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

Boris said he had suffered with his eyesight as a result of CV in another desperate attempt to support his mate. There are photos of him wearing specs previously and they haven't been able to find a single doctor who agrees it is a symptom.

@Mirinska if he had a crowd of the press outside his house every day since lockdown, how come they didn't notice his flit to Durham?

Does anyone wonder if this could pan out like the Jonathan Aitken affair. Do you remember his simple sword of truth speech which came crashing down when the Guardian uncovered credit card proof that his wife was elsewhere at the time. Cummings speech read like it had been lawyered up covering every aspect that could be proved against him. It would only take some CCTV footage or a payment marker placing him somewhere else and it's Watergate for him and Johnson.

I'm beginning to wonder if the primary driver behind the actions of MW and DC was wanting to get out of London to escape the virus*

Of course that was the motivation!

Mirinska
But it’s been blown up out of all proportion which is undermining public confidence.

Actually it is the actions of Dominic Cummings - and his subsequent obfuscation - that have undermined the public trust in government at a time when people need faith in their leaders in order to follow important medical and behavioural advice issued by government advisers designed to stop a second wave.

@FliesandPies

People used those fake stories to accuse DC of being a liar. They were wrong

Not anymore. They're using his own words to accuse him of being a liar, and they're right.

FliesandPies I’d be interested to know the evidence you refer to.

I watched DCs press conference and am aware that the press misreported some of what he said and, despite some of the original fake stories being dropped, a new round of spin has taken off though based on much thinner claims, namely:

He said that his wife was worried whether he’d be up to the drive to London and they decided to tryout whether he would be well enough by taking a drive. He then added that he’d had some problems with his eyesight earlier when he had been ill. This has been spun into a sound bite as an eyesight test drive and an accusation that it’s wrong to drive with bad eyesight, They were not his words. It also seemed to me he was referring primarily to whether he’d have the energy to make the long drive to London after a severe bout of CV.

Also in defending himself against the accusation that he had been responsible for promoting a herd immunity approach, which he referenced as an example of other false stories written about him, he said that he had written a year ago warning against the dangers of pandemics then added, that this had included corona viruses. The original blog entry was warning about leaks in bio labs quoting real instances (a relevant topic to the Wuhan Lab hypothesis) and linked with an article on corona virus (Covid 19 was unknown at the time)It’s something of a semantic hair splitting enterprise to claim that because the word corona virus or Covid 19 wasn’t in the main body of the original blog about pandemics that he lied. The updating of the blog in April when Covid 19 was being linked by some to a leak in the Wuhan lab has also been used to accuse him of lying.

Unfortunately, many are taking their information unquestioningly from the spin and then repeating that and also continue to make accusations based on the original false press reports without taking the time to update themselves on the facts or consider all sides from a point of view of evidence and natural justice.

If you start with a narrative frame that someone is guilty then you are likely to find confirmatory proof because you are inherently biased to do so. There is psychological research on this. It’s why there have been miscarriages of justice and why people have been framed by police fitting evidence, even sometimes fabricating it, to match a prior hypothesis. Scientific truth requires dispassionate and rigorous examination of facts.

Whatever take one has, and it’s inevitable people will disagree, confusion and misinformation is rife. This is dangerous bearing in mind there have been death threats and the police have to now protect his home and family. No one should be subjected to that. Nor should we in anyway contribute to putting others at a security risk. Jo Cox was murdered, Caroline Flack was driven to suicide. This trial by media and public witch hunting is primitive, not a good role model for our children and not worthy of an advanced civilised society.

People are dying in a Pandemic. It’s time to move beyond this Westminster bubble and get on with the hugely important issues at hand.

Surely the public can't undermine its own confidence? It's the government's handling of the whole thing that has done that, not eve DC's original actions, actually.

He did NOT leave his London home for leisure reasons — he left it because he was receiving death threats as a result of media demonisation

What - when in FULL LOCKDOWN?

This was a point rapped by journalists to which there had been no response?

