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

“I don't think an apology would have been enough without a resignation and Boris Johnson doesn't want him to resign.”

It may or may not have been, we’ll never know now.

But I suspect they’d not have got the same reaction if they’d at least tried, yep he admits it was in hindsight a mistake, not ok, but he’s apologising, we understand why he mishandled it and we need him working now.

I mean yes, some people would have still been calling for a resignation, but nowhere near as many.

Clavinova- Are you suggesting my circumstances have been better than Mrs Cummings or am I misinterpreting your comment? It was actually you who brought her up in this discussion to try and garner sympathy for DC.

Admittedly some of my replies are terse when I see repeated denials that Dominic Cummings actions were at odds with Government policy and the public are wrong to call him out over it.

It was my Dad who taught me what whitewash means and this sorry saga is exactly that. The detrimental Cummings effect on adherence to public health instructions for the rest of this pandemic is part of his legacy now whether you like it or not.

But I suspect they’d not have got the same reaction if they’d at least tried

I agree. A sincere apology (or sincere sounding at least), instead of making people more angry and frustrated by presenting him as a totally innocent victim of circumstance.

I've never had any time for Cummings and I think he should have resigned or been sacked for breaking the lockdown rules. That being said, I've been on various threads on Mumsnet where it's been presented as fact that his parents held a party celebrating his mum's 71st birthday, where they had Abba playing in the garden - on the day when her DB (Cummings's uncle) died of COVID-19. That clearly wasn't true at all.

However, it's clear why a lot of people won't have sympathy about that. Because Dominique Cummings was able to be with his family when his uncle passed away. So many other people respected the lockdown rules and missed out on the opportunity to be with family when loved ones died of COVID-19, and many people died alone in hospital and in care homes. It was a blatant breaking of the lockdown rules that he himself played a part in writing.

Hence why the lack of even an apology has angered so many people. I think that if he had apologised in the statement and acknowledged the upset his actions had caused, then the response would have been very different.

Did you see the media? They were like a pack of wild dogs, and you can bet that any apology would have been taken as an admission of guilt and they’d have got after him twice as hard. This is what you get when the job of a ‘journalist’ is to stoke outrage and chase scalps.

It wasnt just Cummings actions alone.

It was the gaslighting by ministers afterwards (how can you trust a Government that behaves like an abusive partner) and the retrospective law change they have slid under the radar today.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-laws-dominic-cummings-lockdown-childcare-relatives-a9542381.html

Mumratheevergiving - I am saying that your earlier post had implied that you had not been able to see your mother at all since your father's death - which is why I thought your description of Mrs Cummings being 'privileged' was a little unfair.

Are you suggesting my circumstances have been better than Mrs Cummings.

Not better, no, your mother is still grieving.

It was actually you who brought her up in this discussion to try and garner sympathy for DC.

Not for Dominic Cummings - sympathy for his mother.

Does your mother have any health issues that prevent you from meeting her (in the open air) - could she drive part of the way?

Clavinova - she doesn’t drive and 400 miles return journey in a day trip isn’t possible without an overnight stay (please don’t say it is!)
The point is not about my personal circumstances (eg my new niece I haven’t met) it’s that my family is not exceptional. Everyone in the UK has been asked to follow the instructions. There’s 40,000 families grieving for family members lost through Covid alone, those facing redundancy, mental health issues and other challenges too numerous to list. It’s a national effort and we need to know, as Professor Van Dam reiterated, that the rules apply to all. It doesn’t go down to well when we find out that actually they don’t.

Did you see the media?

Mostly the tabloids, no doubt. 90% of whom support the Tories, funnily enough.

They also treat the families of murder victims like this. Do you remember Levison?

Leveson, sorry.

Johnson’s closing remarks at the briefing today‘ We will beat this disease if everyone works on it together’ [sic] Cummings and Johnson may want to pick up a copy of Private Eye Test for posterity

I saw the media on Bank Holiday Monday when it was perfectly obvious the story wasn’t going away. If Cummings had held his hands up, admitted he’d made the wrong call and apologised when the story broke, that press conference wouldn’t have been necessary. The media frenzy was entirely of his own making.

I see the words "rules" and "prohibited" are back after the post Cummings use of the word "guidelines" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess they will switch back to "guidelines" when the next MP or aide is caught having an indoor booze up.

alsohuman The media frenzy was entirely of his own making.

Yes, this. Other MP's and Government advisors have been caught breaking the rules but eventually stood down and when you do that, the media circus stops. The way that the DC situation was handled hasn't brought credit to anyone involved!

No, other MPs haven’t stood down. Stephen kinnock, Tahir Ali, Rosie duffield.

Not from being an MP but Rosie Duffield is no longer a whip.

Creamcar - and it has been repeatedly pointed out 1) none of them were directly involved in designing the ‘stay at home’ instructions 2) we get chance to vote them out over their behaviour 3) other aides who were seen not to meet the standards expected by the public i.e. Ferguson and the Scottish medical advisor who’s name I can’t remember both stepped down quickly with the Government agreeing it was the right course of action to maintain public trust.

The MPs put their hands up, owned up and apologised. Cummings isn’t an MP, he’s hired help.

Creamcar - Cummings is not an MP he’s acting PM

Private Eye Magazine
@PrivateEyeNews
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13h
Boris Johnson hosted a baby shower for Carrie Symonds at Chequers just two days before announcing "now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others" - yet more "necessary" travel from Downing Street revealed in the new Private Eye.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/04/doctor-quits-nhs-over-dominic-cummings-refusal-to-resign-dominic-pimenta-second-wave-covid-19

How sad Helena. I know some will probably say that he's foolish for doing that, but he's a man of principle, unlike some. I'm sure that he won't have any problem getting another job. I wish him well.

I watched that Channel 4 show 'Brexit' recently (it's on Netflix) where Cummings was played by Benedict Cumberbatch. I had considered that maybe DC had engineered this whole situation to get his herd immunity plan going, and now I'm convinced of it. Lockdown has naturally collapsed ever since what he did came out, without the government having to be held accountable for getting us out and about again.

Certainly it is his modus operandi to plant that seed in peoples minds. He would also have known on his own rule-breaking there would have been 1) people who would recognise it as rule breaking and not be convinced otherwise 2) people who would listen to whatever the Government fed them about it 3) those undecided who they could use social media to plant the seed of doubt or sympathy in their mind and deflect them with stories of the opposition ‘wrong-doing’. Its amazing that the Conservatives that he is pretty contemptuous of agreed to the whole protective ring (see the last few minutes of the video to hear what he has to say about Tory ministers) m.youtube.com/watch?v=CDbRxH9Kiy4&feature=youtu.be It’s quite clear he’s more savvy than Boris and quite pathetic that the Conservatives are so dependent on someone outside their party who doesn’t share their values.

Anyway he’s going to have to live with everyone knowing that he acted like a total knob, pretty sure he won’t be made very welcome on his future jaunts back to the North East.