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BBC now reporting the allegations of the 2nd visit on their website. Hopefully all those trotted out to defend him earlier will realise they had been duped and the only chance of maintaining an integrity (which in reality they never had) is to turn on Cummings, preferably publically.
I'd be very disappointed if he isn't sacked or resigns. It would signal a real decline in standards.
its so amateur hour though. why didn't they just kick into touch with "holiday leave" and an "Official" investigation by the cabinet secretary ? with a whitewash "no action" result in a couple of months.
Regarding the latest allegations, one would assume that if untrue it would be quite straightforward for DC to provide proof of his whereabouts (e.g.London) on the dates suggested to a sympathetic news outlet? I await tomorrow’s press with interest
@kimbers If these stories are inaccurate, I take it Dom will be suing the Guardian and Mirror for libel? 😛
...campaigning newspapers...
Like that's a bad thing
Interesting to see number 10 doubling down...
This could get real messy.
Rather than clapping every Thursday, can we change it to going out and booing the Conservatives every Monday?
Daily mail is classic, they've got a pic of him literally using his son as a human shield, which he has been through the day
+ Johnson can only relate to anything in terms of shagging around
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1264304509951582219?s=20
Johnson saying "it's not like he went for a shag."
Is that actually criticism?😉
Durham Police absolutely doubling down tonight
Interesting to see number 10 doubling down…
This could get real messy.
Starting to look a lot like plebgate. Especially when you look at who the Durham acting PCC is.
It's been the government standard tactic during this crisis though, see also the ventilator mess and denial.
Dom will be suing the Guardian and Mirror for libel?
Hopefully with the same outcome as plebgate.
“it’s not like he went for a shag.”
blojo is a compulsive liar, so we have to assume that exactly what he did do.
"Dom sends himself 250 miles during lockdown. Let's send him early retirement instead."
Now who's got a ****ing big red bus?
That tweet by Simon Young deserves to be trending, even though it is 12 days old 🤔
ajantom
Subscriber
Rather than clapping every Thursday, can we change it to going out and booing the Conservatives every Monday?
Please make this a thing!
The problem is that most of the Thursday clappers are Brexit/Boris voters just trying to look good on Facebook etc.
My wife is a nurse and the first week the woman opposite was out clapping and thanking her but she is a serial lockdown breaker, loads of visitors and she has been away somewhere since Thursday.
Says quite a bit about him that he had no one within 250 miles that could help with childcare.
What, apart from the brother and sister living in London?
Our unofficial motto at Durham School is ‘Confidence for Life’.
Appears to have a spelling mistake as it says life not lies!
It’s not just ministers. Just about every Tory MP has been following orders from number 10 to be openly, vocally supportive of the poison dwarf.
I’m not writing my bet off just yet. I can see them doubling down on this and trying to brazen it out. They’ve put so much on the line already.
One things for sure... Dominic Cummings career is of far more importance to this gang of ****s than the people who’ve died today of Covid 19
Maybe he's never given up on the herd immunity plan
And is personally trying to spread it as far & wife as possible
Find on gov are apparently dubbing him Calamity Cummings.
One things for sure… Dominic Cummings career is of far more importance to this gang of ****s than the people who’ve died today of Covid 19
That's the real tragedy and that's what should be the nations first concern.
Utterly surreal being alive in these times.
I hope he dies.
I’m being sincere.
I hope he dies.
I’m being sincere.
you missed the “slowly in excruciating pain” suffix
Starting to look a lot like plebgate. Especially when you look at who the Durham acting PCC is.
Numerous independent witnesses have spotted Cummings out and about in the North East.
The Mirror and Guardian have shown great timing… giving the government the time to construct an excuse for the first bit of spreading behaviour and put it about… before moving onto the second occurrence… and the lack of a response to the second accusation suggests the government now know that a third one could be coming, and don’t want to make the same mistake again.
Cummings is going nowhere though. Well, he’ll be kept out of the public eye if they can find a way, but he’ll keep his role no matter what. A brief spell away from the government will come about 18 months away from the next election to research the approach to use for that election, but the umbilical cord between the “World King” and the man that got and keeps him there will not be cut.
Yep
Even by some miracle, if Johnson had to sack him
Hed just be in the back seat pulling the strings, plenty of dodgy donors happy to fund him on the quiet
Pippa Crerar, the Guardian journalist who broke the story is on Marr tomorrow morning. Apparently, Grant Shapps has drawn the short straw (well it was hardly going to be Boris, was it?) and will be defending Dom
Should be worth a viewing
Grant Shapps has drawn the short straw
I'd be getting gattered tonight if I were him.
