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

According to Boris and section 6-2 (d) of the lockdown regulations he did absolutely nothing wrong.
If anyone else had behaved this way Boris would have condemned them He is changing the rules to suit himself. The clause to safeguard children applies to children in immediate danger. This child wasn't
As well as traveling to Durham. He clearly also had a day trip 30 miles away over Easter. No one in Government has denied that. So it's clearly true.

I think he absolutely has to go. I think if this goes on for more another 24 hours Boris will have to go too but it's not fair to accuse him of using his child's autism (if indeed he has autism), that's one thing he has steadfastly not done.

Unless of course the plan is to follow the Guardian's tactic of drip feeding the best information, in attempt to make us all feel dreadful in the next few days, which would be outrageous.

I think the wife's article could be the final nail in the coffin. I'm not sure that on the one hand you can publish articles about family life and on the other, insist on privacy. She wrote "tips" on how to survive CV with a child and nowhere did she say plan A must be to be near family who can take him if necessary.

Plus there's the other trips. If that's true there's no way he can stay, but the ridiculous "good parent" argument has upset so many people, I'm not sure he can stay even if the rest turns out to be lies. People are talking about that (and not just on MN) far more than the additional trips, which should be the more damning.

I wonder what the graphs about levels of travel look like the next few days. I do hope the journalists ask why they might have increased so much, while the medical experts are saying they'd like to see them lower (or will they not be allowed to say that now?)

Just hearing folk on BBC radio 5 defend DC. I'm feeling enraged at them.

No official statement or coverage but it's clearly been put out to see how it will fly. It's all over Twitter

Cummings' modus operandi has always been to spin stories via nobodies and see how they fly. No accountability that way.

The rules at that time were crystal clear for people showing symptoms or sharing a household with someone symptomatic - they were stay at home. There were even numbers to call for help in this situatio.
Johnson at press conferences specifically reinforced the "don't travel to family for childcare" message for this situation.

Cummings and Wakefield both have close family nearby in London. They live in Islington which has a well organised community support set up (accessed by more than one of my colleagues in exactly the situation Cummings was in). They have the resources to buy in the best of private carers and don't tell me Cummings couldn't get groceries delivered.

I found the interview with Cummings' parents quite revealing. His mother effectively saying he should get a free pass because his uncle died and his father saying the same because he was so important. Its not surprising Cummings shows the same sense of arrogant entitlement.

Every family in the country has endured loss, worry and pain in separation during lockdown but the Cummings are above the law.

Agree with them or not, the Torys used to be a party which included giants wtf happened to them? All they have left is a self serving craven pack of Squealers to Cummings' Napoleon.

@MeganBacon - do elaborate on what your concept of balance is when a senior aide breaks the rules he has helped write ?

The overreaction on these threads is just beyond parody.
Can't you understand why people are angry? People have suffered and made many sacrifices even not being able to be with their dying and sick relatives. This man who criticises the 'elite : has just shown that not only is he firmly one of the elite. He is a hypocrite, arrogant and seemingly untouchable

I think Boris is handling this badly and given that Ferguson et al resigned, Cummings should too. But I don't get the vitriol. I've read various posts on here where people did similar things and were supported. But any excuse to accuse Tories of 'killing people' and Mumsnetters are on it ... despite the fact that, as a longtime Tory myself, this is the least Tory Tory government I have seen in a long time.

@MeganBacon , the scummy thing, the really scummy thing is Johnson's reaction and that of the Cabinet.
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".
Instead, the bullshit "its fiiiiiiiiiine".
And those lick spittle second rate arse wipes in the Cabinet joining in to circle the fucking wagons.
Contrast with their failure to circle the wagons around care homes and their failure to circle the wagons around our borders. We're an island . It's not that hard. Even NZ did it.
Incompetent shit show.

It's as if some of you have been personally affected by it. Yes it was wrong, yes he's arrogant, yes he should go. But all this emotive language about him using his child's disability just says more about the people writing it than him. I have no idea if his child is autistic but would not go off like a screeching banshee if he mentioned the fact in his defence because, you know, I can see that it may have some relevance.

I've read various posts on here where people did similar things and were supported.

You've read posts where a family containing someone with coronavirus symptoms, drove a considerable distance to a second home to self isolate and posters agreed with this?

If not what other similar things are you referring to?

Everyone is personally affected by the knowledge that a 13 year old died alone because his parents weren't allowed to be with him and , according to the Cabinet, they weren't doing what any parent would do.
I bet they wanted to break down the hospital doors and be with their boy. But they didn't.
And they couldn't be at his graveside while he was buried.

