Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think Dominic Cummings should go/thread 4

999 replies

SophieB100 · 27/05/2020 14:10

New thread to discuss the cummings and goings of the PM's chief adviser.

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3919707-to-think-Dominic-Cummings-should-go-thread-3

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
PigletJohn · 29/05/2020 16:05

The Statement that Cummings read out (it was written for him by a lawyer, after the manner of a stement by an accused in a criminal trial) contained a number of allegly precise dates, one of which he was confident enough to challenge the audience to cjeck on his phone record. He did not offer supporting evidence for the others. Not even to support the vagueness around his contact with his boss.

The statement has been examined by another experienced lawyer, who identified the pattern, the presence of three excuses to explain away suspicions, in case the first one or two should fail, and the fortunate (?) fact that the dates on which Cummings claimed bis symptoms began and ended precisely matched the 14-days on which he should have been self-isolating.

The statement does not mention that it was his country home that he travelled to, and his vagueness about the occasions when he knew he might have been observed by witnesses allows them to fit whichever dates and times were reported.

The excuse for the family outing to Barnard Castle on his wife's birthday, is called "preposterous."

Worth watching the vid. by David Allen Green on this FT page

www.ft.com/content/df904fd8-9f54-11ea-b65d-489c67b0d85d

It would be a mistake to accept the statement read out by Cummings as if it was the truth.

sleepingpup · 29/05/2020 16:14

Totally @PigletJohn .

The cat ate my Homework by D Cummings

merrymouse · 29/05/2020 16:19

Even if his car made it all the way down without stopping to fill up, he must surely have then needed to fill up before the Eyesight Testing Trip which was another 60 miles?

Also the trip to the hospital.

CricketCrocket · 29/05/2020 16:19

I wonder why Boris won’t let the Cabinet Secretary investigate and look at the evidence that Boris has seen?

Must be because it’s all above board, I’m sure he wouldn’t be hiding anything.

SabrinaThwaite · 29/05/2020 16:23

@Roussette

Course he went to a petrol station. He was very vague when questioned and said he couldn't remember.
Will depend which model of Disco Sport he has, but a 67 litre tank at 46 mpg (at best taken from U.K. spec - you usually don’t get that in reality) gives a range of 676 miles.

So Islington to Durham to Islington is around 520 miles, plus 60 mile round trip to Barney, plus a few miles to the hospital and back, so possible on a single tank if you start full.

merrymouse · 29/05/2020 16:26

And I'm not enjoying watching them lift lockdown restrictions when we are still at alert level 4 which meant we were meant to continue with the current restrictions.

Another example of bad management.

They made a big deal about carefully lifting restrictions, but now appear to have abandoned their criteria for lifting restrictions.

It doesn't matter how much they want to jump start the economy, the people, not the government choose when that happens, and that depends on trust.

FliesandPies · 29/05/2020 16:27

Can you imagine MPs doing menial jobs. Oh that's right you would say they already are. Do you know what menial means? No one would say an MP is doing a 'menial' job.

Think you must be confusing 'menial' with 'crap'. For example 'Boris Johnson is making a crap job of his high-level role as Prime Minister'

Roussette · 29/05/2020 16:27

If I could get MPG what my car and every other car I've owned, said in the spec... I'd be a happy bunny.

There is no way he did all that driving, supposedly with his child in the car on way home, on a near empty tank on a motorway!

merrymouse · 29/05/2020 16:35

Will depend which model of Disco Sport he has, but a 67 litre tank at 46 mpg (at best taken from U.K. spec - you usually don’t get that in reality) gives a range of 676 miles.

But that makes his story that he can't remember getting petrol even more unbelievable. I have bought petrol once since this started, and I remember all the details - the worry about co-ordinating hand washing with using the pump, wondering what the rules would be in a different shop.

I don't really care if he got petrol on the way back, but I think his vagueness implies that he didn't, and he filled up during the time that he should have been quarantining. If you accept that the trip to Durham was necessary, that shouldn't be a problem so why not just tell the truth?

sleepingpup · 29/05/2020 16:47

Not remembering about the petrol - was just so dismissive and arrogant I found.

  • when it would have been so easy to check via bank cards etc. But he didn't bother because it's all a bit beneath him really to make the effort. A sort of power thing.

