I know I should have "moved on" but Cummings...

[1stV45]

I do think the government's handling of that sorry business is, in large part, responsible for where we are now.

I know there were always rumblings of complaints about "others" not following the rules but ever since we were told people must do what's right for their families it seems widespread. Before that the majority were complying and there was a general feeling of at least wanting to be seen to do the right thing. Even now with tightening restrictions, lots of people just simply seem to be saying they're not prepared to do it. People who want to stick to things to the letter face derision.

I don't understand why he didn't just say "I made a poor decision, I was wrong" which would have enabled him to stay in his job and everyone to move on, instead of that ridiculous justification which lead everyone to question why they had been stupid enough to follow the rules.

I get the feeling, from taking to colleagues and what's going in on SM, that it doesn't matter what the restrictions are, there won't be enough people sticking to them to make a difference. And I do think Cummings was the turning point.

I totally agree this was the point we stopped following the rules to the letter. He has all the access to the data and thought it ok to travel across the country after a positive test.
@mum2jakie no one can sack an MP, they can run a recall petition under certain circumstances but the Scottish MP didn’t actually break the law. The difference between her and Cummings is that his actions were defended, hers weren’t by anyone. He got his chance to defend himself on live, national TV from the garden of our elected PM. He’s an unelected advisor, his employer holds him to account and they decided he should stay.

The Cabinet office said it as it was - this government are liars and truth twisters

I’m still furious about Cummings. I think anyone who can’t see that his little road trip undermined everything that had gone before it is being wilfully ignorant.

Before that it was ‘ok this is shit but it’s shit for everyone and we have to just suck it up and get on with it, there are no alternatives, the rules are very clear, stay at home, only leave for essential reasons’.

After he deliberately broke the rules and it was not only sanctioned but supported and refashioned as being completely within the rules, that’s when the thinking changed from the above to: ‘there’s shades of grey, we can visit family if we can personally justify it for reasons that are important to us, we can mix with others if we think it’s ok, if we’ve made that judgement call that we think it’s necessary then that’s fine, because that’s what Dominic Cummings did and the govt said it was fine.’

It went from a blanket policy being applied and understood to a personal risk assessment that everyone applied in their own way.

I was furious with the way they tried to brush it under the carpet. They really treated us like idiots with the eyesight story, Shower of bastards every one of them, including Rishi who leapt to his defence straight away. Turning point for me as well.

Some things can't be forgotten, I HATE them.

The bottom line is that a lot of people (raises hand) believe that if the government had put 1% of the effort it put into having Doms back into dealing with Covid, then we'd be in a much better place right now.

Instead, the government learned that it can shit on everyone, and get away with it. And any parent should know once a child has learned that, it's very very hard to get them to unlearn it. So that's now become their way. Luckily they are only doing it with Covid and peoples livelihoods. Imagine if it were something more serious.

@AbbyAbal - my understanding was that you could be fined for not following the rules around self isolation? Is that the case?

For all those still angry, it's not over yet...

The man who compiled the dossier, Nazir Afzal, lost his brother to coronavirus while Cummings was off on his jolly.

I hope Mr Afzal nails the bastard. What’s good for the goose and all that.

Oh yes, and to rub salt into the wounds, the so called run down cottage was a fucking “lodge”, no planning permission, no council tax paid and they’re letting him off paying £30k! Anyone else would have to pay up and demolish the building.

@Jaxhog

People are just using his behaviour as an excuse for theirs.

This. The only person responsible for your behaviour is YOU.

Yes. I don't think the people demonstrating, gathering to have raves, visiting family in large groups etc gave a fuck about what Cummings did.

Mr Afzal, the man instrumental in pushing to bring prosecutions against the Rochdale rapists

Bring it on, Mr Afzal

[quote mum2jakie]@AbbyAbal - my understanding was that you could be fined for not following the rules around self isolation? Is that the case?[/quote]
Only from right at the end of September. Margaret Ferrier escaped it by two days.

