory in my life and voted against Brexit.

Extraordinary how so many of Cummings' defenders are coming up with this line. Tory Central Office haven't worked out that the very fact that it gets repeated so much is making it less credible every time.

Peregrina · 25/05/2020 14:15

Why is the welfare of his child more important than the welfare of thousands of other children? Why weren't those parents informed that they could travel half the length of the country if it was for their child's sake?

Hingeandbracket · 25/05/2020 14:16

What do those people who shout "bots" in every thread think a bot actually is?

JudyCoolibar · 25/05/2020 14:18

Do you not understand the exeptions to rules, that the welfare of a DC is one of them?

No, you don't understand the rules, @GetOffYourHighHorse. Nowhere does it say that the welfare of your DC entitles you to put them in danger by making them sit in a car for several hours with your infectious wife, or that it entitles you to put other people in danger. What the rules say is that you can travel to give care, not to get care.

Pumperthepumper · 25/05/2020 14:18

Do you not understand the exeptions to rules, that the welfare of a DC is one of them?

So the parents who couldn’t be with their dying children or go to their funerals are what? Stupid for not understanding this exception? Or is it more likely that the exception didn’t exist and doesn’t exist, except for Dominic Cummings?

Barbie222 · 25/05/2020 14:20

OP, people are angry because the story is riddled with lies, and people feel they are being taken for fools, and the PM (who has a LOT of previous with serious lying) is expecting us all to swallow the lies like we're thick.

It is important because we are literally trusting these people to say it is ok for us to go back to work, send our children back to school and we won't get sick or make loved ones sick. And they are liars who will say what it takes to get their own way.

The back peddling and history rewriting has already begun in terms of rewriting the "five tests". Are they still what they were?

MarshaBradyo · 25/05/2020 14:21

What the rules say is that you can travel to give care, not to get care
Well put. I did wonder what it said.

I’m interested in the bot question too. I thought a bot was an automated post. But how are people meaning it

GetOffYourHighHorse · 25/05/2020 14:22

'Why is the welfare of his child more important than the welfare of thousands of other children? Why weren't those parents informed that they could travel half the length of the country if it was for their child's sake?'

Do you really think the only guidance has been stay at home? You dont think there's masses of documents with advice and specific guidance? If both parents have been exposed to the virus, if they have an allegedly autistic son who needs specific care then I would expect they would seek the most appropriate place for him to be.

I wonder how people get themselves up and dressed in a morning without being told to.

I do think he should go, it's all too much of a mess but I think the witch hunt has been totally disproportionate.

SharonasCorona · 25/05/2020 14:22

Yes, the fact that 13yo Ismail Abdulwahab died alone and his parents weren’t allowed at the funeral is heartbreaking and touched the nation. Yet we’re supposed to grant DC exceptional circumstances.

Strangerthantruth · 25/05/2020 14:22

*So the parents who couldn’t be with their dying children or go to their funerals are what?

Not a comparator here.

chomalungma · 25/05/2020 14:23

\Print "I am not a bot"
\ln

Barbie222 · 25/05/2020 14:23

@Vanhi well said.

It turned out we all managed without Boris when he was in ICU, and without Hancock when he was ill too. What a ridiculous attitude to assume that all people in positions of leadership can not possible multitask and juggle around family needs. Have you not seen how Jacinda Ardern gets along?

SharonasCorona · 25/05/2020 14:24

@Strangerthantruth it is given DC’s mum has said yesterday that Cummings’ decision was informed by his uncle dying.

Strangerthantruth · 25/05/2020 14:24

Yes, the fact that 13yo Ismail Abdulwahab died alone and his parents weren’t allowed at the funeral is heartbreaking and touched the nation.

Why is it the case that people who stayed away from high risk situations are now being compared with a low risk car journey?

chomalungma · 25/05/2020 14:24

Honesty would have been the best policy here.
They could have killed this story dead when it came out. Or even before it came out.

Unless they are playing a game as well.

C8H10N4O2 · 25/05/2020 14:24

So if you're going to demand Cummings is sacked then at least be consistent and demand Keir Starmer sacks the above MPs as well

You omitted Robert Jenrick an actual minister who like Kinnock drove across the country to deliver food to his parents. Both were stupid, both apologised, Jenrick kept his job in Johnson's government. Incidentally Starmer wasn't leader when Kinnock took his idiotic jaunt across country.

Ali and Jones are opposition back benchers who should have known better and both apologised for attending to constituents. Not sure what more you think should be done with them as MPs are employed by their constituents (who can recall them, the party leader can't).

Vaughn Gething - not sure what the truth of that one is. He says they were walking in the park, his 5 yr old was hungry, they bought chips for the child. A subject which has been a recurring thread here where the majority have said feeding a child whilst out isn't such an issue. Even the right wing press could only find pictures of his family walking in the park, not sitting with a picnic laid out.

I'd agree that as a Health minister in the Welsh Government he needs to be particularly vigilant about leading by example and appearances. That would be an issue for Mark Drakeford, Welsh First Minister with respect to his current role and for his constituents in terms of his job as a member of the Welsh assembly.

ShinyS1 · 25/05/2020 14:24

"ShinyS1
I also work with someone who continued to look after their grandkids, despite their DD and SIL in risky public facing jobs.
Are they a senior adviser to the PM and did they help set the rules? I'm guessing not."

I don't care that the person I worked with looking after their grand kids as long as they socially distanced themselves from me.

I don't care that DC is a senior advisor that helped set the rules, and then transgressed them for a valid reason, like many others.

I care that society conducts online trials without considering nuance. I care that society takes great satisfaction in destroying people they don't like. I find it deeply unpleasant, because it is.

JudyCoolibar · 25/05/2020 14:25

He is one of the most senior, important people in politics whether you like it or not. With his wife already ill how is he expected to carry on working continue to support the PM if he has a 4 year old (possibly with ASD) to look after.

If that's his situation, common sense says that at all times - not just during the coronavirus crisis - you have a Plan B in place that does not entail you driving for 260 miles.

I don't want the most senior advisors to the pm to be distracted by having to do dinner and bathtime for their kid during a pandemic.

Is it an better that he was distracted for several hours by packing up the care and driving up to Durham?

And in this case he was also distracted by virtue of being ill himself, and the country coped.

MarshaBradyo · 25/05/2020 14:25

I do think he should go, it's all too much of a mess but I think the witch hunt has been totally disproportionate.

I’m on the flip side. I don’t think he should go but they’ve handled it badly which has made people angry. They should be able to turn it around with his statement and move on.

GetOffYourHighHorse · 25/05/2020 14:25

'Yes, the fact that 13yo Ismail Abdulwahab died alone and his parents weren’t allowed at the funeral is heartbreaking and touched the nation. Yet we’re supposed to grant DC exceptional circumstances.'

That needs investigating. I'm sure mistakes must've been made. His funeral was heartbreaking what were the funeral directors doing wearing full haz mat gear? The risk was nil surely.

SharonasCorona · 25/05/2020 14:25

Why is it the case that people who stayed away from high risk situations are now being compared with a low risk car journey?

Because Ismail’s family weren’t given a choice. And Cummings family are now claim his decision was informed by his uncle dying.

Ylvamoon · 25/05/2020 14:26

It's a smoke screen.... get everyone outraged about the lies and law breaking and get quietly on with re- opening the country skipping and dropping a few major facts as irrelevant on the way.