Hats off to some proper journalism today from Pippa Crerar. And fair play to her enjoying the moment. She’s played a blinder! Dropped bombshell number one, sat back and waited for every single cabinet member to publicly defend Cummings (apart from a certain Joris Bohnson) then.... hold my pint....
Brilliant!!!
https://twitter.com/pippacrerar/status/1264297237598941185?s=21
I see Sajid Javid didn't come out to defend Psycho Dom!
So it now looks like he may have travelled 3 times to Durham, and on the first occasion was seen in nearby Barnard Castle, which if either he and/or his wife had been sufferering from COVID-19 symptoms would mean he and his family should have been in quarantine.
The response from Number 10 was extremely bolshie, and quite unstatesman like which one would expect from the seat of power. Accusing the Mirror and Observer of being campaigning newspapers is a rather cheap jibe as the Sunday Torygraph and Daily Hate both have it as their lead story. This will ensure that all the retired Tory voters will be turning puce with anger as they have not been able to see their families and are the group most likely to be self-isolating and shielding. There will be temper tantrums among the gammons of Tunbridge Wells tomorrow when they read their Sunday paper.
The tweet from "no 10" is from Cummings himself
You can’t defend the indefensible,Boris’s mob are already in a bad place with our numbers being so dire, the ppe fiasco, slow lockdown, care home fiasco and the stay safe spin this is pretty much a cherry on the top.
What worked for Brexit isn’t working for this.
Hats off to some proper journalism today from Pippa Crerar. And fair play to her enjoying the moment. She’s played a blinder! Dropped bombshell number one, sat back and waited for every single cabinet member to publicly defend Cummings (apart from a certain Joris Bohnson) then…. hold my pint….
Yep she really let them set themselves up for a fall 🙂
I can’t see Dom staying,he’s going to be a step down from Jimmy Saville In the people you don’t want to be seen associated with.
Even the Spectator is demanding his resignation but the Labour Party are demanding 'clarity', that'll put the wind up 'em.
The common line that all the Cabinet and Tory MPs are towing is clearly a 3 line whip. Even down to using the very same words in their supportive statements and tweets.
They are too spineless to say what they know we are thinking. This shows he has too much power and influence.
What worked for Brexit isn’t working for this.
Well Brexit hasn't happened yet so its hard to judge. This will be a good barometer for how the Gov will fare come Jan and it all goes to hell.
If it was the one time they may have got away but now it’s looking as a blatant flagrant disregard for the rules you imposed on everyone 🙁
Think the difference with Brexit was that there were two sides (who both were convinced they were right and the other wrong) to play off against each other. With the COVID, that just isn’t there.
“Even the Spectator is demanding his resignation but the Labour Party are demanding ‘clarity’, that’ll put the wind up ’em.“
The correct strategy. Push too hard and the tories will turn this into “look at labour, it’s party politics”
Same reason starmer has stayed silent, they’re on the ropes, he doesn’t need to give them ammunition to deflect.
He can sit quietly while the press and popular opinion turns against them. He’s more effective asking unanswerable questions at PMQ’s
"This story is full of inaccuracies"
Private Eye are have suggested this is the sort of letter they often get when they're following up leads. They go on to suggest that it's strange that the complainants rarely, if ever
1. Say what the inaccuracies are.
2. Complain to the Press Complaints Commission.
3. Send a letter from a lawyer.
Think the difference with Brexit was that there were two sides (who both were convinced they were right and the other wrong) to play off against each other. With the COVID, that just isn’t there.
From social media I've started to see 2 sides forming, those who think we should be cautious at returning to normal (or as close to it as possible) and those that think lockdown was pointless and we should just accept herd immunity is inevitable.
Opposition by silence?
The job of the opposition is to oppose.
Opposition by silence?
The job of the opposition is to oppose.
For once I truly believe that there is a cunning plan.
IDS Quiet Man stylee?
From social media I’ve started to see 2 sides forming, those who think we should be cautious at returning to normal (or as close to it as possible) and those that think lockdown was pointless and we should just accept herd immunity is inevitable.
Everything is getting subsumed into the culture war now, those on the Right would rather try and defend the indefensible or tie themselves in knots rather than side with guardian/mirror investigative journalism.
Bitter battle lines everywhere just like Trump's America
I'm going to finally start subscribing to the Guardian now, should've done it years earlier really. More important than ever. Despite their faults
Opposition by silence?
The job of the opposition is to oppose.