@Youandmeareluckytobeus

What rubbish. If people have started to behave irresponsibly it is because they are fundamentally irresponsible. Just because one Govt advisor travelled when he shouldn't have done does not make sensible people do the same. Otherwise they'd all be copying the stupid former SNP MP who travelled on a train after testing positive for Covid. People are just using his behaviour as an excuse for theirs.

What you are doing here is confusing your feelings about how other people should react with how they actually reacted. They're not the same. It doesn't matter in the slightest whether you think it's an excuse or not.

Blair's government knew you could get people to resign and welcome them back a few months later to look like you were a respectable government, but Johnson decided that his government of liars and crooks are so special they can do what they like then gaslight the public.

After Cummings I've been listening to people's sad tales and telling them actually their case comes under care and support.

I don't like Cummings but his situation was press intrusion outside his house all the time and even getting into his back garden so he made a decision to get away somewhere he and his family would be safe with no intruders. I don't think he did anything terrible. The regs are there for our protection but we sometimes have to use our initiative. In his position I might have done the same. I'm sure some did and nobody knew or if they did, they were understood.

Of course not everyone has a place of safely to run to but that's life.

Is that you, Mary ?

@Username1243

Leave Dom alone, he did nothing wrong. As some Bishop said, he was clever enough to read the small print that the rest of us were too stupid to see.

"Some Bishop?" Really. Do you also think Jeff Bezos is a stand-up guy because he gets out of paying taxes when the rest of us are just too stupid?

Come to think of it, you probably do think that.

Agree, the lost a lot of goodwill from the moment they started defending Cummings actions and that then continued with the PPE, test and trace, care homes etc debacles

@jessstan1

I don't like Cummings but his situation was press intrusion outside his house all the time and even getting into his back garden so he made a decision to get away somewhere he and his family would be safe with no intruders. I don't think he did anything terrible. The regs are there for our protection but we sometimes have to use our initiative. In his position I might have done the same. I'm sure some did and nobody knew or if they did, they were understood.

Of course not everyone has a place of safely to run to but that's life.

He broke the law with the trip from Durham to Barnard Castle, when press intrusion wasn't an issue.

Did the intruding press take pictures of Dominic Cummings leaving London?

No no no, no this.... what he did is not the press fault. He did it all on his own.

Did anyone read the guardian article yesterday about a British woman who emigrated to Portland in US 5 years ago with daughter and American husband? It was in the magazine. Anyway, interesting bit for me was when she was reading with envy about our press uproar about Cummings wishing that was all she had to worry about when she had wild fires, riots, white supramicists with guns etc. She is now back in London quarantining with her family. I guess we are quite privileged that Cummings visiting a popular beauty spot at the end of April is a terrible outrage in this country. Made me at least put it in perspective

@Fleabagster

Despite not voting Tory, I was supportive of the Government and had sympathy for there position until that point. It all went out of the window from then. I was furious.

This ^
When Johnson told us what Cummings did was ‘reasonable’, when so many people had been making massive sacrifices, they basically told us to eat a shit sandwich.

I will never ‘move on’ or forgive any of the Cabinet members or other Tory MPs who put keeping Cummings in post over and above maintaining trust and compliance in the public health message during a pandemic. Exceptional circumstances looking after your own child ffs!

He will never live down his ridiculous eyesight test drive. Total pillock.

Well done vipers for not letting them pull the wool over your eyes!

@Username1243

Leave Dom alone, he did nothing wrong. As some Bishop said, he was clever enough to read the small print that the rest of us were too stupid to see.

I read that Dom changed the small print retrospectively. Just like he supposedly wrote about the coronavirus last year but it was actually around April 2020 and he just made it look like it was before the pandemic. He's a cheat and a liar and the clowns in the government bent over backwards to defend him. Our collective died a bit after that

I cried angry tears when I saw his little smirk of duper’s delight when he got up and walked out of the Rose Garden. I was thinking of that poor family who lost a teenager and could be with him as he died or have a proper funeral.
Having Cummings smirking after he gave us an hour of bullshit was horrendous.
As he was speaking DH and I were watching saying, “He’s lying”. I felt like him and Johnson think we are mugs.