If us ordinary bods were giving an account of ourselves to the nation's press we'd have checked if we'd filled the car up. FGS

The80sweregreat · 29/05/2020 16:51

I think we can safely say that DC filled up with petrol at some stage during the road trip. He was vague because he knew that he did , at one stage, have to fill it up let alone use it for the eye test trip they also did.
Unless petrol receipts are found we will never know for sure but as it was such a big car and a long journey I would say that he would have had to fill up somewhere or a services stop top of some kind. I would be amazed if he didn't.
All of this gets us nowhere as it's obvious that DC is staying in his job.
I still haven't heard from my MP but I've given up on that one too.

Roussette · 29/05/2020 16:54

Not remembering about the petrol - was just so dismissive and arrogant I found
^This
He may as well have said 'fuck off you plebs'

PigletJohn · 29/05/2020 17:00

I (almost) invariably buy petrol, mars bars, fizzy drinks etc on a card. I bet Cummings does too.

If unexpectedly away from work, at the very least I (or someone) phones to say so, and when I hope to be back. If I was a workoholic I would be making calls to deputy/ies so that the world didn't come to a halt without me.

I wouldn't disappear without saying where I was, or people might start looking for me. Even more so if I was Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister.

My phone and credit cards would be tracking me.

And I could show them, if they supported my story.

If not, however.....

merrymouse · 29/05/2020 17:03

As long as the government is forcing people to quarantine, people will be talking about DC.

This is going to get more, not less difficult, because there is no limit to the number of quarantines an individual might need to take, statutory sick pay is not going to pay the bills, and it will be much more difficult to ask people to take quarantine seriously as the rest of the world seems to return to normal.

PigletJohn · 29/05/2020 17:04

I (almost) invariably buy petrol, mars bars, fizzy drinks etc on a card. I bet Cummings does too.

If unexpectedly away from work, at the very least I (or someone) phones to say so, and when I hope to be back. If I was a workoholic I would be making calls to deputy/ies so that the world didn't come to a halt without me.

I wouldn't disappear without saying where I was, or people might start looking for me. Even more so if I was Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister.

My phone and credit cards would be tracking me.

The card would show not only where and when I filled up, but also, importantly, how much I spent, which is a proxy for the fuel, and this the distance I had travelled. Could I have any reason for wanting to conceal it?

And I could show them, if they supported my story.

If not, however.....

The80sweregreat · 29/05/2020 17:06

Considering he remembered many other details quite clearly the petrol one was very vague because he knew where he had stopped and what happened.
Going by the web the story seems to have dropped out of the daily mail website a bit , but a few others are still running with it.
All these new statements about mixing and bbqs and schools is now being pushed so people can forget all about DC etc.
It's all clever stuff but I won't forget.

sleepingpup · 29/05/2020 17:10

*The card would show not only where and when I filled up, but also, importantly, how much I spent, which is a proxy for the fuel, and this the distance I had travelled. Could I have any reason for wanting to conceal it?

And I could show them, if they supported my story.*

Too true.

The80sweregreat · 29/05/2020 17:16

If he was being investigated properly I'm sure the police would know all this already. As they are not doing this we will just have to guess!

LockdownLucie · 29/05/2020 17:25

Looks like all the questions have been carefully selected tonight to avoid anyone mentioning DC.

triedtothinkofanewname · 29/05/2020 17:37

But Sabrina how do you start that journey full unless you fill up in London before you leave......... How was that done, where, etc.

workercovid · 29/05/2020 17:39

Yes

merrymouse · 29/05/2020 18:17

All these new statements about mixing and bbqs and schools is now being pushed so people can forget all about DC etc.

How soon before they are replaced by stories about people suddenly having to quarantine for 14 days?

YouTheCat · 29/05/2020 18:22

But it isn't safe to send kids to school yet.

The80sweregreat · 29/05/2020 18:33

Merrymouse, maybe. Once the tracing tracking gets up and running , I suppose that will be the next thing to take the headlines.

PigletJohn · 29/05/2020 18:40

"three excuses to explain away suspicions, in case the first one or two should fail, "

I am reminded of the story of the barrister's son, up before the headmaster for breaking a window with his football.

"In the first place, the schoolroom does not have a window.

In the second place, it is not broken.
In the third place, it was not a football
And in the fourth place, it was not me."

v