Take this quick survey on lockdown and emergency childcare - closing soon

[BojanaMumsnet]

We’re running this really short poll to find out what you think about the actions Dominic Cummings took (#cumgate!) in late Mar/early April. It shouldn’t take any longer than a couple of mins.

This survey is open to all UK MNers with at least 1 child.

To start the survey, please click here.

Thanks in advance for sharing your views on this issue.
MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

[AHippoNamedBooBooButt]

Done.
What I struggle to understand is that his wife didn't have "covid symptoms" ie fever/cough. She was just vomiting. I wouldn't dream of travelling 260miles to visit my parents in their 70s (so shielding) just because my OH threw up. It's all a load a bullsh*t

[itsgettingweird]

Done.

But really there needs to be a question added about disability.

The fact I was in same situation and didn't travel for childcare looks fair enough when I say ds is 15.

Looks a little different if it included the fact he has a physical disability and autism - and therefore needing support for him was necessary.

[stormsurfer]

Agree with PP. My DC are 15 and 17 but both have ASD and other additional needs.

[stormsurfer]

Oh and I also think it is important to know if people are the lone parent in the household.

[jasmine867]

Done and both my son and I had the coronavirus. We did not leave home I stayed alone at home and ordered food online as the guidance said.

[Phineyj]

My question would be, travel how far? Travel a few miles to your nearest set of friends or relations who could help. Sensible. Travelling hundreds of miles if you have other options, obviously not. If you add that money is no object and you're in the centre of a major city. Very obviously not!

[itsgettingweird]

Oh yeah! I'm also a lone parent.

[FlyingOink]

I haven't done the survey because I don't have a child but I think it's bizarre to expect us to believe that the man described as the "real" PM had no backup plan in a city the size of London and with (presumably) the entire resources of the Palace of Westminster at his fingertips. If he can't organise childcare (or even a believable set of lies) I struggle to understand how he can organise 65 million of us, pandemic or no pandemic.
He strikes me as a bit pathetic.

[AuntieStella]

Done

(bump)

[lorisparkle]

In his interview he said he had not investigated childcare locally.

[trilbydoll]

I can't think of anything worse than driving 260 miles with a bad stomach

[DirtyBlonde]

In his interview he said he had not investigated childcare locally

[Phineyj]

Indeed!

[CoronaIsComing]

Done, but I think the survey is too simplistic. For example, I can’t get worked up about him going to his parents’ estate to self isolate given that there was more space and access to childcare. But the trip out to see if he was able to see well enough to drive was was ridiculous! As was his explanation that he had to stop for his son to have a wee and then they all just started paying in the woods 🤨

[CoronaIsComing]

*playing

[cdtaylornats]

And yet nobody has complained about Ian Blackford travelling to and from his constituency partly by ferry.

Not one of the people berating Cummings have answered what they would do in the situation.

It wouldn't surprise me if the journalists would just leave the child in the wilderness

If nothing else the BBC will be able to point at this and say "that's when we lost the licence fee".

[FlyingOink]

Not one of the people berating Cummings have answered what they would do in the situation.
What situation is that? His boss is ill, he is ill, he's not ill, his wife is ill, it's his mum's birthday and his wife's birthday, he might need childcare but he might not, and as everyone knows , the only way to get childcare in a massive city like London is to drive to Durham with a child who doesn't need to pee on five hour journeys, just half-hour journeys.
Or his situation where he wasn't sure if he could see, so he thought he'd go for a quick sight-check drive with his (possibly previously ill but now recovered) wife who can drive and his child in the car?
Which situation exactly do you think nobody has contemplated?

He's not even a good liar. It's scary that he hasn't been sacked. He's got some serious dirt on Boris.

[FlyingOink]

The guy came up with the bloody rules and is trying to say that he's a caring dad and that's why he came up with all this bullshit and basically did as he pleased.
So all those people who didn't see their kids, or whose loved ones died without them there because they were following his rules just aren't as caring as he is?

Bullshit. He's just a liar and any other "advisor" would have been booted ages ago, not given his own press conference. This is unprecedented, not just Tory-bashing.

[Applesandpears23]

If we were both sick we’d try really hard to keep looking after the kids. If we couldn’t take care of them I have asked a friend to come and look after them. We would only ask them to do this if the situation were unsafe for the children not just unpleasant for the adults and boring for the children (which is the usual experience of looking after young children whilst ill). Does he not know how to look after his own child?

