Originally Posted by
tony260674
I haven't commented on this thread as I don't feel as strongly as some and the party political stuff quickly gets out of hand. I don't think that what Cummings did was crime of the century, if you believe the first part about his reason for travelling to Durham, I am sure that would have been a decision that some of us would have made, so as a human and a parent I don't 'mark him down'. Even the second trip to the castle was hardly a hanging offence (leaving aside the preposterous excuse for a moment). Popping to a local beauty spot to cheer up his wife on her birthday after a crap couple of weeks when they were both feeling better was a breach of the rules but hardly the worst thing we have seen recently. The problem is clearly that as one of the architects of the government lockdown policy, you have to abide by it, the rules, the spirit of the rules and the letter of the rules. All of it. He didn't and as such he should have resigned or at the very least apologised and honestly explained himself, not wait all weekend to see what he could get away with and then come out with some nonsense that happened to fit around what he had been caught doing.
The really sad thing has been they way the story has been handled and the implications this has for political discourse in future. For decades politicians and advisors that have been caught with their pants down/their fingers in the till or doing something that caused embarrassment resigned from their roles. The talented ones rose back through the ranks and after the requisite time period had elapsed, got back to the lofty heights before their shame. Had Cummings resigned on Saturday morning the consequences would have been relatively minor. The story would have fizzled out much more quickly and I have no doubt that Cummings would have carried on doing essentially what he does now from the end of a phone for the next 6 months before rising again like a phoenix from the flames when we had all moved on with our lives. Not only would this have benefitted Mr Johnson, it would have benefitted the government's lockdown policy and stopped attention being taken away from the public health message.
Unfortunately we are now in a new era of politics where rather than take their medicine, the government decided to lie and bull**** until the cows came home and this is what grinds my gears and leaves me worried about the future. Although this is straight out of the Trump playbook, I don't think this is a party political left/right thing, I think it is the new landscape we inhabit. No longer do people analyse what is being said, they analyse who is saying it and whether they reflect the political ideology they personally hold. Because of this the government felt they could lie their way through this, use loopholes that were intended for child protection from domestic abuse to cover their man and try to make us believe that we hadn't heard what we thought we had heard. The excuse about testing his eye sight was laughable, even given this is no laughing matter. If you do believe this, please stop and think for a moment, would you believe it from someone whose politics you disagree with?
They may or may not have misjudged their audience on this one. Cummings has made a lot of enemies across the political spectrum and as well as those that are horrified by his behaviour, there are plenty more who are enjoying seeing him squirm and most of them are to his right, not his left.
If the government rides this out then this will be the default tactic going forward. It won't matter if it's tory/Labour/Coalition whatever, they will lie and lie and lie, so I hope he is removed for that reason.
The biggest victim here will be the government's public health policy. I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs but despite a few headlines over beaches, the public's response has been unprecedented and I imagine beyond what was expected. Inevitably this will now reduce. Trust in the policy has been damaged and the NHS app in particular is now a dead duck. Beyond the technical problems they have had, with those concerned about privacy on one side and those who feel it's 'one rule for us and one rule for them' on the other side, the chances of getting the downloads required are zero.