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?

The media furore now is because he’s defending his decision. If he’d quickly admitted his mistake and resigned this wouldn’t be happening

Exactly that. He wouldn’t have even needed to resign. An admission, a statement of regret and an apology would have done it. But no, too arrogant and entitled to do the sensible thing.

I, DP and 1 year old had suspected Covid in March all at more or less the same time. Nearest family 450 miles away.

The thought did flit through my mind ‘what if we get really ill with this and can’t look after DC?’ We have friends here, but it would be a huge ask to ask someone to look after an infected child and very possibly get Covid themselves.

However, driving the length of the country while infected to go to family (even staying separately when we arrived) never, ever crossed my mind because it’s bloody dangerous and you would have the very real potential of infecting someone else. I very much doubt they made it the whole way without stopping for petrol or a toilet break?

I came to the conclusion that we would be very unlucky to both be so incapacitated at the same time that we couldn’t provide basic care for our one child. And if we did have such extreme bad luck and were both carted off to hospital, one of my family would I’m sure travel down in those extreme circumstances. But best for all concerned to wait until the problem actually arose...

"He put other people in danger by choosing to undertake a journey which would necessitate fuel and loo stops, and on which he risked needing help if he broke down or had an accident."
Are you assuming he made stops or do you know? We wouldn't have to refuel for a 264 mile trip unless we had no fuel to start with. Do you know he had to?

If he knew his wife had Covid-19 for definite and knew the risks, why are you assuming they would have had loo stops? Their child may have worn night pants for the journey because of these unprecedented circumstances or could even have slept the whole time, depending on when they left. I frequently travel 210 miles and don't stop for loos. I could go 264 miles.

And yeah I know this will be deleted for troll hunting but the posters shoving their fingers in their ears chanting “WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA”, you could not at least attempt not to be so obvious, because you basically have a giant neon sign reading TORY BOT.

I’ve just seen on the news a crowd of people outside the mans house heckling and shouting at him.

I know he did wrong but ffs, short memories, Caroline Flack was vilified and look what happened there.

It’s disgusting that he is being hounded like that.

No matter what he has done, he should not be hounded.
It should be dealt with appropriately not by angry bloody mobs.

@Wow123 - I agree with you.

The OP hasn't bothered engaging with the thread since "not posting it to be controversial". In my opinion it would be smart to do the same.

vdbfamily do you know he travelled in the evening then?? The point is he shouldn't have travelled AT ALL.

I understand the outrage completely but I don't share it.

When my son was 3 my husband and I had flu at the same time and my mum and her partner came to help us then because we just couldn't look after him.

People say this type of thing but some of us just don’t have people to come and help and you do manage. My sons dad and I have had bouts of flu at the same time and neurovirus and yet managed to look after our (then) young son. He watched a lot of telly and whoever felt slightly more able at that point managed to feed him. If you don’t have family to swoop in and take over it is surprising how you cope.

Do we have the full facts yet? Not sure I’ve read enough about it.

Lots didn’t make sense. Not allowed to drive to a second home unless you are a member of the royal family, presumably. Can’t get tested unless you are Prince Charles.

At the time, mumsnet did seem to grudgingly admit that PC was a different case because he was heir to the throne.

Boris recovered from Covid at Chequers, presumably moving an entourage of staff. Nobody seemed to mind.

If it wasn’t for the truth twisting, would people mind if a senior government adviser with an autistic child and symptomatic wife drove for childcare? I work with autistic people, and I wonder whether his child isn’t amenable to being dropped off with anyone but grandparents.

It would help if he explained better.

The genius maverick spin doctor who is right at the heart of our government with fingers in every pie.
This is not an impoverished single parent with very few options making a mad dash because his only hope was his own parents.
He sees himself as as a separate species who is not subject to the rules that the plebs have to abide by, that is why he felt able to do as he pleased when the rest of us have to follow orders engineered by him.

NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite he didn’t make ONE journey, he made several completely separate journeys. He made at least two trips out of the house that were purely fun/sightseeing (visiting a local castle for his mum’s birthday, and frolicking among the bluebells in a wood).

