Why aren't there angry posts about Tim Matthews admitting he made up Dominic Cummings sighting?

[NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372911/Boris-puts-Dominic-Cummings-chance-one-witness-admits-sighting-aide.html

Tim Matthews has admitted he made up a sighting of Dominic Cummings at Barnard Castle for a joke. It wasn't a very funny joke. I haven't heard anyone laughing about and why has it taken until now to admit it was a lie?

@HeddaGarbled the link in the OP still works for me?

Well exactly also

Also interesting that after years of being told brexit it brexit and its all over and suck it up

That people keep bringing it up!

He wasn't one of the original witnesses that led to the stories in the paper.

“ Because people HATE the tories they could give bags of gold to the poor and some people would still find fault with that.”

Dominic Cummings is not a Tory.

“It's got everything to do with Brexit but cunningly disguised (or not) as nothing to do with Brexit. Some people can see it and some can't/don't want to.”

The actual government, during a pandemic causing an international health crisis when they need the public to trust them and need to ge giving out clear messages have spent the past week saying...

DC acted legally and responsibly.

When asked if other parents can act in the same way, they repeat to stay at home and wash your hands.

When asked if any parents in similar circumstances could appeal fines given, that’s no.

When asked if their message was perhaps unclear then, that’s also a no.

When asked if it’s specific to Dominic Cummings, that’s also a no.

Everyone is subject to the same rules, their message is perfectly clear, other parents wouldn’t be acting legally to do the same thing but Dominic Cummings was... its all straightforward, now move on.

Oh and a scary amount of us drive to see if we can see properly

But yeah, totally about Brexit

There's no denying people hate the Tories.

It's not usually Roey newspapers and journalists, Tory MPs and those who voted Tory.

And DC is a Spad. He isn't allowed to opening state his political views.

Vbd unthread you said DC didn't have symptoms and MW ant suspected Covid as she was sick. That was my understanding from what DC himself said.
So it begs the question "why did they hop foot it to Durham?" And "why did the media camped outside their house in lockdown not notice?"

For me the answers are as follows.

He was in same circumstance and possibly facing the same circumstance as all the people who wrote the rules for.

The media were not camped outside his house or they'd have seen him leave.

Just because some dickhead nobody made up some shit it doesn't mean what was actually done wrong is right.

The Tories have just given bags of gold to the poor!

And rather larger bags of gold to the rich, of course, because the furlough payments are calculated according to a person's usual earnings.

And guess what? People are still livid at Cummings' behaviour, and horrified at the government twisting and turning to protect the Spad.

Did they think we could be bought? And at a time like this?

Weird....I have already clarified that I reprimanded a family member of mine for making unsubstantiated claims about the child on SM, only to be told that my cousin works with someone who knows the family and cold and had confirmed he had SEN but DC family were not wishing that to be in public domain for privacy of child
I would think it fairly likely that the Cummings family have their fair share of journos making their life miserable and I did not find the death threats particularly hard to believe either. The noise going on in the background of his interrogation was enough to realise people despised this man.

child not cold!

Why should it be all about Brexit anyway, while there's a perfectly good deadly virus going round to get excited about? I mean, actually in what way is "Government advisor breaks lockdown restrictions, or doesn't if you ask the Prime Minister, by driving to far end of country with wife who either is or isn't ill depending on which version you've recently heard" not about the deadly virus that's going round? Even if it were, by some torturous feat of reasoning, "all about Brexit" would that make it ok to tote viruses around the country? Would it even have made it not have happened? Because that's mad stuff. You may believe Remainers are misguided but surely you don't think most of us are daft enough to believe that a Remain supporter can't spread viruses... or isn't that what you meant? Because it sure sounds like it.

I like how some are going "well if it were Labour..." and lo, as though on cue, a Labour Whip has just resigned for breaking lockdown because her position of moral authority over other MPs became untenable. But that doesn't count, apparently.

ps Personally I think anyone who is stupid enough to try out their eyesight by driving shouldn't be in a position of any kind of responsibility anyway. They may be Most Intelligent Man In The Country (TM) but they are clearly severely lacking in common sense. I give DC enough credit to assume it's a bare-faced lie rather than that he is THAT stupid.

Vbd upthread you said DC didn't have symptoms and MW ant suspected Covid as she was sick. That was my understanding from what DC himself said. So it begs the question "why did they hot foot it to Durham?"

This is where he's caught himself out and tied himself in a knot - either they did have symptoms, in which case they were instructed to isolate in London, or they didn't have symptoms in which case they did not have any exceptional circumstances in terms of childcare or any reason to travel to Durham.

