Cumming Home to Durham Town

So, is the lock-down holed below the waterline? I do hope so.

The PM’s decision to back his chief aide’s lockdown trip to Durham has sparked fears that the government’s coronavirus message will be undermined.

Some Tory backbenchers have called for Dominic Cummings to resign to ensure public confidence in future measures.

The row comes as plans to further ease lockdown restrictions will be discussed at a cabinet meeting later.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said Mr Cummings “at no stage broke the law or broke the rules”.

This little episode once again reminds us of tribal behaviour. Those who hate Cummings will believe the worst no matter what.

However, did he break the law? I do not believe so. Did he stretch the meaning of reasonable? Well, yes, I believe that he did. However, if we are to compare his behaviour with that of Professor Neil Ferguson, there is a significant difference. Arranging childcare does fit within the scope of reasonable, whereas arranging to get your leg over with your mistress does not. Cummings could – and should – have foreseen this and made plans accordingly.

However, despite the clear difference between the two situations, the media is now in a feeding frenzy and social media has tried, condemned and is waiting to execute the man. They despise him, so any excuse will do. Truth, facts and evidence matter not a jot. It’s Cummings, therefore he must go. It’s the same derangement we see with Orange Man Bad. Doesn’t matter what the man says or does, he is wrong. When his political opponents do or say the same, well that’s all okay, then. Trump’s the racist apparently, yet it was Biden who engaged in a blatant racial slur when he proclaimed that black people who don’t vote for him aren’t black.

And it’s interesting how the lies and manipulation spread. I was in a Zoom meeting with my in-laws over the weekend and one of them casually mentioned the “drinking bleach” bollocks as if it was an established truth. It took gargantuan effort on my part not to do a face-palm. It was a family gathering – Mrs L’s older brother’s birthday, so I just remained mute. But this was an intelligent man, someone at the top of his profession and he was repeating a blatant untruth because he had clearly seen the BBC’s doctored footage and at no time had taken any time or effort to engage in critical thinking or to follow any evidence that might challenge his prejudices. Trump is stupid and that’s that, despite any contrary evidence.

The same is going on with Cummings. I can’t say that I much like the man. If I had to work with him, his abrasive approach would irritate me. However, if he is the man to drain the swamp that is the uncivil disservice, then so be it. Let’s get on with it.

Meanwhile, people will believe what they want to believe because critical thinking is a dying art.

39 Comments

  1. I’m watching the interview on BBC1 right now, reporters are waiting in line, one by one, for their turn to try and rip him apart. So far he’s handed every one of them their arses on a plate. The vile Robert Peston was dispatched with no effort whatsoever. He acted within the law, end of. Reasonable, or ‘spirit’ of the regulations has nothing to do with it, the same options have always been applicable to us all, and if some people insist so much on staying thick by ignoring what those regulations say or assuming guidelines to be laws, then that’s their fault. This TV news report looks more like a day at the shooting range to me, with Cummings as the target.

  2. Look on the upside.
    After this experience, Dom will be gunning for the BBC, no licence tax, no mercy.
    Excellent.

  3. Does anyone else find it a bit galling to see the TV coverage of people like Dominic Cummings, as the press tries to crucify them in a fit of self-righteous rage, their own hacks and photojournalists swarm around their hapless victim, not only invading his personal space but forming a rugby scrum around him. And you see their target struggling through this melee to get to his own car while they all get right in his face and photograph his tonsils and the hairs in his nose……

    • What has properly fucked me off about this is the hypocrisy of the press in not observing social distancing as them mobbed him outside his home. I watched the press conference and agree that they were handed their arses on a plate. I was even more fucked off when the press continued to try to harangue Cummings at the PM’s press conference. I thought Boris told told them to fuck off very diplomatically.

      The press really are a bunch of scumbag Jackels. They have no sense of proportion or timing, they complain that Cummings child care arrangements are overshadowing events but can’t see that they are the fucking problem by continuing to make it an “event” and continued the vendetta at the PM’s press briefing when it was clearly time to move on.

      I can see now why Donald Trump either bans certain journalists or simply walks out of press briefings. The British press deserved no less yesterday.

  4. ‘I was subject to threats of violence, people came to my house shouting threats, there were posts on social media encouraging attacks… I was worried about the possibility of leaving my wife and child at home all day and possibly into the night..’

    Surely this statement alone would count as exceptional circumstances – and perhaps warrant some kind of press reaction or comment – yet the journalists ignored it in favour of repeating ad nauseam the same few questions about the car trips and insisting his situation was no different from that of any other parent.

    The ‘stay at home’ message is being ‘undermined’ primarily by the media frenzy surrsounding Mr Cummings – had this story had been reported objectively, in proportion and without the abundant speculation and synthetic outrage, it would surely be far less likely to be cited as spurious – and widely reported – justification by today’s seaside day -trippers.