Please stop pretending he only made one trip because he didn’t, and it’s totally irrelevant whether he stopped to use the loo or not considering the castle and bluebell outings.

Dropping an infected child off with elderly parents just in case you get too ill? Nah, not buying it.

He did break the rules and should resign BUT I do think a lot of the fuss is being fuelled by the fact he is disliked and distrusted anyway. It’s an easy shot at a much desired target.

If you get stopped by police and questioned as to motives for travelling a distance and/or transgression to lockdown .... give your name as Dom Cummings..

Was he frolicking? I must have missed that bit.

As in, sort of running about through the flowers like a rabbit?

"Incidentally the cases of Covid increased in the NE later than London. hmm"
Are you trying to suggest that is down to Dominic Cummings? Hilarious.

He broke the rules blatantly and the government is saying he didn't. They think we're all idiots.

According to MN everyone who breaks the rules parades or swans, activities never usually seen. Now we’ve got frolicking. You could play bingo.

Personally it's not so much that he travelled the length of the country to see his mum or stay in a second home. It's the fact that he did this while infectious with a highly contagious disease that KILLS PEOPLE. He showed completely disregard for the fact he risked spreading it to others, who might die if they caught it. The childcare thing is bollocks, he had loads of support in London.

It was bad before bojo said he hadn’t broken the rules, but now it’s awful, Bad, I was sobbing last night.

You are now thinking why was I crying over a guy I don’t even know?

1. Dude breaks lockdown to visit his parents and takes wife(symptomatic) and kid along because he can’t man up and do some childcare and it’s his mums birthday - yeah he’s a dickhead and spread covid and it’s a bit shit, but we knew he was a bastard anyway and lots of people have done this.

1. If like with Neil furgeson and the Scottish cmo If it was acknowledgeD that he was a bit of a idiot and he resigned I’m sure it would have all blown over and he’d be back working in government in a few months, maybe he didn’t even need to resign, perhaps a public reprimand and a reminder about the rules with a caveat of DC is an idiot but we need him right now so he’s had a warning etc etc etc....

3.but for the PM to go on TV and tell us that we all have lockdown wrong and that DC is right and we should all be following our instincts and putting our kids first so that we’re good parents. Now I’m incandescent - I’m a junior GP - I have personally told patients relatives that they can’t travel to see their dying family members, that parents cannot both accompany their sick kid to hospital, that people at breaking point with caring responsiblites for elderly or SN kids cannot have help in their homes. I have seen these people suffering and I have caused that suffering as an agent of the state (in this instance), I did this, they did this in the futile hope that doing so would save lives. The insult of the PM standing up and saying we were wrong, we shouldn’t have made these sacrifices, we should have done what our instinct said was right is too much to bear.

1. It’s an attempt to gaslight the population- “granny died alone, that’s your fault for not following your instinct, we never said you couldn’t go” “your kidS came to harm or were neglected while you tried to parent them without childcare when you had covid - it’s your fault your a bad parent, good parents got childcare from elderly relatives” etc. It makes me sick.

You can’t be part of the team who write the guidelines and then not follow them! If he had said it was an error of judgment and he was sorry then that might have been the end of it, he isn’t an MP after all. He isn’t sorry though. Ministers and the PM are saying he did nothing wrong. They are twisting the rules to suit and treating the British public like idiots. Lots of Tory voters are equally unhappy. This is not about party politics. You don’t get to tell everyone to stay at home and then drive 250 miles to your second home to be near your elderly parents when you have a deadly virus. It wasn’t even allowed if you were fine!

So, NailsNeedDoing, the role of the Fourth Estate (journalism, press) is to keep the truth from the Third Estate (us common oiks who just vote, work and pay taxes) for the benefit of the Second Estate (our rulers and betters) so they can get on with living their lives around the rules they make for us and we won't fuss because we don't know?

Wow. No more democracy for us, then. Let's just put Chairman Boris (or whoever) in post and leave him there permanently. Look how much troublesome thinking and irksome voting we'd be saved, not to mention having to have a parliament. Have you seen what that costs?!

If you really want to live under that kind of system, can I recommend the People's Republic of China or perhaps North Korea? You'd be thrilled with the press there. 🙄