[Slinkymalinky1]

Everyone talking about 'the rules' he broke his own rules, he put his own family at risk, because he'd rather do that than bloody take care of his own kids whilst his wife was supposedly ill. Surely that doesn't change what you as an individual would do? Yes, he's supposed to lead by example, but he didn't, doesn't mean I'm going to think fuck it and put my dad at risk 🤷‍♀️

[Slinkymalinky1]

We've been advised to do what's best. That advice has come from scientists, some twat in government hasn't followed the advice, doesn't change the advice.

[aliasundercover]

@cdtaylornats
That is the most pathetic bunch of truth-avoiding, miserable, unbelievable, immature, excuses and blame shifting I've heard since ... er ... Cummings statement on Monday.

You're not his wife by any chance?

[NudgeUnit]

Glad you're collating data on this @MNHQ. I thought the pack of lies we were treated to on Monday was particularly insulting to parents and their intelligence, eg:

-- the idea that we would believe a 4yo would manage a 5-6 hour car journey without needing at least one stop

-- the idea that anyone in their right mind would 'test their eyesight' on a busy A road with their child strapped in the back

-- the idea that ambulances are sent for 4yos who have had one episode of vomiting when someone else in the family has vomited but now feels better

-- the idea that when your wife is ill you go running to mummy (or your sister, or your niece) for help with your kid (not sure if this is more insulting to mums or dads!)

-- and above all, the idea that having to look after a young child when both of you are ill is somehow 'exceptional' or an emergency when it's pretty-run-of-the-mill stuff out here in the real world.

I can only think Cummings doesn't do much parenting ordinarily, which is presumably why his approximation of parental 'instincts' is so totally out of step with anything approaching reasonable behaviour.

[PhotoFit]

I know this is going to be an unpopular point of view but on the facts of the case, assuming he is telling the truth, I can't see that he has done anything out of order. Even if he has, the scale and viciousness of media reaction is ridiculous.

Driving over 250 miles was hardly an easy option. Kinder to the child though than setting up emergency child care with a stranger at short notice - with the possibility that both parents might have ended up in hospital. Not an option open to everyone but that is irrelevant. Equally, not everyone was already, according to his statement, under siege by the press in their home and receiving threats.

IMHO the media frenzy is not because of the facts but a) because he is widely disliked and b) for political reasons.

I am not a Tory and do not feel well disposed towards Cumings but I think the media are behaving appallingly - and hypocritically, since there is no "physical distancing" by the mob outside his home.

The incessant allegations that Cumings' actions will lead others to change their behaviour and ignore the government are pathetic and patronising. The media seem to want this to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, just so they can have something else to throw at him, without any regard for the consequences for public health.

I had no sympathy for Prof Neil Ferguson and felt it was right that he resigned. He clearly went against Government instructions - of his own making - and there was no lee-way for a legover!

However, there was always an exception when it came to children. If the police did stop anyone out on the same mission and charge them then they were wrong to do so.

I think that the press are being self-indulgent, are enjoying the excitement and speculation and the excuse for some juicy investigative journalism that makes a change from reporting on Covid-19.

If they get their way and topple Cumings, this won't be the last of it. They will sniffing around for a story about someone else to shame and hound, with a story as close to the facts of this one as possible. That's how the press works. Preferably someone in the public eye but failing that anyone will do. (It won't be me, in case anyone thinks I have a personal reason for thinking this way.)

There are far more important things the press should be covering instead of using up all their questions at the daily briefing nit-picking about Cumings. The sooner they get over it and re-focus the better.

[FlyingOink]

on the facts of the case, assuming he is telling the truth, I can't see that he has done anything out of order
On the facts of the case which were hidden for weeks while they tried to bury the story
Assuming he is telling the truth he is quite clearly lying and everyone can see he's no good at it
I can't see go for a drive!
that he has done anything out of order except for go back to No 10 after seeing his wife with symptoms, travelling the entire length of England, made up some cock and bull story/stories, held a bizarre press conference where he read prepared notes and kept everyone waiting, refused to apologise, and implied that all those people who didn't see their mum on her deathbed etc should have ignored the rules as he did?

There are far more important things the press should be covering instead of using up all their questions at the daily briefing nit-picking about Cumings.
We're in the middle of a pandemic and a shady spin doctor who Boris is too scared to sack and who has inserted himself into the SAGE scientific meetings despite having (I think) a 2:1 in History completely ignores the advice given to the public and enforced by confused police. He then hides the story, becomes the story, and refuses to apologise. It's a very interesting story and I hope they keep pursuing it.