Dominic Cummings using his child's autism as an excuse

[Almahart]

So it looks as if the next excuse to be wheeled out is that Dominic Cumming's child is autistic.

My child is autistic. I know many families with autistic children.

This is what I have heard of happening for these families during Coronavirus:

• no school (yes I know schools should be taking vulnerable children. But many are not)
• no respite
• no transport to school even if they are open
• regular activities cancelled
• the fear that provision provided by local authorities through Education Health and Care Plans and suspended under the Coronavirus Act will slowly disappear

I know of many single parents alone with their child who are seriously struggling and who did not break the rules during lockdown.

To use autism as an excuse is beyond low. It is revolting and has made me even angrier than I was before

You stated in your title ‘Dominic Cummings using his son’s autism as an excuse’. Ok, I’ll rephrase it. Why did you tell lies when you knew this was untrue?

Funny how the rules changed on 9april about travelling with any one with autism or learning disabilities..just a few days after he actually did travel to his parents home.

My child has autism. And a physical disability.

I agree.

twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1264909029849149440

just an fyi Alastair Campbell has tweeted a link to this thread

what other reason could there have been for this move of location other than the care of his child

But his partner wrote a piece in the spectator telling us and advising us how to manage when covid ridden with children their son was dressed as nurse and treating daddy with Ribena.

What other reason - because he knew that it would be nicer to spend the time in County Durham.

Let’s imagine you and your partner become so ill with corona virus that you are incapable of looking after your young child or baby. You would be culpable of failing to put in place a safeguarding arrangement for their care and you would be too ill to do anything about it. It would be too late.

So anyone could have ignored lockdown laws because they might fall so ill at the same time as the other parent that they might be unable to keep their child safe. That's many thousands of people who could have been out and about whilst knowingly infectious. Good luck with keeping that pandemic under control.

Cummings knew (like the rest of us did) that this pandemic was coming. He could have made arrangements well in advance. Like the rest of us did.

@WrongKindOfFace exactly. Get the family to come to London if required.

@Mirinska the problem with all that is that the guidelines in place at the time did not say if you are symptomatic you may travel to somewhere nearer to support. Your post is an argument that they should have said that, but they didn’t. They were clear: stay at home ESPECIALLY if symptomatic.

If it is the case that we all have a discretion to decide our circumstances mean the rules don’t apply and we can isolate where we feel is best for our family then lockdown wouldn’t have been very effective.

I’m not a stickler for the rules. If he had had a beer in his brother’s garden or something while healthy I wouldn’t care but travelling across the country while symptomatic was irresponsible. There are no two ways about that.

Alistair Campbell has linked to this thread.

That said I don’t agree with haranguing him outside his home. That’s wrong too.

@HarrietM87 how do you know this fir a fact

You can’t compare journalists (who are doing their jobs and not suffering from the virus) with this man (who is apparently Boris’s unelected puppeteer)‘s actions.

I wonder if his press conference will addres his beaches of the SPAD code of conduct as well.

Breaches not beaches (uness he went to the beach as well as the local beauty spots )

Mirinska I haven't seen many parents of children with autism on here or elsewhere agreeing with what he did.

My daughter has autism and cerebral palsy. I've lost sleep over how we would care for her if we both got very ill.

Not to mention how she has struggled. She attends a sen school and the impact of lockdown and all the changes to her routine have been devastating. As it will have been for many autistic adults and children.

Not once have I broken the rules or considered taking her to elderly grandparents (who live ten minutes away)

Yes Boris hinted at this with his ‘I’m not going to go into medical details’ about the family. It’s another giant misstep to think that this won’t cause huge anger and - indeed - grief in the many, many families where children have additional needs and have suffered as a result of their parents keeping to the rules of lockdown.

I don’t understand this obsession with the rules you have in the U.K.
Maybe he broke them, maybe it was an allowable exception.

It’s not an obsession with ‘rules’, it about not breaking the law and getting fined; also about the good of the population

To me, it is completely irrelevant to whether he should keep his job.
He’s qualified. He was hired fairly. He does his job to a good standard.

If he were a paedophile Or petty thief, he could probably still do his job. Hos law breaking shows a lack of moral probity that is inconsisten with a public figure retaining his job

It’s dystopian to force people to resign over such minor infractions (if he did break the rules). No one was harmed

Wow - wow - if anything is to incite people to break the lockdown law, this is it

Now, the Louisville Kentucky Police Chief resigning because their officers stormed the wrong apartment and shot an innocent woman sleeping in her bed to death. That makes sense.

Not really - that sounds like a good faith mistake, not a deliberate and knowing breach of the law

BOLD FAIL ABOVE

@C8H10N4O2, the OP has stated in her title ‘Dominic Cummings using his child’s autism as an excuse’. Clearly lies.
Whether or not other people have commented on this is irrelevant.
Her statement, having no proof to back it is defamatory.

Johnson could easily have said," it was ill-judged, it was the wrong call given the sacrifices everyone is making (many making extreme sacrifices) , it was an understandable emotional reaction to private events in the moment and I'm not going to sack him for it".

Agree

Lying about the police advice, contradicting their official statement and lying that what he did was within the rules is the straw that made his position untenable. If he had travelled without having the virus that would be wrong but more understandable. Travelling to stay with vulnerable parents knowing full well you are infected is completely unjustifiable. There simply is no excuse that can be given.
Boris reading that speech was horrific to watch.

Ariadne I agree too. I'd have accepted that. Johnson's insistence that he had done nothing wrong and behaved with integrity infuriated me and many others. People were gobsmacked.

Clearly lies

We don't know about his son one way or the other.

Cummings has talked and written more than once about it being entirely fine to tell as many lies as the electorate will swallow we also don't know if he was the source or not. I don't really think he has much moral highground here but keep on batting.

Personally I think Cummings should have taken a couple of lessons from Hilton.

Tomorrowsanewday

@C8H10N4O2, the OP has stated in her title ‘Dominic Cummings using his child’s autism as an excuse’. Clearly lies.
Whether or not other people have commented on this is irrelevant.
Her statement, having no proof to back it is defamatory.

Maybe you can sue all of Cummings friends going on social media to push that narrative then? They seem to be embellishing on his behalf 👀🙄

@Tomorrowsanewday so is Mary Wakefield's account of spending lockdown in London - a lie - also defamatory? Hope you're getting on her case as well.