If you were annoyed at Dominic Cummings before

[NoMoreReluctantCustodians]

How has his performance in the rose garden affected your opinion?

YANBU it's made things worse
YABU its cleared things up for me

What happened to the other visits the Mirror and Guardian claimed went on? Any evidence of them?

Presumably the witnesses were less thorough than the teacher who took the time to check a number plate to confirm his suspicions.

What is the advice given on Mumsnet about men cheating and lying? They only ever admit to, and spin stories about, things they have unequivocally been caught out on. If the papers bring out a sufficiently credible witness, his story will change again. Like the rest of his commentary, it won’t be credible, but the credulous will believe it nonetheless.

Stephen Reicher @ReicherStephen

As one of those involved in SPI-B, the Government advisory group on behavioural science, I can say that in a few short minutes tonight, Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control COVID-19.

Be open and honest, we said. Trashed. Respect the public, we said. Trashed. Ensure equity, so everyone is treated the same, we said. Trashed. Be consistent we said. Trashed. Make clear 'we are all in it together'. Trashed.

It is very hard to provide scientific advice to a government which doesn't want to listen to science. I hope, however, that the public will read our papers (publicly available at gov.uk/government/gro…) and continue to make up for this bad government with their own good sense.

One of the main reasons we voted to leave the EU was that we no longer wanted unelected bureaucrats governing over us,

And is giving bloody press conferences, and being allowed to completely derail the country's management of a once a century unprecedented international disaster. Stuff Cummings; this is Johnson doing absolutely spectacular A star plus failure of leadership. He could not have ballsed this situation up more thoroughly.

Thank goodness the majority of ordinary people of this country have more basic common sense, resilience and responsibility than government leaders appear to be capable of. If we all behaved like them, the death toll and economic damage would have been far worse than it is.

I understand what he did. I'm not an idiot or a tool thanks

Beg to differ tbh

That's fine. I'm always pleased when
You differ, it means I've not turned into a thick twat*🤷🏻‍♀️

If you were concerned about your eye sight would you bundle your wife and child in the car and drive 30 miles?

If my husband said 'you'd haven't been well, are you sure you're up for the long drive home tomorrow? Shall we go for a short drive today to see how you feel?' Yes, I'd agree to do that.

Totally coincidentally to a local beauty spot on your wife’s birthday?

First I've heard it was his wife's birthday they didn't drive to a 'beauty spot' they stopped outside of the town and not at a bloody castle. Just at the side of the road.

Or would you a) let your wife drive b) stay put for a while until you could be sure you were in a fit state?

No idea why she didn't drive, plenty on MNers wouldn't drive that route.

He was quite key to keeping the show on the road while BJ was off sick. He felt he needed to be in No10. I can understand that.

Answers on a postcard! Oh how original

I just can’t believe how willing people are to be taken for fools

I'm not a fool. I'm just not so ridiculously childish that I can't see another persons POV

He regrets not having done the interview sooner and I agree with him that that was a mistake. Trying to close the (rule breaking) Press down was a mistake. They hate him and they were never going to go away

Funny though how none of them were social distancing while door stepping him, but that's ok...??

the thing that actually terrifies me and yes i did say terrifies me,is that this is the man that clearly makes all the decision for boris and through boris.and so what horrible,manipulative,scum of the earth things is he going to do next that might effect us all.hes a sinsister little prick and i dont like thinking of him being in charge of us.in charge of our vulnerable in charge of our health and money and NO!

I was upset when I first read about this and thought that yesterday DC might have the integrity to apologise and take responsibility. Instead we got an incredibly detailed version of events but yet, whilst he could remember all of that, he couldn't remember his conversation with Boris. There were so many holes in this story and simply accepting it because you feel like there's nothing we can do is what's wrong with this country. Write to your MP, write to number 10, vote for change. Don't simply ignore it.

DC's story made a mockery of everyone; parents who have suffered with the virus and had to look after their children, single parents with no options, grandparents desperate to be with their families, those who have lost loved ones due to this horrendous situation just to name a few. When he said about his 60 mile round trip to test his eyesight and then again when he drove to the hospital when he was ill "because there were no taxis in Durham" I thought back to Harry Dunn and his poor family. Taking to the roads when you are not in a safe state to drive is wholly unacceptable. He could have caused an accident if he was as ill as he said he was.

Why people are willing to close their eyes and ears to this is unbelievable. Why should he get away with things? Why can he flout the rules? Why don't people care about our country and about the NHS?

This is an absolute disgrace and I can't believe people are making excuses for this disgusting excuse of an individual.

If it was an error, why not apologise? He doesn't think he made an error; he just couldn't give a shit what the country thinks, hence refusing to resign.

What was it Boris said. Not like he was meeting a lover or something.

Absolutely hideous. Scales are falling though. Scottish MP (2nd in charge) has just resigned over it.

'if you were concerned about your eye sight would you bundle your wife and child in the car and drive 30 miles?'

'If my husband said 'you'd haven't been well, are you sure you're up for the long drive home tomorrow? Shall we go for a short drive today to see how you feel?' Yes, I'd agree to do that.:

Exactly. All the sneering 'go for a drive for a eye test!' comments just prove how desperate people are to twist it all.

Watching This Morning now and crazy Alistair Campbell of the sexed up dossier is on sticking the boot in. Don't these people realise that they are actually helping Cummings with their disproportionate froth?

I'm not a fool.

You’ve been openly and blatantly lied to and you think that’s ok. I’ll draw my own conclusions on that

You’re the only person I’ve seen ‘buying’ the Castle Barnard story btw. Even his ardent supporters are quietly admitting it’s horseshit.