  5. Social Distancing by media scrum? Same as yell in your face police
    – The Total Media Meltdown Over Dominic Cummings; Sargon
    https://youtu.be/xgo2zeb-3ns?t=290

    Gov’t guidance: use family & friends to care for children, local authority (nice word there) as last resort

    Cummings did nothing wrong. In Left & Remoaners he’s guilty as he secured Brexit

    Biden? The left are evil – His supporters:
    @5m 30: Female journo “I’d vote for Biden if he boiled babies and ate them…we must win at any cost””

    CNN’s Cuomo taking FDA unapproved Quinine, that’s OK, but Trump?
    – Liberal hypocrisy machine erupts over Trump taking hydroxychloroquine
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vAFoWBuas

  6. The same is going on with Cummings. I can’t say that I much like the man. If I had to work with him, his abrasive approach would irritate me. However, if he is the man to drain the swamp that is the uncivil disservice, then so be it. Let’s get on with it.

    Having worked with Dominic Cummings on Vote Leave (as a local coordinator), I must say that he is a man whose enthusiasms seem to get the better of him and he can be abrasive to say the least. When trying to get things done in an environment of bureaucratic intransigence like the Civil Service, I’m sure that he puts the backs up the Civil Service scum, but I’m equally sure they deserve a lot of it.

    For what we were attempting to do with Vote Leave (sway the undecided voters over a short time period within a tight budget), I thought he was effective and focused. The problem is that while that is fine for a few months, over the longer term the pressure would just become too much, so not a man I would work for in a professional capacity.

    While there is some justification to the fact that Cummings seems to be playing a bit fast-and-loose with the regulations, part of that is that the regulations are open to interpretation. For the most part though, this is more about end-stage BRExit derangement syndrome.

    Do we really want to be in a position where twats like Piers Morgan can demand the resignation of the PM’s advisers for little or no reason (other than general dislike / BDS)? Do we really want to allow the Civil Service to use the Grauniad (and others) as a mouthpiece to get rid of people that are a threat to the bureaucracy?

    Given the above, Boris is right to back Cummings.

    • I am reminded of the 1984 miners’ strike. Did we want an unelected union leader to unseat an elected government? Parallels there.

  7. I have no particular interest in Cummings and no particular axe to grind but a number of points spring to mind:

    1) The “Do as you are told, not as I do” double standard applied to those in power and the same rules and discretion applied to the rest of the sheeple.

    2) “Reasonable” – there is no definition of reasonable that can be agreed on here and no matter what, someone, somewhere will come up with “Ah, yes but he could have …” and use this to demonstrate his reasonableness or conversely, his unreasonableness.

    3) The press is so biased that anyone surprised by this may be shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you to discover water is wet and that the sun rises in the east. But the Great British Public (GBP) are so brainwashed and lazy when it comes to thinking that I dare say that they would believe the sky is falling and you could have a reign of terror with a balloon on a bit stick nowadays provided you have the press behind you.

    As for the woman that ate fish tank cleaner, then there are other factors behind it and she is being investigated for murder. She has previous “form” for abuse and in all domestic abuse situations involving the woman abusing the man, nothing ever comes of it:

    https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/29/arizona-woman-gave-husband-chloroquine-investigated-homicide-police/

    But Trump is to blame for that too I suppose.

  8. I had about twenty conversations with various people on Monday, several mentioned Covid19, none Mr Cummings.

    Excellent Coronaphobia experience.
    I went to a newsagent , not my usual one, to find it’s frontage barred by a trestle table on which were some empty newspaper delivery bags. The glass door and shop windows were mostly covered in a number of felt tip notices. I was somewhat confused but yes it was within their opening times, “put money here” said the notice in the plastic sandwich tub on the table. “Ring the bell” said another, what bell?
    I tapped lightly on the door glass to attract the attention of the two people inside.
    “What can I get you?” said the lady in plastic pinny, gloves and hair-covering (!? wtf?) through the glass.
    “What’s he banging on the door for” said the man behind the counter.

    I paid the lady by card through the still closed door as the man approached with MY cigarettes, he opened it just enough to get his hand out but instead of passing them to me with a ‘nice morning again’ he gestured for me to shoo away (from the trestle table distance I already was) and tossed them into the “put money here” tub.
    “Didn’t you see the bell?” he grunted.

    Social Distancing may be all well and good, I just thought they were bloody rude.

  9. Used to be Banned to : I had similar experiences here. The lady at the post office stridently demonstrated that she can’t visualise what two metres looks like: I can. At Screwfix as I halfheartedly complied with their system, a thirtyish lad insisted that I stand by their markers and exit by the marked lane – he’d obviously either had a sense of humour bypass or was hoping for promotion to milk monitor. Later, Screwfix again, an older lady member of staff was charm itself.

  10. I didn’t leave home for the first month. If I’d realised that a 500 mile round trip was allowed under the lockdown regulations I could have travelled from Essex to Devon to visit my sister. I wish somebody had told me.

