Dominic Cummings

simmo

simmo

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So should Dominic Cummings step down or not? I'm of the opinion that he has done something the rest of us would get pulled up for, regardless of his personal reasoning.

A good comparison would be Scotland's chief medical officer who broke the lockdown and had to resign as a result.

So I think he should take responsibility for his actions and go.
 
IMO no. From what I gather the little boy is autistic (not something he is going to sit and discuss in front of the gutter press) which was why he couldn’t sort child care near to his London base. I have no idea of the severity of his condition but it would explain why he wanted to relocate to people the child knew and was comfortable with.
He has rattled enough cages within Parliament and Whitehall for there to be a witch hunt. But it’s a ridiculous over reaction as usual. He didn’t swan off to his country abode nor did he sneak off for a quick shag with his mistress. He put the needs of a four year old child first.
 
For someone who was squirming and clearly uncomfortable throughout - either that or he's a good actor - he got a very easy time of it from the journalists who all basically asked the same question and got the same reply.

It all boiled down to his justifying actions that none of the rest of us would be allowed to justify. My wife's 93yo mother is frail, suffers from dementia, has only a very limited care plan (two 15-30 minute visits per day) and appears to be deteriorating by the week. My wife and I had to keep away from her for the first month of the lockdown, during which time she deteriorated further and ended up in hospital. Fortunately she has rallied and tests for Covid have been negative. It's only since then that we have taken upon ourselves the risk of visiting her for very limited periods and taking all sorts of precautionary measures as well as removing and washing our clothes and showering when we return from her place.

My mother-in-law is arguably more vulnerable than a 4yo boy even if he does have autism - and as a [retired] teacher I can tell you that some parents go to ridiculous lengths to ensure that their child is diagnosed with all sorts of disabilities to ensure their child gets access to support they probably don't really need - and I am fizzing mad that this arrogant piece of sh1t is getting away with this.
 
One couldn't really expect Cummings to resign, hardly strikes as the honourable type and has an ego almost the size of his balding pate; but perhaps it could have been expected that Johnson would sack him...

...though my guess is that Cummings has a barrowfull of dirt on Johnson he could empty at Fleet Street's doors: 'sack me and I'll go public'

Got a firm grip on his curly-wurlies, as was the plan all along

Rasputin and Svengali eat yer hearts out
 
Hardly any of what he said added up. Especially as his wife drives and there is no reason why she couldn't have driven back. Rumours that the child is autistic seem to be incorrect and, even if they were an autistic child is always better in familiar surroundings. He even rushed back to no 10 after being with his wife who had covid symptoms. Rules were that he should, at that point, have self isolated for 14 days. At least, those were the rules for the rest of us. At that time the infection rate in London was massive and in the NE it was pretty low. We have a holiday place in Northumberland and, tempted as we were pre lockdown, to travel there we decided not to risk taking any infection up there even though we'd been self isolating for a while and were, in theory, virus free. He even spoke to his parents albeit outdoors, something that many people wanted to do but couldn't. The whole thing stinks.
 
Oh and he and the PM couldn't remember what they'd discussed about his illness/whereabouts because both the PM and Cummings were too ill. And yet, at that point Johnson was still running the country, albeit in self isolation. Bit worrying, that.
 
moehat said:
Oh and he and the PM couldn't remember what they'd discussed about his illness/whereabouts because both the PM and Cummings were too ill. And yet, at that point Johnson was still running the country, albeit in self isolation. Bit worrying, that.
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Either that or they just made that bit up.
 
It's been cringeworthy to watch. The hysteria and heckling has been fukcing embarrassing.

He seems to trigger a lot of people. Can't think why!
 
Can someone explain to me why, having taken his son and wife 300 miles north to keep them safe he then drove them 60 miles as part of an eye test?
 
an capall said:
Can someone explain to me why, having taken his son and wife 300 miles north to keep them safe he then drove them 60 miles as part of an eye test?
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I imagine that would be something to do with not giving a toss about anyone else.

I'm a bit concerned also about this is he/isn't he stuff with the autistic child too - I believe I'm correct in saying that Cummings has previous for disseminating untrue information through social media. It would be horrendous if such was the case here.
 
It's also interesting that his account does not match that of his wife Mary Wakefield in her Spectator article about having covid.

Which of them is lying?
 
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Drone said:
...though my guess is that Cummings has a barrowfull of dirt on Johnson he could empty at Fleet Street's doors: 'sack me and I'll go public'

Got a firm grip on his curly-wurlies, as was the plan all along

Rasputin and Svengali eat yer hearts out
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This is probably it.
 
Drone said:
perhaps it could have been expected that Johnson would sack him...
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We got an insight only a few months ago when Cummings wanted more control of the Treasury's advisors

Johnson had to choose between Cummings and his Chancellor. He chose Cummings! and Sajid Javed resigned

This should be a seriously salutary lesson to everyone in Johnson's cabinet and the parliamentary conservative party. When a PM values his special advisor above his political allies and those who serve, then every single one of them is a diminished person of lesser authority and standing. Any single one of them can be dismissed if Cummings deems that he doesn't like the way they operate​
 
simmo said:
It's also interesting that his account does not match that of his wife Mary Wakefield in her Spectator article about having covid.

Which of them is lying?
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Talking of whom, a quick flick at Mary Wakefield's bio says she was born on April 12th

Guess what date Cummings decided to go and test his eyesight out on at Barnard Castle?

Oh dear

I mean, that's a 1 in 365 chance isn't it.

