Cummings evidence today

[Dirtystreetpie]

Anyone listening?

@SpeedRunParent to be fair, that is the line they stuck with for years, to avoid an inquiry into Hillsborough, Bloody Sunday, and anything else the government or police found embarrassing.

But they keep making the same mistakes. Until they have owned the mistakes they made originally they will continue to do so. They e just done it again with the Indian variant.

Yes. As Cummings has acknowledged, the government prioritised the travel industry above all else. Above lives, above health (physical and mental), and above all other industries. With devastating consequences - including to the economy. And still they continue to do this.

I think they all know they were too slow. I don't think constantly dragging it up helps, it reminds the families of those who lost lives that it could have been avoided.

How very offensive to those families. Do you imagine they are ever going to forget it, even if Johnson succeeds in his efforts to sweep it all under the carpet? Would you, @Girlmama3?

Seeing as Sunak is directly responsible for many deaths due to the ridiculous Eat Out To Spread It About scheme then he has blood on his hands as well. The whole lot of them should be in jail

There's such a thing as personal responsibility. If Rishi Sunak has blood on his hands for the 'eat out to help out' scheme then so does every single person who took up the offer to do just that, along with all the venues that took part together with all the people that couldn't bear to forgo a foreign holiday during the summer etc. It was the actions of everyone that lead to increased transmission.

That lockdown was different. There were no cars on the road, people stayed at home.

Well apart from the hundreds of thousands of international arrivals travelling across the country.

Oh for goodness sake. I don't have blood on my hands because I went out for a meal with my family in August. What nonsense.

Like Cummings says, the lockdown was pretty meaningless - thanks to the lack of border control.

And yet all the rest of us were expected to follow the rules, even if it meant we had no chance to say goodbye to loved ones who died alone.

Yes. There was no border control.

Johnson was and is useless.

I don't think constantly dragging it up helps, it reminds the families of those who lost lives that it could have been avoided

Exactly. I cannot begin to imagine how those who lost someone in a care home or someone close to them, would feel. There were some callers on LBC today and they were beside themselves with grief at being let down.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say 'exactly'.

I meant to say... how crass to think it can just be forgotten with an 'oh well, never mind, let's not drag it up any more'

@Leonardsgirl

Oh for goodness sake. I don't have blood on my hands because I went out for a meal with my family in August. What nonsense.

In which case Sunak doesn’t either.

Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited. And having become PM he should have been booted out last April having totally ruined the initial response. All this we knew before Cummins opened his mouth. He's just confirming everything we already knew about Al the Conman Johnson.

'Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited.'

Well thank god he did or else we'd have had Corbyn and Abbott running the show

Incompetence and cover ups. In the last few days, Priti Patel has hung on to the Daniel Morgan report, Hillsborough trial thrown out today and Mr Cummings has laid out what we all suspected, that the government didn't have a clear plan and many of us could see that. But hurrah, Kate and William are on the TV. No idea why. No sign of Bozo though. Unutterably depressing.

@JaniieJones

'Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited.'

Well thank god he did or else we'd have had Corbyn and Abbott running the show

Ok, love how you over look the absolute shit show of a cabinet we have at the moment.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK statement

The evidence from Cummings is clear, that the government’s combination of grotesque chaos and uncaring flippancy is directly responsible for many of our loved ones not being with us today - and the refusal to have an urgent statutory inquiry risks others joining them.

I wonder if there's a chance of a criminal case?

Also from Ian Dunt's live-tweet thread:

Says Johnson said he agreed. "Chaos isn't that bad," he said, apparently. "It just means everyone has to look to me to see who is in charge."

As a Trump-watcher, this leapt out at me. In the crash-course I put myself through on authoritarian demagogues of the ages, one thing I learnt is that in-yer-face lying and creating chaos are important tools for wannabe dictators in creating their personality cult.

The authoritarian deliberately degrades the concept of external, verifiable truth and removes structure, to create a vacuum in which s/he can become the source of all Truth and Order. The more that certainty is destroyed, the more followers have to cling to their leader personally as the source of Truth, Order and Comfort.

I don't know whether Johnston really did say that, or whether Cummings decided that was a good lie to tell. Either way, someone is working from the Dictator's Playbook.

Longwayoff , Boris Johnson was at PMQs today.

Why in Gods name is Abbott trotted out again? And the evil Communist that is Corbyn.

Neither of them particularly float my boat....but how on earth could they have been much worse? really?

@JaniieJones

'Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited.'

Well thank god he did or else we'd have had Corbyn and Abbott running the show

The Conservative Party could have chosen a different candidate instead of this clown.

'Ok, love how you over look the absolute shit show of a cabinet we have at the moment.'

Well I don't, but the alternative would not have performed any better infact probably 100 times worse.

I'm still not sure what Cumming's said that was revolutionary or revealing. It was all just his opinion wasn't it. We already knew a lot of what he said, we knew symtomless transmission was initially missed, we knew patients were discharged from hospital without being tested.

We perhaps didn't know how much he loathed Hancock but so what really.

@Tealightsandd

I wonder if there's a chance of a criminal case?

The government chose a course of (in) action that they knew would cause tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. They did this more than once - and continue to make the same mistakes.

It's not just the deaths. Livelihoods lost, businesses ruined, and Long Covid - many people left with heart, lung, kidney, and other damage.

@JaniieJones

'Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited.'

Well thank god he did or else we'd have had Corbyn and Abbott running the show

Congratulations - you win the Whataboutery Award for the week.

@JaniieJones

'Johnson should have never become PM in the first place, totally totally unsuited.'

Well thank god he did or else we'd have had Corbyn and Abbott running the show

I don’t remember either Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott standing in the Conservative leadership contest, when did that happen?

I do think there should be an independent investigation know how covid was handled, but Cummings can fuck off. One of the biggest triggers for people thinking screw it, I'm done with abiding by the rules was him swanning off and then making a load of shit up to try and justify himself.