The police said they spoke to him
No 10 says the police didn’t speak to him
Someone is lying

There is no way in the world he will be sacked, he is untouchable

I’m finding this pretty much as depressing as anything else that’s happened over the last few years, if I’m honest.

I don’t know where we go when it’s as blatant as this, and nothing, but nothing, changes…

As wrong as I think he was to have undertaken the trip, to have put other member of his family at risk and to increase the risk of spreading the virus around the country, he and the tories will spin it to say it was essential. We cannot prove he had no other option but to undertake the journey so his child could be looked after.
Its wrong on so many counts, but Boris will just be able to say it was essential and he had no choice.
The government message was/is that we shouldn’t be putting our children into contact with their grandparents. Personally, visiting parents would have helped us out immeasurably to have them help look after the kids, the wife is a teacher and I work from home. We’ve also all been ill with the virus during the lockdown, but we never once thought we needed to drive 250 miles to visit family whilst we were ill. He should be fired, but being the slimy kind of guy he and Boris are, they will get away with it. He also think it is reasonable behaviour to drive 250 miles whilst being ill with the virus, he thinks it is reasonable to put his parents and Durham locals at risk.

No fan of the Tories, Johnson or Cummings, but am I the only person thinking that the calls to resign are OTT, and a sad feature of modern politics, being nothing more than a rather spurious excuse to get rid of someone we either don’t like or whose performance we dont rate?

EDIT: And the correct behaviour is for him to throw his hands up, admit he’s cocked up apologise and say he’ll do better.

Same as I would have expected to happen to Neil Ferguson

(I am fully expecting to be the only person voicing this opinion).

You won’t be the only person. Plenty of others will be nice and deferential as well.

Anyway, they’re sending the currently quite popular challenger chancellor out to bat…

Did you miss this memo, Rishi?? pic.twitter.com/yPaf55lnVD

— Dave Jones – @welshgasdoc@toot.wales (@WelshGasDoc) May 23, 2020

Vinnyeh, my opinion is that if the government and top officials flout the regulations, you are creating a two tiered system. You cannot have one set of rules for the “top brass” and one for the riff raff. If laws were put in place to stop the spread of the virus, those laws have to apply to everyone.

You won’t be the only person. Plenty of others will be nice and deferential as well.

Not being nice and deferential. Obviously deserves some punishment, a weekend spent disinfecting tube carriages or something, but not a sacking offence

Vinnyeh, my opinion is that if the government and top officials flout the regulations, you are creating a two tiered system. You cannot have one set of rules for the “top brass” and one for the riff raff. If laws were put in place to stop the spread of the virus, those laws have to apply to everyone.

You’re advocating a two tiered system. I wouldn’t get sacked. Those laws make provision for punishment.

am I the only person thinking that the calls to resign are OTT

Pretty much, yes.

He’s been the one calling the shots on the government policy from day one. So it was he who was responsible for setting the rules on lockdown about what people were and weren’t allowed to do.

He then flagrantly ignored these very rules, because, you know… obviously they don’t actually apply to him.

If rules on movement were applicable to anyone, then it is most certainly to somebody who was displaying all the symptoms, which he was at the time. By his own rules, he should have been self-isolating for 2 weeks. But he drove 250 miles instead.

If that’s not a cause for resignation, then I don’t know what is?

He won’t resign, of course. They are above the law and just do what the hell they like. The rules don’t apply to them, just to us little people

I’d say you just torpedoed your own credibility but let’s face it nothing could hit a target that small.

— Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) May 23, 2020

And the correct behaviour is for him to throw his hands up, admit he’s cocked up apologise and say he’ll do better.

The problem being that there is zero chance that Cummings will do this over anything, so the only option for the no.10 machine, and the likes of Rishi Sunak is to try to attack his detractors for making political capital over a simple man caring for his family. By driving the length of the country with Covid to live with his elderly parents.

Matt Hancock says he backs any police action against Neil Ferguson….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/neil-ferguson-right-to-resign-for-breaking-lockdown-rules-says-minister-coronavirus

but thinks Dom did nothing wrong

I know how ill coronavirus makes you. It was entirely right for Dom Cummings to find childcare for his toddler, when both he and his wife were getting ill.

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) May 23, 2020

Shocking by LauraK as well. Just flagrant spokespersonning for Tory HQ

Cummings has clearly sent them all an email with a prepared statement.

What a set of maggots they are.

Remember when the BBC used to have a reputation for independent and impartial journalism?

