O/T Disgrace Cummings

[John2]

I would say that if I had found myself in a similar situation I could well see myself doing the same to help protect my family and minimise effects to others.

If you were concerned you had vision problems you would make a 30 minute drive with your wife and young child in the car 'just to be safe'?

Good grief.

[Silly-miller]

If you were concerned you had vision problems you would make a 30 minute drive with your wife and young child in the car 'just to be safe'?

Good grief.

That did sound a bit thick didn’t it lol

Can I just point out that sacking Cummings will do naff all though oh some people may get some deluded jolly’s, but he’s an advisor he can be sacked one day then paid off the books making him still employed but no one will know about it and a fine to someone so loaded is laughable. I think boris threw him to the media as a punishment (boris looked p off didn’t he) now Cummings looks like a big fool and is dealing with the media’s pent up anger that’s been brewing for months now.

Starmer has right idea keep out of it, it’s making him look a reasonable sympathetic opponent

[ragingpup]

The lockdown is about maths. It’s about reducing the risk of transmission. If it was about reducing the risk of contact with the emergency services, they would be better off banning DIY and garden trampolines.

If I were a Labour Party member, I would be asking for an inquiry in to how Labour has been reduced from being a credible political party into one that seems only capable of running hate campaigns. In the 2019 GE, you splashed resources up the wall on pointless vanity projects like trying to unseat Duncan-Smith and Raab and since then you’ve had campaigns against Patel and even Labour Party employees. You now apparently think it is a good idea to have a campaign against a bloke who made a decision in difficult circumstances about how best to look after his five year old child. It’s pathetic and sad.

Once again, you aim to deflect from the issue by ranting about the failings of the Labour Party. The Labour Party are not instrumental in criticising Cummings' narrative. It is coming from the tory press, his own party and scientists instrumental in advising Government policy.

I’ve already said that if Cummings’ only bad choice was to travel up North as he felt, despite him being a multui millionaire Government leader with all of the resource that this affords, that he discussed with his wife and concluded that there was a genuine risk to his kid and travelling up North was the safest thing to do for all concerned, then I would say that in absence of evidence to prove he had options, the public would have accepted that. At this point Johnson should have admonished, apologised and I think that the public would have moved on.

But what has happened was that he has been found out taking an unnecessary journey for nothing other than leisure, a visit and walk around in a beauty spot on his wife’s birthday. Now the real problem here is that towards the end of last week, the Government heard that the press had evidence of this but tried to cover up and hope that the evidence wasn’t secure. Therefore the Government denied that this trip happened, or any awareness of it, despite their ability to ask Cummings outright. In short our Government lied to us over this, or at least took Cummings word and story as fact. You may well feel that this is acceptable, that Cummings was justified in taking the 60 mile trip to check his eyesight was good enough for a longer trip in the height of lock down, but the majority of the public, probably with the exception of the hardcore Brexiteers that are worried about capitulating without Cummings, are rightfully angry and want him held to account.

Clearly then, the story could not be contained and the hope from Cummings and the Gov’t was that they could write a well crafted story and explain it away. What they didn’t anticipate was how poor this cover up for his 1 hour+ drive around was, and how badly he explained in his response to questions on it “I was still feeling poorly, had eye problems, - so I went for a 60 mile round trip”! These are the facts that are his undoing – whilst the rest of us stayed in (and I had my wife in tears on her birthday) he felt able to not only take an unnecessary journey out, but if he is to be believed, and had dodgy eyesight, then he risked his family’s safety also!

Yet, you maintain that “The lockdown is about maths. It’s about reducing the risk of transmission”. How is this decision, from the man who was at the forefront of the campaign to get us to stay at home, necessitate people following the rules to miss deaths of loved ones, signalling to us – at the hight of lockdown, that this sacrifice is what we all should be doing?

Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Government’s advisory group on behavioural science, sums it up well, not just angry about the hypocrisy and double standards that I and many are angry about (and that you are defending), but the implications on messaging and the likelihood of it leading to further death:

“One of the central messages that we gave to Government, one of the central points that we made was that the way we have gotten through this pandemic to date is by acting together, by thinking in terms of ‘we’, of what’s good for the community. Millions of people up and down the country have done precisely that in very difficult circumstances, agonising circumstances around their families and thought ‘What is good for us as a community?’ I think the real problem here is that not simply in what Mr Cummings did but in the messaging that the Prime Minister put out. The lesson was, forget about the ‘we’, it’s about ‘I’. The thing that really concerned me yesterday was everything was about ‘I’, everything was about what it means for me, there was no consideration at all of what it means to the community. Now, thank God, the public at large didn’t take that attitude, the public at large, as I say, made those major sacrifices, but it threatens to undermine that sense of community if a figure as prominent as Dominic Cummings and if the Prime Minister himself starts undermining that ‘we’ message and starts talking about ‘I’.”