The papers and public opinion are doing that for them. Wait and see how it pans out, gather all the evidence of where DC was vs where Downing Street said he was and then the contradictory stories from MPs, the now-obviously-a-lie tweets and so on and then start asking:
So Mr Hancock, your tweet here was fully supportive of DC in spite of it being directly contradictory to your message to the public two weeks previously. Why is that?
Yes, I feel Kier Starmer is letting the government reel out their own hanging rope
All the more interesting is that Baker is a Tory and was chair of the ERG...
singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dominic-cummings/page/8/#post-11208423
I’m going to finally start subscribing to the Guardian now, should’ve done it years earlier really. More important than ever. Despite their faults
Me too
"Ignore the law. Ignore the official advice. Do whatever you think is the right thing for your family." This approach is supported by Government. So tomorrow we have a nice sunny Bank Holiday, lockdown will be ignored and in another week the confirmed infections will rise and we'll be a month and thousands of deaths further away from getting the virus under control.
Brexit hard man Steve Baker currently putting the boot in on Sophie Ridge. DC gone by lunch time hopefully.
Yes, but the mutual loathing between the ERG and Cummings is well recorded, so I’d not read too much into what effect Baker’s words will have.
That Steve Baker article in The Critic is nauseating.
Watching the Grant Shapps interview with Sohpy Ridge 🤦♂️
Even with the questions in advance, it's not gone well.
+1 Shapps denying the second visit. Should be able to determine from motorway cctv if Mr. Burns did travel back up. Also good point from Sophy Ridge on if they used the services on the 4.5hr journey.
The ministerial support for Cummings is off the chart; the bare-faced hypocrisy after the treatment Ferguson got beggars belief. I think they'll be hemorrhaging support from this. What credibility does "Peter Pandemic", as Health Minister, have after supporting this dipsh*t Cummings after people have suffered the loss of loved ones due to following governmental advice to the letter?
It won't ever go well, you can't defend what he has done. Boris can't fire him because Boris owes everything to him and is only PM because of him.
He will resign but then just be in the background for a few months until it has all blown over
IDS Quiet Man stylee?
There is a Kier Starmer thread where you can carry this on. Hard for anyone else to see the relevance here, I suspect.
Boris can’t fire him because Boris owes everything to him and is only PM because of him.
Never a truer word. I don’t think he’ll be resigning either though. He just doesn’t care, and, remember, he isn’t a Tory, he doesn’t care if this damages that party.
A few days ago the MP for Bishop Auckland - who's constituency covers Barnard Castle had a few concerns about visitors flocking to the area. Even raised it on a phone call with the Home Secretary. As ever Dom spotted a social trend and was on it first.
The local MP's views on visitors to Teesdale not social distancing
Andrew Marr is loving life this morning
He will resign but then just be in the background for a few months until it has all blown over
Yes, but he is such a toxic **** that any detection of his paw prints on anything will lead to a queue of civil servants, MPs, journos etc wanting to rat him out to the Graun.
"Disgraced Former Aide and Brexit Supremo Conducting Government by Stealth".
I'm sure that is a headline they will want to avoid.
I've even got a couple of old mates who are still trying to defend this, literally as more details come in that are making them look increasingly silly. My posting of a pic of a bottle of Kool Aid (not unprovoked) may have pissed them off a bit...
It is quite amusing (Andrew marr)
No one has told Shapps anything so how can he possibly know the answers.
But he wants to duel the A66.
Shapps seems to be utterly unprepared for questions that were obviously going to be put to him #Marr
And “statements from No. 10” come from Cummings himself.
But he wants to duel the A66
The road will win.
Marr is pulling Shapps apart, it's very satisfying, Shapps saying he doesn't know much, Marr pointing out he must have known he was going to be asked about this.
@stumpyjon I believe the Ridge interview was similar, despite her tweeting him the questions in advance.
The road will win.
Indeed - especially the bit with the tanks on it.
Shapps saying 'As I understand things' a lot, leaving room to be corrected later and distance himself from whatever is to come.
He might as well say “what I have been told” before every comment.
That was so funny, all he wanted to do was talk about transport and they ran out of time!
Can't watch the Marr interview as I've got paw patrol movie on for my youngest
The no 10 statement yesterday was sinister in its dismissal of 'fake news'. We re getting into the territory of Kelly Ann Conway soon "an alternative set of facts" to explain your actions.
If only all this could've happened before the election eh
I may have missed it but.... what has Johnson actually said on any of this so far,anything? or has he gone awol as usual and keeping his head down to avoid making an idiot of himself (as usual) like the rest of the Tory dopes.