I am not a fan of Cummings but what other reason could there have been for this move of location other than the care of his child

Cummings and his wife are part of the metropolitan elite; they live in a house in Islington which will be worth well over £1 million. As with all London houses, you have to be of ultra high net worth not to live in a terraced house, so while expensive, it is of relatively modest proportions. Small garden. Close to your neighbours. They have a London centric lifestyle and no doubt enjoy all the benefits of living in the capital: culture, restaurants, a short trip to work. But in lockdown all of that has gone...and you are left there, stuck in your house with very little outside space and forced to hear your neighbours. And so they thought, as I’m sure many of us would, that it’d be much nicer for the whole family if they decamped up to his dad’s annexe in Durham. There was a picture of the front of the dad’s house on the news: looks lovely. Open space, peace and quiet - much nicer to look after a 4 year old there with a big garden for him to run around. But what’s the problem with that? Well, there are loads of other affluent London families in exactly the same position and you’ve explicitly told them that they can’t do that (no second homes). There are even more people who are far less affluent and who are really struggling with managing two jobs and looking after their kids....but you’ve expressly ruled out their having help with childcare from family. He’s made the rules and pretty expressly broken them. And people are angry because it makes their own sacrifices seem worthless, especially when they infer that the PM himself is saying they were daft to do so and that they should have “followed their instincts”.

I always knew it was one rule for us and another for them but I didn’t think they’d rub it in our faces. Do you think Johnson, Carrie, Dominic and their ilk would use a temporary tooth filling kit from boots if half a tooth fell out ? Doubt it. If they needed to see a physio/doctor/specialist are they told to wait for a couple more months ? Have they not seen their families and friends ? and so it goes on. I’m sure they thought it all a great laugh. Their contempt for what people are going through is stunning and I don’t think it’s an over reaction on any level to say the anger is justified.
I haven’t even covered the people whose relatives and friends who have died.

To be lectured on parenting by a man who had to be taken to court to acknowledge one of his children.

@MeganBacon you seem to be the only one harping on like a ‘screeching banshee’ - where are you pulling the hysterical lingo from ?

But people have been personally affected by this Megan bacon that's precisely why people are properly furious about this. The sacrifices they have made have been really difficult and some are questioning if they should have done it as clearly the likes of DC isn't prepared to.
I thought the voices of his neighbours shouting at him last night reflected that, some of them sounded quite anguished.

Well both my children have Autism and I'm angry...the reality of having children with disabilities for us and many families we know is hard.

No school - mainstream and support isn't available.
No respite - closed
No activities - also closed.

Before the pandemic it wasn't exactly roses either the services we have were long fought for and still remain inadequate. Many of us have had Coronavirus symptoms and just got on with it. DC isn't special here.

He is in a very influential position and had a (slight) insight into the problems others in the country faced.

It is interesting that he did not use his insight of caring for an autistic child in lockdown to question what could be done to make life easier for other families (many in much harder circumstances).

Just like he did not use his insight of being in the position he was (both parents sick with young DC) to think about what other parents must be facing. (Especially single parents of young DC, many off whom were terrified of what might happen if they became incapacitated).

Could have been an opportunity to consider the needs of often overlooked groups when drawing up the details of lockdown and the coronavirus response.
But it was wasted!
All he thought was "how could I make life even easier for me???"

Yes Boris should have said he was wrong to do it. He could have said that despite this, he wasn't going to sack him because we need him in that role because he's the best man for the job. But to defend him is indefensible.

To be honest, If he was Joe Bloggs I would support accept him doing this if it was a genuine doing the best for his family thing but with power comes responsibility and you can't be instrumental in making the rules and then break them. You can't have the benefits of the power without any of the responsibility. Not how it works.

The Autism thing is a red herring (but an effective on as it's so emotive). No one would recommend leaving a 3/4 year old with unfamiliar strangers, autism or not. And the rules are very clear that the healthy caregivers is allowed to travel to help the vulnerable isolating family, not vice verse.

I think DC went to Durham for his mums birthday. Simple as that. I doubt whether DC or Mary Wakefield were ever ill (a bit of fiction to sell an article)

They are scratching around trying to make the childcare line fit - but it hasn't so they are adding new layers to see what might fly. His mum tried the we are grieving family line last night - that hasn't worked either.

The Barnard Castle visit was a jolly on his wife's birthday.

The complete opposite. It's led selfish people to think they can be just as selfish

😂😂😂

You are being utterly brainwashed by the press. Selfish people were already being selfish. @MadameMarie

It really makes you wonder what is going on if in the face of a serious pandemic, all the journalists can talk about is something that happened weeks ago.

If anything, the journalists hold responsibility for whipping the nation up into a frenzy of breaking the rules. They are far more culpable than DC.

He drove 250 miles, to visit family for a birthday party, when one or both of them had a deadly virus, therefore endangering the public.

He went more than once while the rest of us missed birthdays, funerals, family in hospital. There is no excusing his disregard and contempt for the lockdown rules.

That's a really good point Bent...

Surely the essential journey here would have been a family member travelling to help them...I might also add "when" not "in case" it became necessary.

Agreed, awful to wheel out his little boy as Exhibit A. Also, my first reaction was that an autistic child would be better off staying in his usual environment, i.e. take the support locally in London if any was needed, but all autistic children are different so that may be unfair.

However, for me, the fact that anyone was even ill is very much in doubt, considering it was his mother's birthday when they originally went up, his wife's birthday when they were spotted in Barnard Castle, and some anniversary I think when he was seen up there again on 19 April. I think it's way more likely they've been hopping up and down for weekends away and family gatherings the whole time.