It does look a little bit like a day trip on her birthday doesn't it, but then he realised he got spotted and scuttled back to his parents
 
an capall said:
Can someone explain to me why, having taken his son and wife 300 miles north to keep them safe he then drove them 60 miles as part of an eye test?
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The police have had to issue a statement advising people not to drive if their eyesight is bad or they're feeling ill. Is this Cumming's 'drink bleach to kill the virus' moment? This country and it's government is turning into some sort of sick joke.
 
an capall said:
Can someone explain to me why, having taken his son and wife 300 miles north to keep them safe he then drove them 60 miles as part of an eye test?
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I'm kind of in the same boat [as Cummings], so... confession time.

More than once over the last year or so, before my operation, I 'tested' my eyesight for driving by nipping down to the shops. I have no doubt my eyesight wouldn't have passed the 'can you read that number plate' test but I know the road like the back of my hand and could see cars, bikes, dogs being walked, etc. I couldn't read car plates or road signs but I could tell if a pigeon was on the road. Last August, at my eye test, I mentioned my worry to the optician but she said her tests had my eyesight 'two lines within' the parameters for acceptable driving vision.

At that point I was taking the bus into town to the optician's because it was otherwise a 7-mile drive and I didn't want to take the risk to that extreme.

Mrs O would go ballistic when she found out I had nipped down to the shops in the car and I fully understood why but I felt I had to find out how comfortable or otherwise I felt with my vision.

When my 'good' eye had its first operation there was no way I was prepared to drive until the doctors cleared me as my unoperated-on left eye simply doesn't have the vision. I would be uneasy relying on that eye even for walking anywhere outside the house.

I can understand why Cummings would want to test his eyesight if he'd felt he'd had an issue with it but there's no way I'd have driven to somewhere 30 miles away to test it.

The rest of the story sounds like a tissue of lies but I still can't get over why certain questions weren't asked.

Why, if he'd been in contact with the PM, wasn't he tested for Covid?

Presumably the local hospital will be able to confirm that the boy was taken there?

Was it just a case of mild food poisoning if they'd all been ill for a short while?

The wife 'threw up', suggesting it only happened once. The boy 'threw up', suggesting it only happened once. So nothing serious, probably. No mention of frequent diarrhoea for days on end (which was one of my manifestations).

The boy tested negative so probably none of them had Covid at all. So I can understand why they would want to get back to some kind of normality after 14 days.

But he was part of team that created the message to the country and he CHOSE to ignore it. Anyone in a less powerful position would have been asked to resign.
 
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Another aspect of the press conference puzzled me. Cummings repeatedly asserted that he has 100's of decisions to make each day, including some pertaining to 'testing and vaccinces' etc.

Why is this so? A special advisor to PM acting as though he had executive cabinet power and effectively defenestrating the Health Sec, publicly. (Assuming Hancock has ever been fenestrated, that is.)

This to me was the smoking gun yesterday, but maybe things are different on the mainland and I just don't understand.
 
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He did say he had to decide what gets to the PM and what doesn't. That suggests an element of control.

I suspect BJ is more inclined to do his father's bidding or DC's bidding than listen to any of the other advisers.

There is definitely something very dodgy about that phone call that neither of them seem to remember. There was either something very important in that call that they don't want revealed - maybe something to do with the shenanigans with the American businesswoman (you get the impression he was shenaniganing her a lot for a while) - or they were too addled to remember but it sounded very like they had agreed the content of it was not up for discussion. There has to be a chance either the newspapers or the secret service were accessing that call. If the former, they have to tread carefully or be exposed for hacking. If the latter, there could be further subterfuge down the line.

I do hope the media has info they're holding on to until releasing it at the most damaging moment.
 
In the greater scheme of things, what does it all matter?
The guy hardly saw the journey as a jaunt, and its gravity is being judged by peoples' political persuasion.
Nobody died, and the whole issue has been blown out of all proportion, imo.
Storm in a teacup; and nothing more.
 
There will also be fallout up here over the resignation of Douglass Ross.

I cringed when I heard his remarks about integrity. This from one of the most corrupt refereeing officials in Scottish football?
 
It's been suggested to me privately that I should ask for information about Matthew Elliott. Does anyone have any 'dirt' on him?
 
reet hard said:
In the greater scheme of things, what does it all matter?
The guy hardly saw the journey as a jaunt, and its gravity is being judged by peoples' political persuasion.
Nobody died, and the whole issue has been blown out of all proportion, imo.
Storm in a teacup; and nothing more.
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I agree with this point in relation to the journey, with the exception of 'nobody died.' That is unproven.

What the affair does do is open up a window to the soul of executive competence in Government. And so far that looks like it is a DC puppet show and a disinterested and incompetent PM. I might be wrong in this, time will tell, but the scoresheet currently is about 0-60K.

Regarding memory of phone calls. Looking at Mr. Johnson on his increasinlgy infrequent public appearances, I would say he wakes up many mornings with little memory of the night before.
 
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I personally think how he is using his child, autistic or not, as political cover to do whatever he wanted would normally disgust reasonable people.

Who knew before the election that the new government would be chock-ful of liars and those without any spine to stand up to liars, who view rules what the plebs have to abide by. UK is getting what it deserves and will be forgotten about in 4.5 years time by the time Cummings media buddies have their way with you.

Ultimately Cummings knows too much about Boris and Brexit for him ever to resign. Boris will continue to stand by him because it is less damaging to him and the conservative party than risk Cummings disclosing what he knows.
 
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