To think it grossly unfair that Emily Maitlis won't be on Newsnight tonight and DC and BJ are still in their jobs?

[theduchessstill]

It just sums up this shit country and the state it's in imo.

Watching Johnson stuttering and blustering his way through the select committee this afternoon showing that he doesn't have a grip on the crisis at all and then finding that Maitlis, who is excellent at her job, has been chastised and suspended feels like yet another blow to decency in the UK. It comes after the government refusing to appear on the show for weeks as well - too scared.

How much longer will this shit go on?

A bit boring as they kept banging on about the same story

Yeah, so boring that the public health message has been so compromised - and by the PM I should add - Cummings is a nobody - that we will have more avoidable deaths.

@JudyCoolibar I agree with all the points in your post regarding Cummings’ trip.

To all the government apologists on this thread - aren’t you worried about the lasting damage this whole affair has done to the Tory party and to Boris?? As things stand Keir Starmer is more likely to be PM in 4 years than he was before the Cummings story broke.

Now I really want the Tories to be out of power next time, but for the sake of our public health would much rather Boris sacked Cummings and his ratings went back up. It’s lives that matter and we have already been through hell.

Susie Owl, You think furlough recipients aren't allowed to have an opinion, to protest about the government? Dangerous thinking imo.
Just furlough recipients? How about anyone whose job is publicly funded? Benefits recipients (including child benefit)?

BBC is still angry over Brexit. Still trying to get back at them.

By describing the mood of a large section of the population

BBC is still angry over Brexit.

🙄

We shouldn’t be surprised, Naga was punished for suggesting that racism exists.

To all the government apologists on this thread - aren’t you worried about the lasting damage this whole affair has done to the Tory party and to Boris?? As things stand Keir Starmer is more likely to be PM in 4 years than he was before the Cummings story broke

Yes I agree, if there were to be a GE tomorrow, KSs Labour would do a lot better than JCs Labour. But...Rishi Sunak v Anneliese Dodds? No question as far as the public goes.

Brexit is the important issue and the Conservative ratings are totally pinned on the success of that.

I would imagine that behind the scenes, the government are very much focused on Brexit, and they need DC to ensure that goes as they wish.

Yes they sure are desperate to keep him on.

This list by someone on Twitter is pretty succinct:

1. Dominic Cummings, one of the few men to have ever been found in contempt of Parliament, moved onto contempt for everything

1. When the story broke, and he was accused of doing things that look bad, he said he didn't care how things looked

1. Then ministers said press outrage meant nothing, only the opinion of the people mattered

1. Then polls showed 52% of people wanted Cummings to resign

1. So Cummings decided to show the public some respect, by turning up 30 minutes late to make his explanation

1. He began by saying he wasn't speaking for the govt, which must be why he was in the Rose Garden of 10 Downing Street

1. Then the self-styled "enemy of the Islington media elite" said his wife, who works in the media, had been ill in their house in Islington

1. But she was only a bit ill, so he popped home, got himself nice and infected, then went back to Downing Street for meetings with lots of vitally important people in the middle of a national crisis

1. But then he got ill too, so then it was suddenly important

10. Sadly he couldn't get childcare in London, even though 3 immediate relatives live within 3 miles of his London home

11. So because he was carrying a virus that can cross a 2 metre distance and kill, he immediately locked himself in a car with his wife and child for 5 hours

12. He then drove 264 miles without stopping in a Land Rover that gets maybe 25 MPG

13. Then the scourge of the metropolitan elites made himself extra-relatable by describing his family's sprawling country estate, multiple houses and idyllic woodlands

14. He explained that he'd warned about a coronavirus years ago in his blog

15. Then it was revealed he actually secretly amended old blogs after he'd returned from Durham

16. And anyway, if he'd warned years ago, why was he so massively unprepared and slow to react?

17. Then he said he was too ill to move for a week

18. But in the middle of that week, presumably with "wonky eyes", he drove his child to hospital

19. Then he said that to test his "wonky eyes" he put his wife and child in a car and drove 30 miles on public roads

20. Then it was revealed his wife drives, so there was no reason for the "eye test", cos she could have driven them back to London

21. Then it was revealed the "eye test" trip to a local tourist spot took place on his wife's birthday

22. Then cameras filmed as he threw a cup onto the table, smirked and left

23. And then it emerged his wife had written an article during the time in Dunham, describing their experience of being in lockdown in London, which you'd definitely do if you weren't hiding anything

24. A govt scientific advisor said "more people will die" as a result of what Cummings had done.

25. Boris Johnson said he "wouldn't mark Cummings " down for what he'd done.

26. The Attorney General said it was ok to break the law if you were acting on instinct

27. The Health Minister said it was OK to endanger public health if you meant well

28. Johnson said Cummings' "story rings true" because his own eyesight was fine before coronavirus, but now he needs glasses

29. But in an interview with The Telegraph 5 years ago, Johnson said he needed glasses cos he was "blind as a bat"

30. Michael Gove went on TV and said it was "wise" to drive 30 miles on public roads with your family in the car to test your eyesight

31. The DVLA tweeted that you should never, ever do this

32. Then ministers started claiming Cummings had to go to Durham because he feared crowds attacking his home. The streets were empty because we were observing the lockdown.

