Cummings evidence today

[Dirtystreetpie]

Anyone listening?

I think it's unwise to ignore his testimony because of his idiotic road trip.

Sure. But we'd have to be stupid to take his testimony at face value.

He's proven he's deceitful, tells whatever story is advantageous to himself, and goes back to edit previously published material to make it appear to support his current story.

So, if he does produce material which isn't yet in the public domain, it will come under "interesting, but handle with tongs."

@the80sweregreat

Yes, why is he turning on Boris Johnson now? What is the real story? (His invite to their wedding next year is truly blown! ) Plus he couldn't help to sneak in a bit about Carrie and her involvement with a preoccupation over the dog story whilst more important things were going on .. It's her he seems to have a bigger problem with.

Weird for him even to mention her, she is not in government and is irrelevant to everything being discussed. May as well mention what Hancocks mum was doing, surely?

I'm sure he has some serious dirt on Boris.

@wintertravel1980

DC: "UK should have locked down 'in first week of March at the latest..."

DC is saying it now with the benefit of hindsight. Even Italy, the epicentre of Covid in early March did not lockdown until March 9th. In the beginning of March we had no clue how widely spread Covid was in the UK. Does anyone really think we could have "locked down" before Italy?

We did act late but in the very best case scenario we could have acted as the same time as France, not much earlier. DC is very selectively editing his memories (similarly to what he has done with his blog).

That's not true though. My DH's workplace shut their offices from 7th March (i.e. wfh from 9th March), My workplace shut their offices from 13th March (i.e. wfh from 16th March), the government locked down 23rd March.

Sorry to say neither my DH's company nor my old company could have had better intel than the government. Ours were not the only ones.

It felt shoehorned in .. ' oh, Boris's girlfriend was also kicking off about the press , whilst the rest of us were dealing with a pandemic'
Some people were planning trips to see their relatives over the first lockdown and drive hundreds of miles too Dominic ..
He either has huge dirt of them all or just arrogant enough to think we have forgotten last May's presser in the rose garden. Which will be his downfall.

But this is a well known liar with a very clear axe to grind - why he's being given so much media attention is beyond me.

I can only answer for myself personally as to why I am watching this, but Cummings is going to tell the truth right up to the point of not pointing the finger at himself, I would imagine he has evidence for the majority of what he is saying and I think his main aim is to destory Johnson's image, maybe not Johnson himself, but the image that he is the 2nd coming of Churchill.

And what are the government going to do about it? Its not like they can agree, if they disagree that I am sure evidence will be leaked.

They can't say well Cummings was always shit, because then people are going to ask, well why did you all rally round him. The government can't even say actually yes he did break the rules and we should have done something about that, because again why didn't you at the time, especially when a large amount of the British Public were screaming about it.

I actually believe the shit that is coming out of his mouth than anything Johnson is going to say regarding this and that thought makes me want to go take a shower

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/26/dominic-cummings-evidence-to-mps-on-covid-crisis-fact-checked

Worth keeping an eye on - at least some of what the duplicitous little weasel is saying appears to be true.

Tyrie wouldn't have let this sort of character weave like this.

Quite a prepared narrative. He's had enough time to have a waffle around it all. If you add to a blog you state the addition date. Maybe some people are susceptible to Cummings' codswallop.

He was always Gove's man.

In between saying the he isn't culpable as he isn't that smart, he still can't stop himself trying to act the authoritative seer.

@2021hwg

I think boris has to be very careful what he denies. I think Cummings could have recordings backing up his evidence

I've got a friend who has one of those recording camera pens. All DC needed was his phone, or such a pen. Easy.

@Faultymain5 Yes my company sent us all home to wfh from the 7th of March. And other companies we were working with as suppliers were also doing this. Or at the very least setting up systems so people could wfh. By then in March a lot of the public knew what was coming.

Why is any of this surprising, we shut are borders down far to late, as an island we should of handled this better, but I’m not in charge of running the country, having to look after the economy etc, we need an independent body of experts that would tell the whole of Parliament what to do in times like these, take it out of the hands of any government that has to make the hard decision with other things to consider,
Did anybody really expect that BJ or any other politician had the experience, knowledge etc to handle a pandemic, it should have been taken out of their hands, dammed if they do dammed if they don’t, there are still people in the streets saying it’s not real or it’s just the flu, only kills the old etc.

@tenredthings

He's in league with slimy Gove, it's all theatre.

Replacing Johnson with Gove would be the quickest way for the Tories to lose the next GE.

I don’t like Johnson, and I don’t think Starmer is particularly electable, but FFS Gove is voter poison. The Tories aren’t stupid, they must be aware of this. Cummings is also not stupid enough to think the electorate would warm to the GoveBot and his malfunctioning human suit.

@fruityorange

My company sent us to work from home two weeks before lockdown. They knew what was coming. There were people here in February warning what was coming. I do not know why private companies and some MN posters should know better than the government.

There were some warning about it on Twitter, all through January. The testomanies from people, including the journalists who were/are China Correspondents, were especially poignant.

@Dumpypumpy

25th jan the government hadn’t even started pandemic planning- i had already bought my hazmat suit and masks by then!

But they had. 31st Jan - see Hansard - Hancock said if covid got here they would take measures that would habe an extreme effect on economy and society. No mention, from the Health Secretary, about trying to contain infection.