    • It does sound to me as if you are somewhat missing the point. Cummings didn’t wait to be told what he could do, he read the rules and decided what it was reasonable for him to do under them in his circumstances at the time; obviously a large number of people disagree, or at least maintain that they disagree, with his interpretation. You imply that you haven’t troubled to read the rules and if that is so you are not in a position to complain about being unable to visit your sister. Perhaps there were compelling extenuating circumstances that would have made it reasonable for you to do so, though you don’t mention any.

      • All perfectly true. And I despise both. However, the evidence suggests that Cummings isn’t being treated differently here. A few weeks ago, maybe, but the police have had their fingers burnt.

  11. Given that the Guardian and Mirror published stuff about his visit that was untrue I’m struggling to identify the irony you that you think is so obvious.

  12. Given that the lockdown is completely broken, traffic jam on route to the seaside, heavyish traffic in town, large queues at (none-food) B&M, how come there are still so many Police driving about since all they could do is intercept a suspected infected?

    Perhaps it’s to stop me plonking down alongside the large lard soaked family sweating on the beach or laying less than 2 metres from the pretty young woman topping up her tan in the park which would be creepy.

    Point being, at beaches and parks we have always practised social distancing, anyone closer than 5 metres is in my personal space.

    • 5 metres? My father’s rule of thumb was that a hundred yards was acceptable – just! – although, to be fair, visitors to the coastline at North Berwick were more likely to be found huddling in the lee of a large boulder than lying on spread-out beach towels.

      It raises an interesting question; if you and I set up our respective encampments at a suitable distance and someone were to arrive and occupy the intervening space, what could we do? Move further away? But what about the people on the other side?

      Once the numbers start to climb – and furlough means a lot of people with time on their hands – I can’t see the police handling this one: will we see the creation of a new caste of beach wardens or will the result be a sort of Brownian motion all over the beach until the most sensitive souls get tired of it and go home?

      • They may react as I did when I saw the queue to get into Sainsbury’s this morning. Turn around and walk away. The Co op fortunately had no such nonsense, although they did have an impossible one-way system that was best ignored or I’d still be there wandering around trying to find the way out.

        I will not play their game. I hope that more and more will take the same attitude as time passes, making this idiocy impossible to manage.

        • Daily Queues:
          Tesco – long Q
          ~1 mile away on same road
          Aldi & Morrisons – no Q

          Only Tesco Q can be seen when driving past. Is Qing a new virtue signalling?

          • Must be, there was only a small queue at Sainsbury’s so they were stood 4-5 metres apart, made I larf.
            What’s the syndrome where you know what’s occuring is stupid but everyone joins in in anyway?

        • My Tesco Metro is good they let me go straight to the till if I just want cigs and booze, my larger Co OP expects me to walk up and down all 4 aisles just to get milk from the far corner so I go up the near lane, across the back of the store ignoring two no entry stickers, pick up my milk and back down the far lane to the checkout. Nobody has demonstrated or tried to stop me.

          • Well done, I’m a rule/law breaker too. “Do no harm”, “Live and let live” is all I adhere too.

            My 80 year old mother says I was always like that and as a chastised child responded with “What harm does it do?”

      • Is it Italy or Spain that I read are doing just that ? Recruiting 40,000 from the unemployed as unpaid Citizen Social Distancing Compliance Monitors. You can just imagine the sort of characters who might join up for that.
        As for people taking up the space between us,
        throw rocks at them.

    • Point being, at beaches and parks we have always practised social distancing

      Yes, even walking, shopping etc we generally don’t want to be close to peeps we don’t know. Enforced closeness is one reason I dislike buses, cinemas, sporting events… When I was young we always took a wind (aka people) break to beach

      • A little far-fetched, this, but here’s a theory (based on years of observation at the chalkface); humans seem, from an early age, to divide clearly into those who seek out close contact and those who avoid it, which is, if you think about it, a useful survival strategy for primitive hominids.

        The sociable ones like to huddle together and gather in large groups, which deters predators but renders them vulnerable to epidemics, while the outliers, although more likely to picked off by sabre-tooth tigers, escape contagion and survive outbreaks of disease.

        Sabre-tooth tigers aren’t much of a problem these days but the two types prevail; I dare say some are finding social distancing much easier than others as a result.

        • Italians huddle, in a near empty restaurant they will chose a table close to others; the English way is to chose as far away as possible.

        • That might explain why some people are still trying to hide from the virus at home, moaning about not being able to meet with friends and family while complaining on Twitter about those of us who do.

          As you say, not many sabre-tooth tigers about but their role has been taken by muggers from the feral underclass (sorry if that’s a hate crime).

        • I’m fine with sabre toothed tigers. I’ve had 62 years of practice, so I have the social distancing thing well sorted. Give me sabre toothed tigers over the frightened, bed-wetting masses any day.

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