Dominic Cummings

[saintpeter48]

All of the press and media are saying he should be sacked, just how far have the cameramen and photographers travelled to film or take photos of him, there is a massive crowd of them camped outside his house barely a fag paper between them, hypocrites or what!!
Will the BBC sack their cameraman or the Mirror sack their photographers, etc, disgraceful behaviour by a pack of hyenas baying for blood!

[Mamyalynne]

Trying to whip up?

They didn't have to work too hard here,did they?

[lady-janine]

Apart from that Birdie anything else you want to say?

[jim360]

Your doubt is misplaced. It's pretty clear that there will be outrage from many of the millions who were told to stay at home and therefore made painful decisions to avoid seeing their family and friends that the PM's chief adviser doing just that on a flimsy excuse (BS he had to travel to Durham for Childcare) will be angry at this.

You've misread this one, birdie. I completely agree that some of the outrage is driven by those who didn't like Cummings much to start with, but some is also driven by basic decency. It is incumbent on those who make the rules to follow those rules, to uphold those rules, to respect their own rules, in order that everybody else does.

[sanmac]

As one viewing this situation from abroad, I find all this hysterical outrage and furor over the actions of one man out of a population of what, around 60 million plus, almost amusing and quite fitting with your reputation for the creation of popular and contentious long-running soap-operas.

[douglas9401]

Well I for one prefer to get my news from snake oil salesman, Sandy Hook hoax proponent, potential cannibal and generally frothy-mouthed nutjob Alex Jones.

Much more balanced and truthful I'm sure you all agree. :-)

[THECORBYLOON]

TTT, there is evidence in the form of statements made by witnesses. The question is how much weight is to be given to that evidence.

I would have thought it easy for Cummings to say where he was all day on April 12th and 19th in order to contradict the claim he had been at Barnard Castle and some woods in Durham.

[jim360]

Well, if you can't see why it matters that the guy who was instrumental in writing the lockdown rules broke the lockdown rules (in the spirit and in the letter), then fair enough. But the country as a whole can.

[douglas9401]

We've reached blindly thrashing about and barking at the moon now.

Goodnight.

[shoota]

There is some doubt as to the impartiality of the witness to the alleged 2nd trip.
Apparently he has been identified as a retired school teacher who had campaigned against funding cuts for schools and is thought to be a Labour activist.
The sighting of him in bluebell woods is laughable, an unnamed person saw a man wearing a beanie so it had to be Dominic Cummins...
Neither of these incidents contain any concrete proof and are, as far as I can see , nothing other than a concerted smear campaign by leftists and frustrated remainers.

[jim360]

The scientists will have presented their evidence and advice. It is the politicians and advisers who will have turned that into guidance for the country. A scientist didn't write "stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives", even if they will have been thinking alone those lines.

As I understood it, Cummings was initially sceptical about lockdown policies until he saw the early- to mid-March modelling, then quickly became a hard advocate of lockdown, to the extent that he fought against early relaxations of it. I imagine it will be tricky, now, to find the source of this as it will have been buried by the last weekend's news, but my impression of Cummings from the last month is that he's been "on my side", so to speak. This undermines all he has (apparently) fought for and it is astonishing that he cannot see that.

I think it was mozz who said this elsewhere, too, but for my part I would be content to see him merely apologise, rather than necessarily resign or be sacked. Admit that it looks bad, admit that appearances count at a time when holding the public's complete trust is vital, and simply show some basic human decency. It may now be too late for that, which shows even more just how badly this has been misjudged. An apology, or something that was at least vaguely lacking in arrogance, right from the start and this could have gone away fairly quickly.

[jim360]

Phew, found it:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/top-aide-to-u-k-s-johnson-pushed-scientists-to-back-lockdown

What's important to note, too, is that the above article is framing Cummings' infuence negatively, but since it was released stories have emerged suggesting that SAGE was pushing for a lockdown something like two weeks before it was finally implemented. See also the timeline below:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2020-05-24/news/three-weeks-of-dither-and-delay-on-coronavirus-that-cost-thousands-of-british-lives-05sjvwv7g

[jim360]

I thought I'd already answered that: // ... for my part I would be content to see him merely apologise ... //

Now there's the secondary offence of not apologising, it's harder to say. I'm also wary that, yes, I've wanted him gone from politics and high influence since he joined Downing Street last year, and I don't doubt for a second that this shapes my own thinking on it.