Let me ask you a different question. Do you regularly get in the car and go for a short drive when worried about your eyesight and needing to ‘test’ it?

Also couldn't get a teenage niece (or two) to London even though public transport is running and he culd afford to pay for a cab.
I don't know why people are so keen to suggest this. I wouldn't send my teenage daughter in a possibly infected cab to a house that is almost certainly infected.

Junior minister Douglas Ross has resigned over Dominic Cummings' trip to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Ross, Under Secretary of State for Scotland, said the senior aide's view of the government guidance was "not shared by the vast majority of people".

Mr Cummings has defended driving driving 260 miles in March from his home to County Durham.

He said he acted reasonably and legally in going to stay on his parents' farm.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr Ross, MP for Moray, said: "While the intentions may have been well meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked."

"I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government.

"I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right."

Sleepingpup

Good for you, you're in the minority. Take a look at the streets, parks, supermarkets etc they're much more busy than they were weeks ago, reflecting ppl's change in attitude.

We're not talking about fucking "shopping"
I think the number of people reverting back to weekly shops when they could actually get by visiting the supermarket every 2-3 weeks will have a bigger impact on the current situation than 1 politician driving a long distance to see family.

He's just some SPAD Well for someone who's 'just' some spad, he's certainly pulling Boris's strings for sure. Would any other spad be given the opportunity to address the nation like he was the fucking Queen?

Unfortunately the British electorate handed the government the power to remodel the country with its vote for Brexit coupled with a massive Tory majority at the last election. They are about to bring sweeping changes to Britain - no way would they let a trifling bit of lawbreaking by their CEO interfere with what he has planned. I dread to think what Britain will look like four years from now.

It was excruciating and has certainly made things worse.
92% of posters on this thread seem to agree, which is unusual for MN

If he had said: 'I did what I did but I can see why it was not correct and I regret it' he might have improved things.
Actually, lots of people with similar issues chose to behave responsibly and are very annoyed. He has misread the mood.
It was clear that he believes himself to be indispensable.
Plus BJ then announces policy changes probably brought forward to take the heat off DC.
I have written to my Conservative MP to express how I feel.

'If my husband said 'you'd haven't been well, are you sure you're up for the long drive home tomorrow? Shall we go for a short drive today to see how you feel?' Yes, I'd agree to do that.:
A 'short' drive? 30 miles each way? And if you'd had 'weird' vision you'd be happy to have your kid and partner in the car too?
The guy had land belonging to his parents at his disposal. If he really needed a short drive to see how he felt, why didn't he just take a turn around there?

“I don't know why people are so keen to suggest this. I wouldn't send my teenage daughter in a possibly infected cab to a house that is almost certainly infected.”

Well she’d be pretty ineffective childcare no matter where she was doing it if she wasn’t going to come into contact with the infected household...

why did his wife go in the ambulance when still showing symptoms of C-19 and presumably putting the paramedics at risk?

Because at the time we were being told the symptoms were 'Cough & Fever'. If you don't have those you don't have CV. She didn't, she was 'unwell' throwing up & feeling dreadful. At that time they would not have stopped her going to hospital with her DS.

In that situation, where you were unwell but not showing symptoms of CV would you have let your 4 yo go off to hospital on their own?

One of the main reasons we voted to leave the EU was that we no longer wanted unelected bureaucrats governing over us,

Exactly. We didn't elect "Boris", we elected Alexander (Al) Johnson, who takes his orders from a man we know virtually nothing about beyond his hatred for the EU and his interest in eugenics. Long live democracy.

I bet sturgeon is doing a little dance as it's taken the heat off her Nike conference cover up and the fact Scotland have the highest death rate in care homes. Phew!

It's not political though, oh no.

I wouldn't send my teenage daughter in a possibly infected cab to a house that is almost certainly infected.
He would though presumably have been happy to have his teenage niece come into the part of the property he and his wife and kid were staying in, which was also almost certainly infected. He said himself he thought she and the other young woman were his best childcare option as they were in one of the least likely groups to get it, or get it badly.

I actually didn't really know ,ugh about him before Friday.

I knew of him. Knew his reputation as being a decisive character. Very clever. A masterminder and quite the manipulator. I didn't realise the last 2 were necessarily a negative trait of his but knew that's what made him marmite.

I wasn't pretty negative towards him when I heard the story. I thought he should apologise. When he didn't i felt he should resign. Thought it even more after Bozos pathetic he was following the guidelines speech.

Now I think he's a prize twunt.

He's basically taken the view the British public are stupid and idiots. Probably concluded this because we followed the guidelines and the rules. Thought we'd all blindly follow his stupid story.

But you'd have to be his biggest fan to think it is an exceptional circumstance having to drive your wife and child in a car to test if your eyes are working well enough to drive.

And a fucking arrogant cunt to put the lives of the people you advise the Pm to lead and protect at risk by making that drive to check its safety.

He needs to go.

And I actually am starting to lean towards Bozo needing to go too.

The Queen addresses the nation, the PM addresses the nation and Ministers of State address the nation.

Why are we putting up with this non entity, for over an hour lying blatantly to our faces covering up and stumbling over his own pathetic reasons for breaching LD.

This country can well do without DC, time to get rid.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

Apparently there's a saying in Whitehall which goes something like "if Daily Mail readers and Guardian readers are both criticising your policy - change your policy". Outrage at this is widespread across political spectrum. A dozen Tory MPs have resigned. What you "bet" Nicola Sturgeon might be doing is irrelevant.