I'll Just Leave This Here

[douglas9401]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52779356

Feel free to divide down party lines

[naomi24]

No angst here, sunny-dave. I can't be held responsible for your inability to understand the difference between two threads.

gness, no love lost I can assure you.

[Togo]

//Like, in the car for 5+ hours with him and his wife while they drove up to Durham.//

Or the week or so before, just by being at home, when they didn't even have symptoms showing?

[ynnafymmi]

This whole posting is getting farcical now.Perhaps time for the editor to move in.He said,she said,he didnt say,she didnt say.....etc...

[anneasquith]

This thread has certainly moved from the ‘ news’ topic. Much more suited now to catty bank .

[jim360]

// I wouldn't expect others not to. I would expect anyone in exceptional circumstances to break the rule ... //

Then the rule is worthless and should never have been drafted. This is my point, at least: there is simply no way that Cummings and the government get out of this looking well. Drafting rules that "have" to be broken means that the rules are daft. Or they aren't daft and he shouldn't have broken it. So which is it?

And, again, what is the value of being "duty bound" to follow rules except when it is inconvenient to do so? There were other options open to resolve the apparent dilemma and it's nonsense to pretend otherwise.

Believe whatever you want to believe about others. For my part I've answered honestly: I wouldn't break the rules I'd helped create unless I wasn't thinking.

[iluvmargie]

Ha! You should know aa.

[fender62]

i voted conservative, but dominic is a toad and dresses like a bum.

[Ellipsis]

> Or the week or so before, just by being at home, when they didn't even have symptoms showing?

Yep, then too.

So, the plan is not the best ... first you infect the kid, then you give it to your aged parents to look after while you're too ill to.

TCL> At no stage was he or his family spoken to by the police about this matter ... Officers made contact with the owners of that address ... officers explained to the family the guidelines around self-isolation ... they cannot both be correct, can they?

The only way they can both be correct is if the first "family" refers to Cummings, his wife and child, and the second "family" refers to the house's owners, and they're not the same "family". i.e. Cummings didn't own the house where he stayed, perhaps one of his relatives did.

[THECORBYLOON]

That could be an explanation but as the police were unlikely to speak to Cummings' wee boy, why did Number Ten not say the police had not spoken to him or his wife if "family" did not include his parents?

[anneasquith]

How strange, ilovemargie, I don’t even know who he/ she is .

[tiggerblue10]

At the risk of being shot down here I will admit to doing something similar to Cummings at the beginning of April. My mum was very ill and my dad (late 70s) couldn't cope. She has bi polar and at the time she had a severe breakdown resulting in anti-psychotic and sleeping pills being prescribed. I had to go and help my dad look after her and took my son to my uncle for a few hours each day. We all maintained social distancing, wearing masks and constant hand-washing. We were very lucky that none of us developed any symptoms and we are all fine now.

I came across this clip on Twitter today. The date is claimed as being 12 March but I think it may be some time in early April.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1263957903859482624

[Cloverjo]

That’s ok though, tigger. You didn’t help to create the rules. You had an emergency and had to go. Cummings helped set up the rules, broke them and put others at risk for very little reason.

[anneasquith]

I apologise for being ‘ off topic’ ,T I hope mum is better .

[tiggerblue10]

Thanks Jo.

I can't help thinking about his small child though. I had norovirus when Little Tiggs was around 5 and I couldn't look after him so he went to stay with my parents.

Shes miles better, thanks Anne. She has to take the anti-psyc drug for the rest of her life now to keep her stabilised.

[brainiac]

How anyone can NOT think that he is a steaming great grade-A hypocrite for egregiously flouting rules he helped to draw up is sorely deluded. Boris should invite him to his study for a severe caning, and send him on his way.

[Barsel]

I take it that everybody believes this man and his wife had the virus symptoms, is there any proof or is everybody just taking his word for it?
I know a lot of people who have had some of the symptoms, none went on to have anything worse than a bad bout of a cold.
Personally I don't believe a word of it.
He wanted to visit his parents so he made up this elaborate story.
Do I have proof? No, but I'm sure the truth will out one day.

[Ellipsis]

TCL you're asking why number 10, advised by Cummings the spinmeister general, when asked about said Cummings, applied spin to the answer? Per-lease ...

[THECORBYLOON]

"I know a lot of people who have had some of the symptoms, none went on to have anything worse than a bad bout of a cold."

The relatives of the victims might have a different opinion.

[andy-hughes]

I have taken the time to read all the posts, and naomi is firmly sticking to her position that, were her children in danger of an absence of care, she would have done the same thing - inferring if I understand her position correctly, that she feels that Mr Cummings acted correctly n the circumstances.

I believe the flaw in her argument is this -

Mr Cummings is not Joe Public (Naomi Public if you will!) he is a top government adviser, responsible for the drafting and implementation of advice (I believe it is 'advice' rather than 'rules' so no law has been broken) designed to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

Having been at the forefront of that advice, the normal situation that applies to naomi and all of us, is clearly closed off to Mr Cummings because of who he is, and his position in regards to advice to the PM.

The risk of him being observed flouting the rules, not only in driving the distance he did, but without doubt having to stop a minimum of once along the way to refuel and use toilets, thus exposing untold individuals to the virus he and his wife are carrying, means that it is a situation on which he cannot possibly embark - the repercussions would simply be too horrendous for the government.

Mr Cummings is an intelligent man - if I can figure out the potential disaster waiting to follow such action, I am sure he can - so to realise the risks and still proceed shows a serious lack of judgement on his part.

For that alone he should at the very least have apologised.

Instead, he has gone to ground, leaving Grant Shapps to carry out the briefing this evening, and bleat rather forlornly that no-one seems to be interested in his new relaxation of transport restrictions.

Wow, are they not Grant? I wonder why that would be!!!!

In my view, the absence of an acknowledgement of crass stupidity and exposure of innocent people to Covid 19 by has actions, and the absence of an apology, simply shows a second absence of judgement to compound the first.

I think if the PM does not sack Cummings by tomorrow at the latest, his own credibility in advising the nation about 'staying safe' will have been comprehensively destroyed.

The PM's 'full support' of such behaviour shows that absence of judgement in not confined to his adviser, it is shown by the PM himself.

I can understand Mr Cummings holding on and toughing it out, he has already shown that his moral compass is absent, but the PM should have no such doubts - damage limitation is all he can hope for, and that works better, the sooner it is applied.

[douglas9401]

Thanks for that brief summary.