At the moment they’ve about as much credibility as Fox News or Russia Today

Cummings has clearly sent them all an email with a prepared statement.

he sent round this and told them to pick one

Love how ‘sources’ yesterday can claim the grandparents were needed for childcare, and then, after thinking about it, the official response (be under no doubt, from the exact same source really) can claim it was the sister who was going to look after the virus spreading infant. That is why the ‘no10 source’ line that LK and so many others use is so dangerous. They can change their story (rebase their lies) with plausibly deniability. It really stinks to high heaven.

Vinneyeh, I’ve actually got some sympathy for your view, in the round.

And I’d felt the same when several other (decent, apolitical) public servants flouted the rules, Neil Ferguson and Dr Calderwood specifically.

But they went, probably pushed for political expedience, and likely the wider health effort suffered as a result.

If those guys went, then there is no doubt Dom needs to go too. For consistency.

Then you layer on his role in setting the rules and sitting on the SAGE committee making him one of the most aware in the country of the purpose of the rules to limit spread of the virus. Then add in the financial and other benefits available to him as a result of his role that would make self-isolating far easier for him than for many.

He really, really has to go.

Have written to my MP this morning (first time ever) making the point.

As I mentioned on the CV thread, the stories are now getting nicely muddled up (he was spoken to by police / he ws not, he was at his parent’s / he was in another house in their grounds blah blah), the heavies have been sent in to bat for him including the despicable Laura K – basically a Tory spokesperson in disguise, there’s a whole load of clamour about resignation whcih is probably hiding something equally awful somewhere else – maybe Priti Stupid is just passing another load of rascist xenophobic law to kick out more immigrants or something.

Also, I’m not sure we want him sacked. At least at the moment we know where he is – chief political aide to the PM – but if he’s “sacked” he’ll just be doing the same job with even less oversight and transparency then there is at the moment (and that’s saying soemthing becaue at the moment, he’s effectively running the country via use of a Puppet PM).

This is the guy who orchestrated one of the biggest pieces of electoral fraud in history with Brexit and faced zero consequences even though it is openly admitted that it is illegal. Fairly sure he can weasel his way out of this without even breaking sweat.

They really are a bunch of the nastiest most self-centred scum imaginable. Even George Orwell didn’t make the pigs this bad in Animal Farm!

Fairly sure he can weasel his way out of this without even breaking sweat.

This is a man who was found to be in contempt of parliament for refusing to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating his electoral fraud.

He has very good reason for acting like the rules don’t apply to him. They never have done in the past. The arrogance and entitlement of this lot is breathtaking. They just think they can do what the hell they like with absolutely zero accountability

For some “inexplicable” reason prominent Scottish Tories seem reluctant to express a view this morning so it might be useful to know their previously publicly expressed position on breaching lockdown pic.twitter.com/Ti9bDabYww

— Murray Foote (@murrayf00te) May 23, 2020

If Calderwood and Ferguson had not been thrown under the bus, then I might not be quite so virulent in my calls for his head.

But he was happy for it to happen to them, for arguably less serious rule breaches, so then he has to go.

Even my Brexit frothing Tory voting parents think he should quit, and if he doesn’t, Boris should sack him. Apparently this is the first test of Boris’s leadership 🙄

Given that plod were stopping the very few cars on motorways at that time how did he get through?

Considering the M1 seemed to become a public racetrack for the duration of the “hard” lockdown I must disagree with this statement.

Of course its a sacking offense! How on earth anyone can think otherwise is beyond me. Absolutely clear breach of the guidelines covered up badly

Edit – apart from anything else its bad politics and will be used against the tories over and over again. He will be gone in a few days is my bet

Not being nice and deferential. Obviously deserves some punishment, a weekend spent disinfecting tube carriages or something, but not a sacking offence

You think?

The one burning issue of the moment is CV19, minimising it’s spread and thus the likelihood of subsequent deaths.
To that end the government, the body Cummings “advises” set out rules and legislation for widespread social isolation as well as home quarantine for anyone displaying symptoms.
He broke most of those those rules. Cummings position should bring with it a greater burden of responsibility to be seen to be complying with the rules. Therefore his actions send the message to those who might already be wavering that lockdown does not matter and you can essentially ignore pretty much all of the measures.
By extension then his actions have in some measure endanger UK citizens lives and he should pay a proportionate price. His highly prized job would be an appropriate sanction in my view.

