OT Cummings Press Statement

[swaledale]

Thing is Maddy, how do you look into it?
If his vision was impaired, I'm guessing we have to be talking about cold like symptoms?
Watery eyes for example?

But how do you follow up on that after an event?
I know he wears glasses, so must I assume wear them when driving.
That would mean he should/has declared that on his license?
You can hardly knock on someones door though, weeks later after an event for a post eye test.

The legal issue is a red herring, the main issue is about those "elites" who you love to bash in power, not acting in accordance with the instructions which they had issued to us "plebs"! So these heroes of yours who you voted in because they are "on the side" of the ordinary man, are actually bigger hypocrites than those you despise! Cracking judgement!

[Trickytreesreds]

The legal issue is a red herring, the main issue is about those "elites" who you love to bash in power, not acting in accordance with the instructions which they had issued to us "plebs"! So these heroes of yours who you voted in because they are "on the side" of the ordinary man, are actually bigger hypocrites than those you despise! Cracking judgement!

Eh? That makes a lot of sense.
I told you before. We had a poolof people to vote for. If you are seriously telling me, there were better options on the table at election time. Then I can only conclude you need a piss test for drugs.

[swaledale]

Any one who watched Have I Got news For You last night will have seen and heard Ian Hislop dismantle Cummings completely. One thing which made me laugh, was that Cummings likes to take swipes at the media and said they misreported his location, when in point of fact his wife is a Journalist! She writes for the Spectator and had in fact written an article in which she claimed they had self isolated in London and it had finished just as London locked down! So a member of his family in the media spun lies about his whereabouts, you couldn't make it up!!

[ramAnag]

The Durham police don't seem to think so

GP, you are I suspect, quite purposely, missing the point.

Whether the breaking of the rules is primarily a legal or moral issue is a grey area.

The point is that here we undeniably have a very influential person - arguably the most influential in Westminster since Johnson became PM - showing total disregard for the rules which he has put in place for everyone else to live by.

It is on a par with MP’s fiddling their expenses, teachers, care staff or members of the clergy being found guilty of *****philic behaviour, medical staff who are abusers (or worse), accountants fiddling the books, ‘bent’ coppers and crooked local councillors.
The case for such examples having actually broken the law may be clearer in some of those cases, but first and foremost the ‘sin’ is the abuse of position and the complete contempt for the trust which the public has placed in those holding such positions.

As long as there are, otherwise sensible, people such as yourself, who delight more in obfuscation than actually taking a stance, and others who are driven by rather more sinister agendas, then nothing will change and we will continue to stumble from one crisis or scandal to another.

For me the most pressing point now is that we have reached a stage where our scientific and political masters seem more at odds than ever before during this crisis. We are at a crucial stage in the fight against Coronavirus and the scientists and the Government appear to disagree over fundamental issues regarding the easing of the lockdown.

I would honestly love to be able to trust in Government advice but, regardless of any political stance, how can the people of this country trust the increasingly crucial advice of a government when two Cabinet members have broken the rules, another (Grant Shapps) has either lied - or just been totally out of touch - the PM’s chief advisor has behaved in the way he has, and the PM himself has been reduced to talking bumbling bollux in an effort to defend the indefensible?

The days and weeks ahead will determine the success, or otherwise, of the nation’s recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic.
We will need truth, leadership and public support like never before.
Unfortunately all we are getting is lies, the betrayal of public trust and fudging from a government which, because of its own behaviour, now has as little credibility as it has integrity.

[mistaram]

The law says you can be stopped or fined If you go overnight to stay with anyone outside the family you live with Over 14,000 fines have already been issued for this offence No wonder he made a big thing of saying they shouted across a field to communicate

[Geoff Parkstone]

"It is on a par with MP’s fiddling their expenses, teachers, care staff or members of the clergy being found guilty of *****philic behaviour, medical staff who are abusers (or worse)...."

Are you for real, rA, or just woken up in a dreamworld.

You have just stated that Cummings' actions which, prima face, resulted in no harm to anyone, are "on a par with...... *****philia"

I now feel that there is no further need for comment. Your comments are simply demented.

[ramAnag]

"It is on a par with MP’s fiddling their expenses, teachers, care staff or members of the clergy being found guilty of *****philic behaviour, medical staff who are abusers (or worse)...."

Are you for real, rA, or just woken up in a dreamworld.

