Since his message in public a fortnight ago, has he appeared in public since? IIRC he did the following day's briefing but none since. It does seem incredible for a leader to go 12 days without addressing the nation when the government are doing daily addresses.

 

We’re actually getting to the point where he addresses the nation less than the Queen. And he hides behind being prerecorded which didn’t even help the last message make any sense.

 

This country is doomed. I knew that we’d end up with an ‘I told you so’ moment after the election, it’s one of the only hopes I could cling on to at the time, but this isn’t just the government cocking something up, they’re literally putting us in danger.

 

Second wave, here we come!

I wonder how the Cameron/May-ite Tory MPs feel about this whole situation. Do they have any integrity?

 

It sounds weird but I'd wish Mad May was still in charge over Johnson ANY day. At least Mad May had a few funny memes like her curtseying, dancing and demonic shoulder laugh but the incompetence of this government isn't even funny.

 

I think the more Centrist members of the Party are probably on the fence. Suspect privately they will disagree but I'd be shocked if any went public for now, especially as they are trying to whip. May wasn't that bad, the problem she had was she was trying to deliver Brexit when she clearly didn't fully believe in it and The 1922 committee wanted her out.

 

Exactly. How can we (as we should) pressure people to not go out on the beach in Southend, or treat this as some holiday while there are still people dying, when apparently a high-ranking government minister (or his wife) can literally be confirmed infected and drive across the country.

 

One of two things is coming of this, perhaps both. Either there is public outrage over the government's cavalier attitude and this is what collapses the dam wall of support for them, or controlling the lockdown becomes untenable.

 

The message is it's one rule for the us, but one rule for them it's quite clear. It sets a horrible precident. It's embarrassing for the Government, when you add all the evidence up it's untenable. He has to either be sacked or resign of his own accord.

 

I'd have some sympathy if he was actually bedstricken, but he clearly had a mild case at the very least. Why couldn't a family member come and live with him? Why couldn't be have ordered his shopping online like the rest of us plebs? I think the Government think they can sweep this under the carpet but quite clearly it's not going to go away and nor should it.

People have died alone. Fathers have missed the births of their children. Children haven’t seen their friends for two months. All because of government guidance. If you can do a 4 or 5 hour drive, then you were well enough to look after your kids.

 

He won’t resign, that’s already clear. Boris won’t sack him because he needs him. There’s not much we can do in protest that doesn’t put people at risk.

 

He is untouchable and I feel sick.

A huge number of people have lived with chronic fear that their parents or vulnerable family members/friends would catch it. So we stayed away, we isolated. We paid a price. And yet Dominic Cummings holds on to his job.. That's messed up.

People have died alone. Fathers have missed the births of their children. Children haven’t seen their friends for two months. All because of government guidance. If you can do a 4 or 5 hour drive, then you were well enough to look after your kids.

 

He won’t resign, that’s already clear. Boris won’t sack him because he needs him. There’s not much we can do in protest that doesn’t put people at risk.

 

He is untouchable and I feel sick.

 

He either goes or the public loses confidence in the Government. His actions undermine everything that the Goverment has telling us to do.

 

If there's enough pressure from the public and the media he quite simply has to resign or be sacked.

 

He's broken rules which is one thing. He has also inferred that Durham police are lying about speaking to him. And then his wife has said they were in London self-isolating. If that doesn't stink of an arse twitching then I don't know what else does.

Who pulls Cummings strings then?

Since his message in public a fortnight ago, has he appeared in public since? IIRC he did the following day's briefing but none since. It does seem incredible for a leader to go 12 days without addressing the nation when the government are doing daily addresses.

He did PMQs on Wednesday and that's just about it.

Absolutely fuming over the Dominic Cummings saga. More so fuming that he's unlikely to be axed from his position for it and the way people are leaping to his defence. I hope this scandal blows the f*** up even more. My God, I knew the government were incompetent but this is the icing on the cake.

 

Granted the one rule for them, one rule for us statement has always been true but given the current ongoing crisis you would think they would try to stick to the guidlines they themselves set out, in order to SAVE PEOPLE'S LIVES!

From all the evidence, this is happening precisely because Cummings is far more than an advisor, he is the power behind the throne. I mean, I know this government are relentless idiots who fall in lockstep to defend their own (and constantly bemoan the 'vile politics' of people daring to have the temerity to disagree with them), but he's not even an MP, the only reason this is happening has got to be that he is controlling elected representatives.

