Cummings evidence today

[Dirtystreetpie]

Anyone listening?

At least Cummings can speak in sentences and enunciate whereas Boris just goes waffle waffle waffle err umm waffle

CovidCorvid
They weren’t elected to oversee a pandemic

But it doesn't matter whether the electorate would warm to Gove. The election strategy would be to hide Gove in a fridge and talk endlessly about a manufactured story that Starmer once kicked a puppy, aged 3.

That's current electioneering style, and Cummings is a driver of it.

This will not bring anyone down.
In fact, it'll probably make people more determined to vote Tory.
I doubt anyone is quaking in their boots at all.
Too many people didn't want lockdown and will back Boris Johnson to the hilt too.

PerkingFaintly
If it’s not broke don’t fix it

@Twinkie01 Cummings is an arsehole, manipulative and dishonest, you may as well have a toad sitting there croaking an answer to every question.

I think you're giving toads everywhere a hard time.

@the80sweregreat

This will not bring anyone down. In fact, it'll probably make people more determined to vote Tory. I doubt anyone is quaking in their boots at all. Too many people didn't want lockdown and will back Boris Johnson to the hilt too.

I agree that this will play well for Boris with a lot of people that do not like lockdowns and think Boris has gone soft!

Also, how nice to hear Cummings thought Johnston was unsuitable for Prime Minister.

Funny, then, that Cummings worked so hard to get him in.

Clearly the contemporary electioneering mantra he and his ilk promote, of, "Well obviously I don't like the opposition, but vote for this guy... oh I couldn't," doesn't apply to Dom.

It's only us plebs who are supposed to turn up our noses and spoil our ballots on cue.

We’re all living in Dominic Cummings’ world now
www.politico.eu/article/dominic-cummings-uk-electio-2019-strategy-conservative-victory/

... Cummings, who had been a crucial figure in Johnson's successful leadership bid....
[...]
Aside from the morning calls, Cummings remained involved in the overarching strategy, core message and focus of the campaign, according to officials, but he took a "backseat role" in the public race and was only seen at campaign HQ once or twice a week.

'The problem is that Cummings is so sneaky that there's no way on earth that he's telling the truth about any of it. He wants to destroy Johnson and Hancock and conveniently forget the role that he played in this whole situation.'

Yes and he is just waffling on telling constant anecdotes. If he has evidence fine share that and discuss that but this he said/she said seems woefully amateurish and irrelevant.

@KnowlWay

I think he’s got acid reflux. Some strange swallowing.

He's literally swallowing down the lies. Him Boris and Carrie running the country with Gove in the background. Christ alive...

@Girlmama3

I don't understand the point. We all know they acted too late but it was over a year ago. Surely we need to move on and leave it in the past?

so we let them carry on making more and more mistakes?

@Sirius99

CovidCorvid They weren’t elected to oversee a pandemic

They were elected to run the country, no matter what the circumstances.

Not sure why he is so down on Hancock in particular. He’s mentioned him disparaging too many times too. It sounds too personal to me
Maybe he disliked the film contagion narrative where Hancock is credited with some of the vaccine stuff hence the Independence Day narrative to create his own Hollywood hero role
It all sounds to me like Cummings was in charge and yet he wasn’t in charge and Cummings is to blame and yet he isn’t to blame

I have really mixed feelings about this. The government made some catastrophic mistakes and it's right they're held to account but it's so easy to point the finger with hindsight. I don't trust DC, either, he's as rotten as the rest of them.

If an earlier lockdown was imposed, huge numbers would have been outraged and refused to comply because people would have been looking only at the catastrophic economic damage that comes with that. Many were downplaying Covid, not just Boris. The WHO and China made huge errors early on. There were loads of people on here saying they were going to keep mixing regardless of the rules or their elderly parents were going out for weekly shops and were refusing to stop that and that they didn't care about risks even though there were urgent messages around about how vital it was they stayed indoors. There were people saying Italy had a wave of deaths because the climate was different and we would actually be ok.