I have no faith in the current government, but the idea of Cummings staying in post would just cause me to double down on my general distain for for them…

The despicable Laura K has been a Tory mouthpiece for quite some time. It’s probably a result of talking out of the side of her wonky mouth. She’s an odious person.

He will be gone in a few days is my bet

I’ll take that bet Uncle Jezzer

Are we having our usual pastry/cake related wager? What timescale are we putting on it? A week?

OK binners – by the end of the week for tasty baked goodness 🙂

How on earth are Laura K and the BBC siding with the Tories? Where has that nonsense come from?

(I am fully expecting to be the only person voicing this opinion).

There will be one or two others along no doubt.

No fan of the Tories, Johnson or Cummings, but am I the only person thinking that the calls to resign are OTT, and a sad feature of modern politics, being nothing more than a rather spurious excuse to get rid of someone we either don’t like or whose performance we dont rate?

Live by the sword. Die by the sword. Presumably after infecting a few people with covid-19 first.

He has made his career by, amongst other things, targeting smears (both selecting a ‘mark’ and targeting the audience).

He is a low life made good by the opportunity some particularly nasty politics has presented.

I’ll do a little jig if he gets the boot. Which he won’t. For all the reasons above.

He’ll be “in place” ‘till about 18 months before the next election, when he will “go away” to focus on winning that next big campaign without distraction.

Peston & Kussenberg are literally protecting their source

That’s the depressing thing, by spinning Doms lines for him, they get to say ‘an anonymous source says’….. Living out their Woodward & Bernstein fantasies.

There will be one or two others along no doubt.

Nah, the Tories who inhabit this place have no shame.

A pox on them all.

First half of my december prediction is getting closer; that was for cummings to be gone by mid year.
Second half of prediction was that johnson would be gone by year end.
Should have placed a bet.
Posted to the GE 2019 thread.

Vinneyeh, I’ve actually got some sympathy for your view, in the round.

And I’d felt the same when several other (decent, apolitical) public servants flouted the rules, Neil Ferguson and Dr Calderwood specifically.

But they went, probably pushed for political expedience, and likely the wider health effort suffered as a result.

If those guys went, then there is no doubt Dom needs to go too. For consistency.

….this, pretty much. Otherwise it’s, again, one rule for Dom and one rule for the rest. And let’s not forget that over 14,000 ordinary plebs have been fined for breaking the lockdown:

Over 14,000 fines handed out to people breaking lockdown

In the last month, my best mate couldn’t be present for the birth of his daughter, my cousin likewise, and my great auntie Jean, after dying in a care home, had a funeral attended by 2 people.

To see the Tories now pretending that Cummings’ only sin is just caring too much about his family is the absolute pinnacle of cuntishness.

He has very good reason for acting like the rules don’t apply to him. They never have done in the past.

sadly, this.

OK binners – by the end of the week for tasty baked goodness 🙂

Just for clarity, let’s all ‘legally and responsibly’ define the ‘end of the week’ shall we 😉

Saturday? Sunday? Monday (it’s a BH weekend)? first working week after lockdown?

Plenty of scope there to ‘legally’ create some space for the odd infraction if needs be.

TJ it’s not a sacking offence it’s a criminal offence and he should be set a public example of.

There was a time when politicians were held to higher standards, they didn’t adhere to them but if they got caught there were consequences, affairs brought forced resignations, Profumo nearly brought the government down by lying to the house. We now have Dom in contempt and Boris who doesn’t know how many kids he has but hey ho, Brexit, flags, VE Day, proud to be British etc.

Meanwhile our virus control measures are lack luster at best and we’re destroying the education of a whole generation of kids, trashing the economy, destroying people’s lives through job losses and business collapses in the main to protect people over 65 who think it’s their God given right to go to the garden centre.

Anyone with kids knows that no cold, flu or even Ebola excuses you from taking care of the kids. Only a properly authorised death certificate gets you off.

Failing to see how two adults between them couldn’t have a fair go at looking after 1 child. If it got to crisis point then yes get help but to preemptively travel up the country seems bizarre. Anyone worked out where they stopped on the way? Got to be done CCTV lurking from a service station

but to preemptively travel up the country seems bizarre

Durham is low risk.

The virus would only go there if it couldn’t get in to Oxford or Cambridge.

😉

From today’s coordinated dissembling by ministers (Gove especially good at this), should we be learning that if you have small children and obeyed the rules on isolating your household if Covid19 was suspected, then you are guilty of poor parenting? Is that the takeaway? Good parents ignore/break the rules?