So either way he broke his own rules to make that journey and he knew it.

Weird, what I heard him say is that BJ had just tested positive, his wife had phoned feeling ill, he rushed home....wife seemed better and told him to return to work....he knew he was very likely to get CV and so decided to decant to extended family where younger neices, at very very low risk of getting seriously unwell if they caught the virus, lived who had offered to provide care for the 4 year old should it be required. I don't think it was spur of the moment. It seems to have been a pre made plan that if there were a high probability of them getting Covid, they would go to Durham. I think BJ testing positive was the spur as they must have spent hours and hours in close proximity.

only to be told that my cousin works with someone who knows the family and child and had confirmed he had SEN but DC family were not wishing that to be in public domain for privacy of child

So why are you breaking your cousin's confidence and putting it in the public domain? That's a bit shit isn't it?

ps Personally I think anyone who is stupid enough to try out their eyesight by driving shouldn't be in a position of any kind of responsibility anyway.

I don't know what you are talking about. What on earth is so unreasonable about, "My wife, who is a perfectly competent and confident driver (she's written about this) was worried I wouldn't be safe to drive the family 260 miles, so we strapped our four-year-old into the car and I drove for 30 miles to check. This made me feel so sick that I had to sit by a riverbank for 15 minutes to recover; which naturally led me to conclude that I would certainly be perfectly fine to drive over eight times that distance the next day with my child in the back seat and my wife, who is a perfectly competent and confident driver, beside me. And just to make sure, as soon as I stopped feeling sick, I got back in the car and drove 30 miles back to the cottage where we were definitely not visiting my parents."?

I also think his eyesight thing is being deliberately misunderstood too, but causing some amusement which is funny. What we all actually know he meant is that he had been knocked out with a debilitating virtues that had left him exhausted and made his eyes go funny so rather than set off immediately on a 5 hour drive on his wife's birthday, she suggested they delay by a day and go for a shorter drive to ensure he is feeling well enough, having up to that point not managed much more than an amble through his father's bluebell wood.
FWIW, I think he was wanting to hurry back to London in the hope that they could pretend they had quarantined in London.

virus even!

@multivac

multivac Oh of course, silly me

Must correct you on one thing: it isn't a cottage, it's a sort of unofficial bunker which doesn't need planning permission because it isn't really habitable. In other words, an ideal place to hang out with a small child when you're possibly incubating an illness.

Also interesting that after years of being told brexit it brexit and its all over and suck it up

Ah but it's not quite though is it, two year extension deadline is only 3 weeks away. Some people would really like that two year extension (for whatever reason😉) however, there is a big obstacle to remove first before that becomes remotely possible. I thought maybe the Mirror was sitting on the DC story for 6 weeks to check first that their sources/witnesses were rock solid but, it would appear today that that clearly wasn't the case.

Anyway, I'll leave you all to it I'm off into the garden😎

only to be told that my cousin works with someone who knows the family and child and had confirmed he had SEN but DC family were not wishing that to be in public domain for privacy of child

I can't see what type of SEN, or any medical need tbh, is better served by travelling to Durham to a place where a 17 year old would take over the care from a parent. If true, it is a red herring in this case, as many parents of children with SEN and medical needs - for whom a four hour drive without stopping, or a pleasant drive out to see a market town will never happen, even without lockdown - have already stated.

The story has trickled around twitter for the sole purpose of nudging public opinion around, if you ask me.

The Sunday Times are reporting that he was, surprise surprise, lying in his account of his visit to Barnard Castle. He said he walked about 15 m from his car, sat down for a few minutes and then went back to his car and returned to his parents. Which fits with what the witness said. But since his statement other witnesses have come forward and given statements to the police confirming that they saw him wandering around the town. He's a liar and him and Johnson are playing the public for fools.

Does it matter? He WAS there so it's not really relevant.

I habe no idea whether the. Mail on Sunday allegations are true. But if they are it doesn't alter what Cummings did. He admitted himself he went back to work after rushing home to wife who had symptoms then with his wife and family to Durham to the 'not very nice cottage' then when he had symptons to pick his wife and child up from hospital then that he to Barnard Castle to text his eyesight.

I think it matters enormously what he was doing in BC, because he has given us an explanation of why he was there which only really fits a single riverbank sighting.

But since his statement other witnesses have come forward and given statements to the police confirming that they saw him wandering around the town. He's a liar and him and Johnson are playing the public for fools

I wonder if he has Google Maps on his phone which tracks his every movement...