Can you also imagine if we had locked down very early - how do you then justify spending millions on vaccines or ppl? There would have been no urgency. I have Aussie friends who are reporting their friends/family are refusing to have the vaccine now because they're hearing scare stories about blood clots and consider that's a bigger risk than Covid. They can't conceive of what it's like to see hospitals being overwhelmed and having waves of deaths. And that's now, in 2021, when they can see how bad some other countries have had it. It's so human to go into denial about big catastrophes - I do look at the government's mistakes and wonder whether anyone else would have honestly done a better job - no doubt there are areas where Labour would have done better but equally there would have been areas they did worse.

Our school finished a week earlier, not because we decided too - because we had too many staff off sick to function.

Last March was a nightmare. So many mistakes, and the unforgivable thing is that Christmas saw a repeat of many of those mistakes.

The buck stops with Boris.

We're not out of the woods yet, and I have no faith in the government to get us through this.
The vaccines are the key to us being ok for now.

No heads will roll regarding this performance by the insidious little toad that is DC.

Yet.

Hancock should have resigned (been sacked) months ago. He wasn't.

My DD is an ICU nurse and she was having to re-use and wash PPE after long shifts nursing dying Covid patients, whilst he was on TV saying that all ICU units had adequate PPE. They didn't. Shocking.

@sashagabadon

Not sure why he is so down on Hancock in particular. He’s mentioned him disparaging too many times too. It sounds too personal to me Maybe he disliked the film contagion narrative where Hancock is credited with some of the vaccine stuff hence the Independence Day narrative to create his own Hollywood hero role It all sounds to me like Cummings was in charge and yet he wasn’t in charge and Cummings is to blame and yet he isn’t to blame

I was thinking about this I reckon high level of personal reaction and always having escape hatch ready - Cummings that is

Listening from beginning now. Very interesting to hear about some of it

He reminds me of Harry, slating everyone only once he's been shown the door.

He has a selective conscience.

'hence the Independence Day narrative to create his own Hollywood hero role hmmIt all sounds to me like Cummings was in charge and yet he wasn’t in charge and Cummings is to blame and yet he isn’t to blame'

It is all too bizarre. He can remember that no no hang on he can't. Hancock is definitely not his bff.

I have really mixed feelings about this. The government made some catastrophic mistakes and it's right they're held to account but it's so easy to point the finger with hindsight.

Agreed. Some mistakes were unavoidable but some were just incompetence and/or corruption - like giving PPE contracts to mates who couldn't fulfill them. Heads should roll for that.

@PerkingFaintly

But it doesn't matter whether the electorate would warm to Gove. The election strategy would be to hide Gove in a fridge and talk endlessly about a manufactured story that Starmer once kicked a puppy, aged 3.

That's current electioneering style, and Cummings is a driver of it.

Yes spot on @PerkingFaintly.

Coupled with "The public doesn't want to talk about [insert minimising summary of latest Tory horror story], they want to know how we are tackling [insert latest emotive news story]."

And that's exactly what we do. For every 10 horrific things that the Tories do we point to 1 example that any opposing party does and for every other 10 horrific things that the Tories do we say "really it's not their fault and we should support them to do their job."

It's just infuriating.

I think the way he's going after Hancock is a bit much and won't help his case

Cummings is a proligate liar and self promoter but so are most of the people running our country at the moment. It's just liars arguing about who is the worst liar and trying to shift the blame.

@GoldenOmber

There was slightly more to it than "acted too late", there needs to be a public inquiry to ascertain the level of incompetence, lying, corruption and possibly criminality.

There needs to be a public inquiry but it can’t just focus on lies and corruption and which bad politician is the baddest. There are bigger problems here. SAGE were advising the government not to lock down, which seems awful in hindsight but presumably made sense to them at the time.

We need an inquiry that looks at what we’ve learned from this and what governments can do to plan better for the next time, knowing now what we know.

SAGE advising not to was interesting

*profligate

nancy75
Not many countries have come out of this any good, different political parties in different countries, have all made mistakes, it’s not just a U.K. thing

@Fleek so they waited until the public was begging for a lockdown, keeping kids off school and many private companies were sending staff home?
They were too afraid to make an unpopular decision I agree. So they let the public make it for them. And it killed people.
I am not interested in a politician who only cares about their popularity. They are the Mayor in Jaws, who Boris Johnson is rumoured to admire aka bloody idiot.