Just been listening to my 76year old landlady planning her recently deceased brother's funeral with her daughter who came over and sat the other side of the hedge (2 metres away).
She had narrowed down the attendees to the number she was allowed to take and discussed which family units could sit together.
David's widow will have to sit on her own.
You are a ****ing arsehole Dominic Cummings!
My BIL died a month ago. Although we knew he only had hours left, my wife couldn't go to see him and neither her nor my MIL could go to his funeral. My wife still hasn't been able to go see his partner.
If the Weston hospital story is the first indication of wave 2 Johnson is gone.
He took a lethal gamble with other people's lives at 5pm by yesterday. Eighteen hours later it would seem that gamble is going to go badly wrong.
This may stop being about Cummings soon and move onto being about Johnson.
My main emotion is anger. Pure anger.
I'm sure the next General Election being 4.5 years away has featured in Boris's [Cummings's] logic.
What specific danger was the child in the required them to drive 250 miles?
Whoooosh......
When something goes wrong we always look for someone to blame.
I feel that anger is falling on Cummings. He looks like a ****, is a **** and the people who stand outside court when a molester is being sentenced will soon be outside his house.
Watch your back.
Commiserations to those ^^ who have lost someone.
DC has had a rather varied 'career', from Klute in Durham to 3 years supposedly setting up an airline in Russia. Oxbridge educated, he has all the attributes required to have been recruited by someone. I haven't dug into this but surely there is info on it out there.
Its not Dom's fault that 60 million people got it wrong and only he got it right. I think people are totally overreacting - clearly the gov't message that its ok to travel to your second home if you DO have covid-19 just got lost among all the people resigning because they travelled to their second homes when they were perfectly healthy.
There's a very strange dynamic here I can't figure out.
Ok, we all know DC has a disproportionate influence / power for an unelected SPAD. However, the polls, churches, previously supportive media outlets and commentators as well as sections of the Tory party have stuck the boot in.
It looks like the PM is rapidly losing the authority to govern. Surely if DC had any loyalty to Boris, he would resign to stem the bleeding?
It increasingly appears to me that DC is the more powerful of the two?
Had to set up a (sanitised) iPad so that my elderly neighbour could watch her sister’s funeral 200 miles away. She’d promised to be there with her when the time came, but she couldn’t be because of lockdown.
So many people have done so many hard, hard things.
@perchy
That guy is Cummings personal protection - he just isn’t very happy about being given the job.
I've had a reply from my MP, he's 'looking into it'.
However,he wants my address before he replies further.
Is this normal?
I’ve had a reply from my MP, he’s ‘looking into it’.
They've resorted to copy/paste replies on Twitter and email saying they have conveyed the strength of feeling to appropriate colleagues and will reply more fully in due course but they'd quite like to be left to run [insert name of constituency].
Bet they're absolutely seething at being dropped in this mess.
My guess would be to make sure you are a constituent not a troll. Doesn't seem too off to me
However,he wants my address before he replies further.
Obviously, give him your address but make it clear that you can only be contacted at your second home in Cornwall because your cat is distressed as it misses the ocean.
Follow your instincts
Cheers folks.
I'll let him know.
but they’d quite like to be left to run [insert name of constituency].
They don't run it.
They represent the , currently pissed off, people who live in it.
@Rusty Spanner
I'd give him your address. As above they are probably trying to make sure 'professional' emails aren't getting sent.
Just make it extremely clear that you do not wish your name, address or email address to appear on any forwarded or reproduced versions. As per your rights under GDPR.
It's convention that they only deal with their own constituents and pass messages on at least initially. Not sure of the case with portfolio ministers, I still think they go better through your local MP - eg when lobbying Gove (the MP whose area the Aldershot military lands come under), and the Defence Minister of the time - Soubry fwiw - I still got better responses by emailing my local MP first.
It's all part of this idea that they represent the views of their constituents. Not just follow party lines. We'll see how that goes shall we. I have a new MP, Anne Milton resigned at the last election to stand as an Indie - Anne was excellent after a shaky period of following the line but eventually conscience won. I wonder if Angela Richardson has a conscience?
It increasingly appears to me that DC is the more powerful of the two?
Or Cummings has something over Bofo.
I've a moment of sympathy for two parents who have contracted this horrific disease, who ran to the (in thier head) the most reliable care for thier young son. Thier family.
That is contrasted with the fact that I know whole families here who came down with it, who took turns with childcare, and were ready should they be unable to cope for friends to step in with a couple of young children. As it turned out, both parents were ill but able to cope. This is not what the Cummings' did - they traveled a long way, seemed to interact with elderly parents AND sister/sil if rumors are correct, AND seemingly returned to London (and I'm ignoring the rumours of a second trip north).
I'm sure other families did what the Cummings' did - the main difference being his role and now his and Bofo reactions.