What day did the furlough scheme get announced? They had plans, but the only plan for the people ill woth covid was "don't call an ambulance unless your lips turn blue".

Cummings has an axe to grind here. I don't think he cares about anyone's health.

I'm sure a lot of it is true.
Cheltenham and crafts going ahead wasnt made up. He said he struggled to understand the scientists ( I can believe this too , it's not a subject that is easy to grasp fully ) and the modelling they produced must have been baffling ( considering the last pandemic was a hundred years ago) also many scientists may have had different views on how to handle the situation as well. It's been well documented that Boris Johnson didn't attend the early meetings and it was just seen as something that would ' blow over' in time.
Nothing he said today was new.
The leaks that may come out in time may be a bit more explosive ( if that is what he is planning on doing ) but nobody will believe them I suppose.
Its hard to guess what his real intentions are here. Heard won't roll. Nothing will happen.
The vaccine has saved their bacon anyway.

@Girlmama3

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.

My family lost someone. I am watching it on all channels with great interest. I have always suspected that my relative could still be alive if the first lockdown had happened sooner - and I want to know if that's right or not. I am beyond shocked that even more people died in the post-Christmas second wave, when they had the experience/knowledge already. Plus if this helps to save others in a potential third wave, then we do definitely need to know – and act on it.

Cummings is also not stupid enough to think the electorate would warm to the GoveBot and his malfunctioning human suit

Brilliant!!!

Also wonder if I'm alone in thinking Cummings looks more like his Spitting Image puppet than the puppet looks like him?

@lonelyplanetmum

Some of the comments defending the government on here astonish me. Were you listening to the questions asked. and answers given? I've a friend who is an epidemiologist working with Moderns who has said for months that (apart from the NHS vaccination programme) most decisions by the govt have been shocking.

Is everyone actually listening to the committee ? What Cummings says contains a clear admission that he was out of his depth, and the government majorly failed in the Feb early March period and that people died as a result.

And yes, of course, it was a woman Helen McNamara who came and spoke truth to power. After that the plans changed.

I have learnt that some people, if they strongly support a political party/have links with them/work or volunteer for them, will say and defend and justify just about anything about it. Literally.

@Sirius99

Why is any of this surprising, we shut are borders down far to late, as an island we should of handled this better, but I’m not in charge of running the country, having to look after the economy etc, we need an independent body of experts that would tell the whole of Parliament what to do in times like these, take it out of the hands of any government that has to make the hard decision with other things to consider, Did anybody really expect that BJ or any other politician had the experience, knowledge etc to handle a pandemic, it should have been taken out of their hands, dammed if they do dammed if they don’t, there are still people in the streets saying it’s not real or it’s just the flu, only kills the old etc.

That's why competent governments have plans worked out with experts ready for these situations. A major part in the US being fucked was Trump refusing the plan that was ready to go because Obama did it. Ask the experts first (although it was Gove that said people were sick of them right?) and update as necessary.

I think people have short memories. The week before the first lockdown, so the week of the 14th of March, most bars and restaurants were empty. Supermarkets were being stripped of Longlife goods and toilet paper. The public was demanding a lockdown.
The government went into lockdown on the 23rd of March because they had no choice. Lots of companies had already closed their doors or had people wfh. There were a small number of people packing out bars because they knew a lockdown was coming, but most were staying home. The streets were very quiet.
To claim a lockdown at the beginning of March would have been ridiculous means that we forget what it was like in March. Big companies like GSK had many people wfh by the 7th. By the beginning of March Experian were sending some staff to WFH to test out the wfh systems in preparation for most wfh. People were keeping children off school and the second week of March had very low attendances in some schools and classes.
Those who could afford to went into a lockdown before the 23rd of March. Only those poor, who could not wfh or who were covid deniers were carrying on as normal until the 23rd.

I have no love for Dominic Cummings and I question his motives, however I think there is some truth in what we're hearing, we just need to try and cut through the spin.

Cummings is not a stupid man. He knows he couldn't get away with saying Boris Johnson fucked up without also admitting he himself fucked up. Means people much more likely to believe what he says (which frankly I'm sure is true).

Our government needs to be held accountable for how monumentally it fucked up.

To claim a lockdown at the beginning of March would have been ridiculous means that we forget what it was like in March.

I think at the beginning of March it would have been a very tough sell but maybe manageable, because by then we could see the news coming out of Italy. Probably the earliest point it would have been feasible.

I don’t think companies preparing to WFH is quite the same as the wider public being happy with putting the whole country into a months-long national lockdown though. Even when we did end up in lockdown and it was very obvious it was not going to be over fast, lots of people still believed it would be over in a few weeks.

Yes, our office went into full WFH mode in mid-March, some time before the official lockdown came into force. It was no mean feat as WFH was very restricted prior to this and the majority of staff were not set up for it.

RuggerHug
That’s why you need a totally independent body that has no political pressure, no British government lately has had too prepare or plan for anything like this, no government with the economic pressures would have done much better

@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?

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.

It isn't just a whoops we made a mistake keep calm and carry on.

The deaths of tens of thousands of people may have been avoidable. How inhumane are you that you think they should be brushed under the carpet.

Contracts for millions of tax payers pounds need to be investigated.

Why do you not care enough to find out the truth?