But he didn't mention that he was going away because of death threats to the PM? He also didn't state that as a reason in his very lengthy statement in the Rose Garden.

He wasn't on the receiving end of "media demonisation" then. He would have had Security to look after him. He is now in the public eye because he lied about why he ran away from London, and hasn't got the grace to admit that he made a bad error of judgement.

Yes, Jo Cox was murdered - she wasn't being hounded by the Press though, she was an MP doing the job she was elected for.

Look @Mirinska it’s not that hard. Whether he was driving to test his eyesight or to see whether he had the energy to drive (which he did not say by the way, you’ve jnferred that), it’s a breach of lockdown either way.

It’s not acceptable for a man in his position to breach lockdown then refuse to accept it, then refuse to apologise, and refuse to resign.

You seem intent on minimising the import of this. You say “people are dying in a pandemic” and we need to move on from this. Literally thousands have died as a direct result of the government (who it appears is controlled behind the scenes by DC)‘s incompetence, and the way that this has undermined lockdown risks many more dying. The PM’s reaction to all this is the most revealing and newsworthy part of the whole story - it exposes his reliance on this unelected man. Why should we “move on” and allow this state of affairs to continue?

Even if he was a saint, do you think it’s acceptable for an unelected advisor in his position to have so much power?

@Mirinska you've done super well to get so many of the buzz phrases in there. Time to move on, Westminster bubble, the pseudo profound musing on truth and bias that aims to look critically at one group only, even the mention of Caroline Flack. They'll be praising your work on the WhatsApp group.

If Cummings is so scared for his wife and child's safety in the London house, why has he brought them back to London? He could have left them safely in County Durham. That would also have minimised the number of people travelling.

His sister and parents are close by on the same property, and the houses are surrounded by the land. It's not like the London house, straight onto a street and with neighbours' gardens abutting.

He's now brought them directly into the supposed "danger" of which he claimed to be so scared for them in the first place.

@HarrietM87

Look *@Mirinska* it’s not that hard. Whether he was driving to test his eyesight or to see whether he had the energy to drive (which he did not say by the way, you’ve jnferred that), it’s a breach of lockdown either way.

It’s not acceptable for a man in his position to breach lockdown then refuse to accept it, then refuse to apologise, and refuse to resign.

You seem intent on minimising the import of this. You say “people are dying in a pandemic” and we need to move on from this. Literally thousands have died as a direct result of the government (who it appears is controlled behind the scenes by DC)‘s incompetence, and the way that this has undermined lockdown risks many more dying. The PM’s reaction to all this is the most revealing and newsworthy part of the whole story - it exposes his reliance on this unelected man. Why should we “move on” and allow this state of affairs to continue?

Even if he was a saint, do you think it’s acceptable for an unelected advisor in his position to have so much power?

We all have an interpretation. There’s no unbiased view. Yes It it is right for us to examine our assumptions. We won’t all agree on whether a journey involving exercise was too long to be allowed under lockdown. It seems long to me given the spirit of the lock down at the time. Were loads of people doing that for selfish reasons? Yes. Were they challenged? No. We know that his explanation for it is was to check whether he could cope with driving to London. Whether we believe that or not, does it justify trying to hound someone out of their job, abuse and intimidation or joining in that bandwagon? I don’t think so.

@Mirinska do you think it’s ok for a senior govt advisor who effectively wrote the rules to do something which even on your own view was potentially not in the spirit of the rules? (regardless of what ordinary members of the public were doing. In fact the VAST majority have abided by lockdown, and some have suffered immeasurably as a result). Do you think he should have apologised for undermining those rules? And do you understand why people are angry about this?

Personally I think his behaviour entirely justifies people questioning whether he should continue in his job. His actions have fundamentally undermined strategy to the extent that people’s lives may be at risk. Not to mention it’s embarrassing for the govt and distracting. If he had resigned immediately or even bothered to apologise there wouldn’t be this furore and people would have been able to “move on” as you desperately want.