[millersrus]

If you were concerned you had vision problems you would make a 30 minute drive with your wife and young child in the car 'just to be safe'?

Good grief.

A test drive following serious illness to check if ok before embarking on a longer journey....quite reasonable, actually quite sensible for any right mind person. The right thing to do for me.

[flourbasher]

I would have thought that if someone had doubts about their eye sight they would sit in the passenger seat and thereby 'test' their vision without endangering others
Let someone else drive or maybe his wife did drive as this hasn't been clarified but don't put passengers and other road users at risk.
Cyclists wouldnt stand a chance against tonnes of metal coming at them at even 30mph. Cyclists on their way to work 12 hours at a hospital perhaps.

From what I can gather the trip to B CAstle was on the same day as his wife's birthday. So was it really to test his eyes or go out on a jolly. The public has to make their own decision on that one

[great_fire]

You really think Stephen Kinnock was delivering medicine to his Dad on his birthday?

The difference is that they're the UK's biggest Euro-troughing family so the Remainer press left them alone.

[ragingpup]

You really think Stephen Kinnock was delivering medicine to his Dad on his birthday?

The difference is that they're the UK's biggest Euro-troughing family so the Remainer press left them alone.

As keep getting pointed out, the vast majority of the press explicitly pushed for Brexit - by that, I mean actively campaigned for it.

[Silly-miller]

A test drive following serious illness to check if ok before embarking on a longer journey....quite reasonable, actually quite sensible for any right mind person. The right thing to do for me.

Really your eyesight needs testing so instead of pining up a made up wall chart you go driving?

Do me a favour please let me know when you do this so I can stay off road.

Cheers

[Exiletyke]

Really your eyesight needs testing so instead of pining up a made up wall chart you go driving?

Do me a favour please let me know when you do this so I can stay off road.

Cheers

Imagine the scene at No 10

Boris....come in Dom
now it was a bit daft to drive that distance but I know there are no child care facilities in the largest city in the country but to drive another 30 miles to Barnard Castle is going to take some explaining.....any thoughts?
Dom.....I could say I had serious trouble with my eyesight & needed to test it so I thought driving to Barnard Castle & of course having concern for my son's welfare I took him & my wife with me What do you think Boris?
Boris....... brilliant Dom the thick british public will never suspect that we [sorry you] just made it up as it is so outlandish that it must be true
Now get out there & give it to em oph & don't forget to say sorry
Dom .......sorry for my piss poor judgement?
Boris...... no you pillock sorry for keeping everyone waiting
Dom....leave it to me Boss

[Silly-miller]

Imagine the scene at No 10

Boris....come in Dom
now it was a bit daft to drive that distance but I know there are no child care facilities in the largest city in the country but to drive another 30 miles to Barnard Castle is going to take some explaining.....any thoughts?
Dom.....I could say I had serious trouble with my eyesight & needed to test it so I thought driving to Barnard Castle & of course having concern for my son's welfare I took him & my wife with me What do you think Boris?
Boris....... brilliant Dom the thick british public will never suspect that we [sorry you] just made it up as it is so outlandish that it must be true
Now get out there & give it to em oph & don't forget to say sorry
Dom .......sorry for my piss poor judgement?
Boris...... no you pillock sorry for keeping everyone waiting
Dom....leave it to me Boss

I’d imagine it’s like this

Dom: “yo bojo how’s it going”

Boris: “Im good thanks I just completed my new this morning puzzle Phil Sent me last week.”

Dom: “that’s great I’m glad your in a good mood because Iv cocked up again mate.”

Boris opening his new jigsaw half listening: “hmm hmm that’s nice Dom let me hear all about it while I find my corner pieces.“

Dom: “yeah listen boris I panicked went home wanted peace and quite away from press so I made some BS up but the problem is my wife dragged me out to a park for a change of scenery now press is pushing for an answer and the best I got is I wanted to test my eyes, can you help?”

Boris: “now Dom you know Iv got all the time for you but this Big Ben puzzle won’t sort itself you know my times very precious these days, il tell you what you got yourself into this mess go clean it up yourself press conference is at 4 do try and keep em waiting they are nicer that way, oh Iv sorted all sides out”