33. And then a minister finally resigned

34. Steve Baker, Richard Littlejohn, Isabel Oakeshott, Tim Montgomerie, Jan Moir, Ian Dale, Julia Hartley Brewer, 30 Tory MPs, half a dozen bishops and the actual Daily Mail said Cummings should go

35. The govt suggested we can ignore them, because they're all left-wingers

36. Then a vicar asked Matt Hancock if other people who had been fined for doing exactly what Cummings did would get their fine dropped. Matt Hancock said he'd suggest it to the govt

37. The govt said no within an hour. Cummings' statement had lasted longer than that

38. And if the guidelines were so clear, why were people being stopped and fined for driving to find childcare in the first place?

39. Then a new poll found people who wanted Cummings sacked had risen from 52% to 57%

40. Cummings is considered the smartest man in the govt

41. And in the middle of all this, in case we take our eye off it: we reached 60,000 deaths. One of the highest per capita death rates worldwide.

42. We still face Brexit under this lot.

43. It's 4 years until an election

44. And it's still only Wednesday

Isn't it Thursday today?

Succinct is not the word I'd use 😅

Well each individual point is succinct .

True

Just an hoping the media or police dig up or prove something that makes dc even more of a liar than he already is

MH cannot answer a direct question.

Pretty bad when it comes to that.

Why? We are all forced to pay for the BBC and they are supposed to be impartial and she wasn't. So she went. Can't stand her. And for what it's worth I think Boris should go too.

@Idotoo1 - excellent summary. Have quoted.

I didn’t watch it but going after it feels crazy when others are sticking where they are no matter what, with a cabinet backing their story to the detriment of the public.

Newsnight is a magazine programme. That means it looks at opinions and debates them. It’s important to understand this. It’s not The News. Long may it live on with Emily.

As I posted earlier, Cummings doesn’t want the BBC. He prefers right wing media outlets like Fox News. As usual be very very very careful what you wish for.

Just for one night, Emily was a bit like Fox News. Grabbing the story by the balls. Cummings and the right wing BBC haters should have loved it!!! Instead they cry foul. Just wait and see how biased the broadcast media could get if Cummings gets his way. There are plenty in Government who agree with him and they will destroy the best broadcaster in the world. They clearly have supporters on this thread.

She couldn’t have summed it up any better and should get praise.

Agree Bubbles. It’s incredible. I feel like we’re being railroaded, no un-allowed thought style.

So frustrating.

The whole did he or didn't he break lockdown rules is never going to be resolved because Bojo and his boss Dom managed to come up with a semi plausible cover story for the whole debacle, using Domsnson as the main evidence.
Doms missus, Mary, wrote about her having symptoms on the Thursday evening when she 'threw up on the bathroom floor'. Dom himself had been in very close contact with Bojo, who did have covid. Despite Mary suspecting she also had it, he returned to work on Friday, thus breaking the rules he helped to write of 'stay home for 14 days'. Mary then called him back home on the Friday because she felt worse.
Here's where the rules get a bit woolly. There's a get out clause to do with 'exceptional circumstances' and instead of Dom speaking to the highest medical advisors in the country with whom he'd been working very closely, he took it upon himself to do a moonlight flit, put his child in a confined space with someone he suspected had Covid and drive to his country home. He has the power to get a private driver, or even helicopter, to fly his niece down to London to look after them if both himmand mary did end up being ill. But he, such a clever, honest man, chose not to do the most obvious thing.
Mary tells us that their son threw up whilst on holiday in Durham, and they rang 999, which is what every parent would do even though mumsnet would blast them for wasting NHS time. Child and parent went to hospital by ambulance then Dom, who accordingnto Mary couldn't get out of bed for 10 days, miraculously managed, not unlike Lazarus, to raise himself off his covid bed and drive to the hospital to pick them up. So still not self isolating! (I'm wondering what the paramedics take on all this is btw).
He then talks about members of the public seeing him on a walk through the bluebell woods in the grounds of his holiday home. He says it's a private woods, so why didn't he phone the police to have the trespassers removed? Perhaps they were actually on a public footpath, in which case Dom broke the self isolate rules yet again.
Let's not mention the Barnard Castle drive to check his eyesight. At best this was a bad idea. At worst, it is neglectful parenting and therefore a massive safeguarding issue. Again, mumsnet would lynch Any parent might ask AIBU to do such a stupid thing. (Apart from @SusieOwl4 who'd vote YANBU and ask 'you OK Hun?)
When the proverbial shit hit the fan, Bojo was then brought into the mix to back up his boss, despite not being seen for many days (a bit like a well known Korean leader) and did his usual mumbling and bumbling to try and get the story stopped. That didn't work so he invited his boss into his back garden so his boss could read a prepared statement, citing the safeguarding of his child as the reason he went on holiday. And we are all supposed to believe every word that came out of his mouth.
I, for one, am not that gullible.

I think it's been established that the land he was walking on wasn't in fact private?

Emily chose to take the night off, she wasn’t suspended

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52830437

I thought her intro was great, and don’t like the BBC response but am not sure they were 100% wrong with regards to the impartiality guidelines. (But then we all know guidelines are secondary to instincts so...)

@JudyCoolibar

I think it's been established that the land he was walking on wasn't in fact private?

Ohh I hadn't seen that.

I, for one, am not that gullible

The media think otherwise.