 

Yes. Bottom line - he knows all the skeletons, he was involved in half of them. If he goes down they all go down, that'll be the blackmail position. That's more important than people dying, or their own advice being regarded as hypocritical. How can the government enforce ANYTHING when they ignore their own rules? They can't.

...and the Twitter world is unified for once:

 

 

Nerys Evans

Cummings has to go. My partner and I both suffered from Covid 19 while looking after our 6 year old. We followed the govt guidelines and isolated, the only person to cross our threshold was a paramedic in week 3 when my partner developed pneumonia. f*** this Government.

 

Marina Hyde

Shapps’s line seems to be that fear of having to lone-parent a four-year-old drove a not-ill Cummings to embark on his 260-mile virus road-trip. This is all just wild

 

Jay Rayner

To drop the snark for a moment, what’s extraordinary is that the UK govt would willingly undermine the vital public health messaging in the midsts of a pandemic which has killed 55,000 people and rising - just to save one wretched man’s job.

 

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Caring for your child is obviously reasonable. Surely any parent of a three year old would want to ensure they are safe at all times. Politically motivated attacks on a good father are discreditable.

Armando Iannucci

So why dump your child in an eight foot square box with you and your sick wife for six hours while you drive it in a high fever?

 

Julia Hartley-Brewer

When I had coronavirus in mid March, do you know what I didn’t do? Visit my parents. You know why? Because I didn’t want to infect my mid-70s parents. And that was before the lockdown forbade me to do it. What Cummings did was morally and legally wrong. End of.

 

Yes, even JHB thinks he's a prick.

 

and final thought on the government goes to:

 

Aditya Chakrabortty

If only Number 10 had acted as quickly and forcefully on the pandemic in March as it has to save Dominic Cummings.

 

 

Update Latest: Govmt to amend it's guidelines again:

 

OBEY OUR RULES

 

WHILST WE DO AS WE PLEASE

 

f*** YOU ALL

Its tough, we can hardly protest by risking our own lives.

 

He must go, its showing that the government has one rule and the rest of us have another. He better go. Bloody f***ing awful government, they will be all of our downfall.

This is absolutely atrocious, he must have some serious dirt on them all.

 

How on earth they can expect anyone to take their guidelines seriously after this though, he needs to go or people will just believe there are no consequences to breaking lockdown regulations.

 

When even JHB thinks a tory is in the wrong, you know it's true.

It's just a complete shambles, makes my blood boil that we can't go and see people for a good while still because of their incompetency making the outbreak worse but then one of their own does whatever they please and it's fine? What's the point in them even setting anything, people are bad enough for just doing what they want but if they see that something like this has no consequences, I feel like more people won't hesitate to break a lot of smaller things that are in place at least.

 

Working retail 5 or 6 days a week and seeing people all day, it already feels like a lot of people think this is all over and don't care about distancing etc. or any of the changes that we're tryign to have in place such as using card payments more, this just sets an awful tone for everything.

Is it bad that all I can think of reading all of this and watching it unfold is Malcolm Tucker? :kink: (got to laugh or I'd just get mad x)

Is it bad that all I can think of reading all of this and watching it unfold is Malcolm Tucker? :kink: (got to laugh or I'd just get mad x)

He was working for an administration that was a model of competence and integrity compared with this lot.

Surely the key will be what comes out in the Sunday Papers tomorrow? The Cabinet have pretty much fully backed Cummings now (apart from Johnson publically at least).

 

If any more damming evidence comes out (e.g. there are a few less credible stories about him then going back to Durham mid-April) then surely the Government have been parked in to a massive corner. I don't think there is anything politicised about this, you've got people from the far left, Nu-Right and all the Centrists pretty much aligned to the same view..

The government line is now that the police are lying and that nobody from Durham police spoke to the Cummings family. As Rooney says, it will be interesting to see what tomorrow's front pages say.

Alledgedly the Mirror and Guardian have a confirmation of another unrelated break of the lockdown rules by Cummings - sat on it until tonight to allow the Government to tie itself up in knots today. :D

 

Here is the story: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/m...lockdown-claims

If the stories of another breakdown are true, Cummings is either supremely arrogant or unbelievably stupid. He must have known that there were more revelations to come. That also means that he lied when asked by Downing Street whether there was more to come, or Downing Street were also arrogant and thought the new allegations were unimportant, or that Downing Street didn't even bother asking.