I'm struggling for the outrage, but he should go and I think Bofo will pay the price of his poor judgement.
Thought this was an interesting take on things from TruePublica, I'm sure there's lots of things going on in the background Brexit related under the cover of the pandemic- this one's a little far fetched and edging into conspiracy land, but there is something very odd about the whole saga... could it be that he was up there doing dodgy deals with GSK based in Barnard Castle...
If I was Kier Starmer, right now i'd be plotting a vote in Parliament to implement some sort of system of parliamentery or civil service oversight and control for all of these "Special Advisors"
I think it'd pass.
It’s all part of this idea that they represent the views of their constituents. Not just follow party lines. We’ll see how that goes shall we. I have a new MP, Anne Milton resigned at the last election to stand as an Indie – Anne was excellent after a shaky period of following the line but eventually conscience won.
This week has given me a new found respect for the Tory MPs who choose to leave (or get booted from) the party rather than back the Johnson & Cummings team. Many of the current MPs know the same as them as regards the character and suitability of this leadership team for office, but sit there on the benches giving him the cover of their support despite that.
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1264883564144885760?s=19
From the horses mouth, so to speak
I hope he comes out punching
Statement from Cummings later
Statement from Cummings later
That'll either be a carefully choreographed and stage managed pantomime or a complete car crash.
Hope some attack dog of a reporter pokes him hard enough that he shoots from the hip and shows his true colours.
My money's on Channel 4 goading him over the edge
@endoverend barnard Castle is a manufacturing site that doesn't even make vaccines, I can't see why he would go there when the head office is in brentford.
Plus he wouldn't have been allowed on site, skeleton staff only to sustain manufacturing
Well, this statement could be very interesting.
He’s not a natural public speaker is he, and we know he has a temper.
I’m struggling to think what he could say bar “I resign” that would put any fire out, any apology will be laughed as given what has been said in previous days. But I can think of plenty of things that will make things worse....
Might be worth a watch actually...
It increasingly appears to me that DC is the more powerful of the two?
Boris has become so dependent on his advice that he can't take a decision on his own. According to Gavin Williamson, Boris asked Cummings for an assurance that he hadn't broken the law, and accepted that assurance.
" In order to avoid distraction from the crucial work of the PM and government in fighting this virus I have decided to resign" is my best bet.
However, I hope he goes full sneer and renders his own and Bojo's position untenable.
The gsk/Barnard castle story was originally compiled by Craig Murray (friend of every conspiracy theorist).
The “Cummings child has autism” story has its origins in this below, the only disability his child has is being parented by ****s
https://twitter.com/jamiemcleod02/status/1264731537913925632?s=21
Maybe Dum Cum is going to announce that he's sacked Dumbojo.
I’ll take a punt the statement is something like
”go **** yourselves you plebs”
'Skeleton staff', very droll.
I gave my address to prove my constituency status but got an automated reply. This paucity of replies is a bit rich given that they awarded themselves an extra 200 sovs a week for 'wfm'.
I'm going with appearing pale and strung out. Wavering voice, red eyes (some kind of eyedrops) and some poignant pauses. Full Steve Smith meets Diana on Panarama.
Expect the phrases and words 'autism', 'four years old' and 'any loving father and husband' to appear prominently. Followed by a non-apology ('I recognise that I have fallen short of the interpretations of the rules that the majority of the public seem to have') followed by a very reluctant (and temporary I will wager) resignation.
Whatever the sob story, whatever the makeup department can manage, I sincerely hope some tells him to save his breath, write it on the side of a bus and **** off.
As Elliot Ness (as played by Kevin Costner) said:
"Goddammit, we've got one of them".
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PDf0rL1GZL0
If he's planning to take questions it won't be a resignation. It will be a defence.
I think if he tries to pull the autism card that will go as much against him as for him. I also think he would have to play an absolute blinder to get any sympathy as he is almost universally loathed. I am hoping he will do the honourable thing and fall on his sword. Though if he hangs about and takes no show bojo with him that would also be a good result.
What time and where?
The fact that he’s taking questions suggests (to me) that he ain’t resigning.
Edit - beaten to it
My bet is he'll come out and use a load of loopholes and creative reading of the rules that put him in the clear. He'll have spent the last 24 hours working with lawyers to find a way he can make his actions technically fine but also prove that anyone who wanted to do similar - look after loved ones, see family on their birthday etc - still wouldn't have been able to.
I hope I'm wrong and he comes out, apologises and resigns but I've got more chance of waking up next to Emma Stone in the morning than him doing the right thing for the country.
could it be that he was up there doing dodgy deals with GSK based in Barnard Castle
Unlikely. GSK has its HQ in W.London, its UK R&D centre in Stevenage. Its purely manufacturing in BC, and not the main centre. Ti RED would know better than me.