Rather than blaming the public for being rightly angry about this, how about you have a hard think about how DC could have done better and stop defending him.

Whether we believe that or not, does it justify trying to hound someone out of their job, abuse and intimidation or joining in that bandwagon? I don’t think so.

Why can't he just apologise and admit he was wrong? Why is that so hard? Why has he forced the entire cabinet to join in with his gaslighting strategy?

I don't really care whether he keeps his job, but even if he resigned, we all know he wouldn't be unemployed and would probably return to the same job in 6 months. The people standing in his street shouting abuse are idiots, but he has chosen to work in that environment. He actively stokes division and tribalism. In short, he will get over this.

On the other hand, by refusing to apologise and admit that he was wrong, he has caused real pain to people who have made very painful sacrifices, which he and the government have now characterised as unnecessary.

That is not forgivable, and this will go on and on and on until an apology is given.

DC should have let his wife and child relocate to Durham before lockdown began (he, above all people, should have known lockdown was coming), then any trips he made between London and Durham could have been played quite legitimately as "journeys to transport a child between parents". For a strategist he really missed a simple strategic move!

ButteryPuffin, the amusing thing is that the little messagers don't seem to see that they're digging the hole even deeper.

I watched the whole press conference god it was tedious.

1. This is the transcript of Cummings' claim he predicted coronavirus. NB this is his read-out statement, not some off-the-cuff verbal answer where he might have got tongue-tangled:

"Last year I wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses and the urgent need for planning."
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummings-statement-speech-transcript-durham-full-text-read-lockdown-a9531856.html

2. His supporters, including "sources close to Cummings", have not yet been able to produce any writing of Cummings where he "wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses".

3. There is a reference in his blog to coronavirus, but he didn't write it last year. He added it between 9 April and 3 May this year (probably on 14 April, when the blog was edited but no caveat given the reader of this – bad blog etiquette in itself).
   Coronavirus: Why did Dominic Cummings say he predicted it?
   www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52808059

4. So at the moment, it looks as if Cummings' claim to have written about this last year was a lie.

5. The messagers are now trying to distract by suggesting that a mention of coronavirus in one of the papers from which Cummings quoted, is the same as "Cummings writing about coronavirus."

But that just makes things worse again. Because he clearly saw the paper, and DIDN'T THINK THE CORONAVIRUS MENTION WAS WORTH PICKING UP. He quoted other bits from the paper instead! After the CV pandemic started... then he decided that CV rated a mention in his blog!

So no! This is not "Cummings writing about coronavirus a year before it happened." It's the opposite!

Why on earth did the man feel the need to sit there and claim he'd written about coronaviruses last year, anyway?

It was hardly a question anyone was going to tax him with... until he lied about it.

Can he just not help it?

@PerkingFaintly they don't, do they!

Cummings can't resist trying to paint himself as some kind of prophet who saw all this coming. Which is A) bollocks and B) makes it worse because surely then you've done an even worse job, given that you had the early knowledge and could have started preparing earlier?

Sorry, that should have read:

2) His supporters, including "sources close to Cummings", have not yet been able to produce any writing of Cummings where he "wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses" last year .

Well indeed, ButteryPuffin.

@Mirinska Thanks Mary it is touching that you should defend your husband so elegantly.

Now let's get the lawyers in ...

www.ft.com/video/e82b5a00-3ad5-4d2c-9703-ff14942aa5b1

I can't believe he's pulling this blatant trumpish manoeuvre of pretending that he predicted the pandemic
it's like Trump bragging about how he knows more about science than the scientists, yes these people are mendacious but they are also educated and intelligent why do they think that copying Trump that stupid demented elephant of a man, why do they think that is going to work??

FliesandPies

These bots have the worst names

They all sound a bit Russian.

They all say
Move on, or Be Kind.
They all use the unproven “autistic child” excuse.

They all go into elaborate detail that they somehow have acquired out of thin air.

Hmmm