You have just stated that Cummings' actions which, prima face, resulted in no harm to anyone, are "on a par with...... *****philia"

I now feel that there is no further need for comment. Your comments are simply demented.

Okay...yet more deliberate misinterpretation from you...that wasn’t predictable these days was it?

Of course some of those examples of wrongdoing have greater consequences than those of Mr. Cummings but, as I thought I’d made clear - and this is the point - what they all have in common is...the abuse of position and power and a complete contempt for public trust.

As it happens we shall probably never know if Cummings’ actions in travelling all those miles as a known carrier caused ‘any harm to anyone’. We don’t know if he stopped en route to fill up with fuel, buy a coffee or use a public toilet and we don’t know if anyone contracted Coronavirus as a result of handling the things he may have touched - fuel pump, change, toilet flush, tap etc - immediately afterwards. Furthermore we should be grateful that his eye sight checking drive didn’t result in injury to the four year old child he was allegedly seeking to protect or other road users he may have encountered.

All that though is of secondary importance now to the role he has played in the destruction of public confidence in this level of authority, and in that respect it is having exactly the same impact as fraudulent MP’s, dodgy priests/teachers/football coaches, ‘bent’ coppers etc.
Public trust and confidence in the way in which this whole crisis is being managed has been seriously eroded by the behaviour of this high ranking individual and the political ‘cover up’ that has ensued and that is now the issue.

[Ram59]

"It is on a par with MP’s fiddling their expenses, teachers, care staff or members of the clergy being found guilty of *****philic behaviour, medical staff who are abusers (or worse)...."

Are you for real, rA, or just woken up in a dreamworld.

You have just stated that Cummings' actions which, prima face, resulted in no harm to anyone, are "on a par with...... *****philia"

I now feel that there is no further need for comment. Your comments are simply demented.

It could be argued GP, that as a result of Cummings' actions and the media hysteria over the incident, certain unruly members of the public will ignore the advice given, which will result in more cases of Covid and ultimately more deaths.

Take out any 1 of those contributery factors and it wouldn't happen. So it could be argued that because of Cummings, people will die.

It's the 'butterfly' effect.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Now who is obfuscation. I look forward to your comments on why his actions are on a par with kiddie fiddling?

[ramAnag]

Now who is obfuscation. I look forward to your comments on why his actions are on a par with kiddie fiddling?

Okay...one last go. The parallel isn’t about the activities themselves...it is about the impact those activities have on the relevant professions or agencies.

Every time a priest, or teacher or social worker is suspected of ‘kiddie fiddling’, as you put it, the job becomes that much harder for the vast majority in that profession.
Likewise, I can’t remember his name, but the football coach who had been abusing youngsters throughout his career would have had the same impact on whether parents would be quite so keen on happily sending their kids off to what, hitherto, had seemed an utterly innocent and healthy activity.
‘Bent’ or vindictive coppers will make the population more suspicious of the decent majority...imagine trying to police the black population of Minnesota now, and I’m sure every case of, for example, Munchausen by proxy that comes to light has a devastating impact on the trust shown in the nursing/caring professions.

So it is in the world of politics. People are already mistrustful of politicians for a variety of reasons...Blair lying over Iraq, the expenses scandal, Johnson’s habitual ‘economy with the truth’...to take just three examples.

Now, on top of that we have Cummings apparent disregard for the rules he himself had framed and a web of, imo, deceit in terms of his explanations which any half alert press would have exposed last Monday afternoon.

So...and please don’t continue to try and deflect from the issue by saying that I am comparing Cummings to a ‘kiddie fiddler’ again...the point is that Cummings has brought enormous discredit to the Government and Prime Minister he is paid to support.
He has, by placing himself above the rules he devised, altered the public mood and distracted Government from the job in hand.

In short, and this is really the only point that matters...Dominic Cummings is extremely well paid for advice which should help and support the PM and his Government, but his recent actions and subsequent bizarre explanations have done the precise opposite.
They have, imo, led to national outrage at a time when there should be a spirit of unity, they have led to deep feelings of mistrust and ridicule towards the government when it is crucial that the public are ‘onside’ and they have ultimately made the job of governing and policing the population infinitely harder.

With that last paragraph in mind, and bearing in mind that this has now dragged on for a week, I cannot see how it is either possible or desirable for him to remain in post.