to think Dominic Cummings should go/thread 4

[SophieB100]

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

I bet that too.

Alastair Campbell has just picked up the story....

From a Sunday Times piece today...

“Boris has always been clear he doesn’t ever say sorry” and Cummings’ reaction to the Durham story going public - “They can go f* themselves”.

The Planning Permission bit is much trickier though - lots of agricultural exemptions for things like permitted development plus that building conversion might well predate the Cummings family ownership.

What happens then, when an estate changes hands which has a building without planning permission on it? Isn't it something the solicitor should have been on to at the conveyancing stage? I assume they just apply for retrospective planning permission. Not paying council tax, could that be trickier, on a building which is only used as a second home?

And, thinking about it, the cottage could be registered for business purposes and would therefore pay rates rather than Council Tax.

Permitted development allows for conversion of agricultural buildings to residential without the need for PP though.

So not really a gimme, but it keeps the story bubbling along.

If it's registered for business purposes what would the business be, if Cummings owns it and uses it to stay in? Also, if it's business purposes would that need pp even if residential didn't?

What if that agricultural breeze block building hasn’t been fully converted to provide accommodation. If there is no shower and no kitchen facilities I don’t think Council Tax would be payable.

However this makes the situation worse and would mean that DC and family must have shared his parents accommodation. Therefore they did not isolate themselves from aged relatives.

@Roussette

From a Sunday Times piece today...

“Boris has always been clear he doesn’t ever say sorry” and Cummings’ reaction to the Durham story going public - “They can go f* themselves”.

Which bit of The Times is that in Rousette? Not because I doubt you but because I’d like to read the whole piece.

If there is no shower and no kitchen facilities I don’t think Council Tax would be payable

So, he and his wife and child were 2 weeks in a place without running water or cooking facilities? Hardly likely, so it would make it worse, I agree.
I read somewhere it might have been a swimming pool they put a roof on.

Hardly likely, so it would make it worse, I agree

Especially if they were ill as well..and the child had a bug which meant he had to got A&E..

As has been said before....it's not the original story but the cover up.

Well, I’ve finally got a response from my MP. Here it is.

However, having now had the opportunity to consider all aspects of this situation I agree that Mr Cummings made a mistake in taking the course of action that he did and that should be acknowledged. Mistakes are often made worse by what happens next and in this case I believe that Mr Cummings should have recognised the strength of feeling and offered an apology.

I know from reading the hundreds of emails like yours that many people are incredibly angry and upset about this issue. I too am disappointed at what is an unwelcome and unnecessary distraction at a time that we should, as a country, be united in our fight against Coronavirus. At the present time, I should be working with you, with local councils, businesses and schools planning for the easing of lockdown - to ensure we get it right and remain protected. Instead, my team and I have spent many days dealing with the reaction to the conduct of Mr Cummings

It is important that you can raise your concerns with me as your Member of Parliament. However, I believe I have now offered a factual and reasonable response on this matter and do not intend to divert time from the other important issues being raised by constituents to debate this matter in further detail. Prior to this I was already receiving hundreds of emails and letters from constituents every day and moving forward I wish to focus on this important casework.

Mr Cummings is not employed by the Conservative Party or by Conservative MPs, and the future of his employment is therefore a matter for the Prime Minister. Please be assured that I have passed on to the Prime Minister both my own views and the sentiments of the correspondence I have received from constituents

Frankly I’m astonished. It’s not the copy and paste or the defensive doubling down I was expecting. This is clearly being taken pretty seriously.

Alsohuman, it's a good, thoughtful letter.
I note the second to last sentence. I read that as the Tory party trying to distance themselves from Cummings and the damage he has caused. If necessary Johnson will be despatched too.

That's a very good response Alsohuman The only thing I would take issue with is However, I believe I have now offered a factual and reasonable response on this matter and do not intend to divert time from the other important issues being raised by constituents to debate this matter in further detail

Fair enough not to 'debate' further but if a constituent wants them to raise it officially surely that should be done?

I think he’s said enough and am perfectly satisfied with it. As you say, Peregrina, there’s a definite distancing of the Tory party from both Cummings and Johnson. Given the ruthlessness of the party, they won’t hesitate to make that distance unbridgeable and permanent if they think it’s necessary.

That is a great letter @Alsohuman

I am still waiting for my MP to respond.

I am also still waiting.

It did take over a week. And a reminder.

Have you seen the Mail details regarding the supposed witness statements Tim Matthews and Robin Lee's.This story will end up as a film.

Yes - just looked!!

Matthews wasn’t one of the Guardian/Observer/Mirror sources and Lee collected his student daughter, which was permitted.

"A key witness who claimed he saw Dominic Cummings on a second lockdown trip to Durham has now said that he made up the story as a joke."

"Tim Matthews, a keen runner, admitted that he doctored the details on the Strava app, used by joggers and athletes to record routes and times, to make it look as if he had seen Mr Cummings on the afternoon of April 19–five days after the Prime Minister’s aide returned to London."

"The claim that Mr Cummings made a second trip north, which he denied, was reported from an unnamed source in The Observer newspaper last week."

"On Monday, its sister paper, The Guardian gave details of a second witness making the same claim, reporting that: ‘Tim Matthews, a runner, has since come forward to claim he saw Cummings later that day [April 19].’"

"Police officers from Durham Constabulary took a statement from Mr Lees on Bank Holiday Monday after he reported seeing Mr Cummings and his wife strolling by the banks of the River Tees in Barnard Castle on April 12."

"But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that just days before speaking to the police, Mr Lees broke lockdown regulations himself by making a 526-mile round-trip to collect his daughter and bring her back to the family home."

"Measures announced by Boris Johnson on May 11 included an easing of travel restrictions to allow people to drive as far as they wanted. But this was only if they were going to an outdoors location and as long as the social distancing protocol was observed."

"There wasn’t any change in the guidelines for allowing relatives who are not normally resident in the family home to move in."

"Last night 71-year-old Mr Lees, who taught chemistry prior to his retirement, vigorously denied that he had been in breach of any rules. Asked if he had driven to Ascot, he replied: ‘I did, but that was after the regulations changed. My daughter self-isolated in London for seven or eight weeks. I waited until we were told we could drive anywhere in the country."

Also in the same article -
In other developments yesterday:

"Anti-Brexit Labour peer Baroness Armstrong admitted she passed on information to help expose Dominic Cummings’s alleged lockdown breach;"

"Labour MP Rosie Duffield confessed she had broken the rules to meet up with her new married lover;"

"Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who ran against Mr Johnson for the Tory leadership, was accused of plotting against the PM;"

"The Mail on Sunday identified some of the mob who descended on Mr Cummings’s home last week, including a former BBC journalist, a TV producer and a freelance photographer who has worked for The Guardian newspaper;"

"A Left-wing writer who threatened to inflict violence on Michael Gove in front of his children in a hate-filled tweet was cautioned by police."

Duffield resigned straightaway.

All this whataboutery to make what DC has done all OK is quite amusing.

And desperate.

Too slow with your cut and pastes there Clavinova - Lees trip was permissible under the rules.

What is at issue now is Cummings Barnard Castle trip to 'test his eyesight', which is thought to have broken the rules and the way they are trying to excuse it. We have no evidence that Lees went gallivanting around testing his eyesight.

Rosie Duffield did the honourable thing and resigned, as did Ferguson and the Scottish Health Officer. I haven't yet seen any news of Cummings' resignation.