I am so very sick of people constantly bleating about, "he should/could have asked his sister/family in London to help with childcare". And you all know this how? I have a sister; no way in a month of Sundays would I have trusted her with my kids when they were that age. Why should he choose childcare according to what somebody else, somebody who doesn't know him and his kid, decree? Would any of you stand for being told who should look after your kids? Would any of you stand for Social Services swooping in and taking your four year old for a prolonged and indefinite period which might end in him then being shipped off to God knows where because, as we all know, once Social Services are involved, especially if the parents aren't around any longer, anything could happen to the poor little thing?
Of course this is a witch hunt! Why could he drive 260 miles without needing to stop for his little one to have a loo break but he couldn't last just over an hour out on a trip? Err time of day? They travelled up in the late evening, arriving around midnight. Yep, I've had three and they could all have slept 4 or 5 hours travelling by car in the late evening and into the night, that was their normal sleep pattern. During the day they could go to the loo just before we left the house and then need a wee before we got out of the village!
Don't get me wrong, I think going out to test his eyesight by a trial run to Barnard Castle is definitely spurious although, once having decided to do that, if his son is Autistic, it's entirely plausible that he did need to get out for a wee and wouldn't immediately get back into the car, needing a bit of a run around and even maybe dad to get out and encourage him back in.
Whatever anyone says, however many times anyone screeches it from the rooftops, he didn't break any rules in his original decision to take his family to lockdown in Durham. Everyone could have done what he did provided they had somewhere to go under similar circumstances. My 25 year old daughter who has actually been living with me since leaving uni has a number of friends living and working on their own in London who, on lockdown and being furloughed, packed up their flats/houses and decamped back to parents for the duration. Not all of them managed to do that actually by the 23rd either as notice of lock down wasn't very generous!
Getting someone in to look after the boy in London, (paid help that is) would very definitely have broken the rules as nannies were not allowed at that point though they are now. It would also have been much more dangerous with regard to spreading the virus. At that point they didn't know if they had the virus or not. His wife was unwell though with no fever and no cough, and he had just been made aware that his closest colleague had just tested positive. He went back to work because his wife had not displayed the two top symptoms which were in the guidelines; the only two symptoms at the time which necessitated, in the guidelines, immediate isolation.
I work in elder care, or I did before being furloughed on 17th April after receiving a letter advising me that my pre-existing conditions required me to shield for 12 weeks, and I have been made aware of cases around this same time, end of March, of care workers arriving at work for an 8 hour shift, developing a temperature and beginning to cough and being told that they would have to finish their shift before leaving as cover couldn't be found! (This wasn't in my place of work I'm glad to say.)
Of course he returned to 10 Downing Street, he'd just been told that the Prime Minister had tested positive for COVID-19 and he was his chief advisor! What's he supposed to do? Say, "cheery bye then" and trot on? Which brings me to the poster who asked if his role is as important as someone in the NHS?? Seriously??
He didn't want to self isolate at home in London because, contrary to what someone else declared, yes, his home was being hounded by press, not to the same extent I grant you but he's absolutely hated by the remainers who are now desperate to effect an agreement to extend our leaving period beyond the end of this year in the mad hope that they'll eventually be able to have their way and turn Brexit completely on its head eventually. The deadline for achieving this being the end of June, they are now resorting to the dirtiest of tactics especially as DC arrived back in time to put a stop to just such an agreement which had been cooked up in his and Bojo's absence. The Bruge Group tweeted on 17th April to the effect that, having exhausted all parliamentary channels that there would be a personal attack on these two.
Of course this is a witch hunt and it has Momentum written all over it. Anyone who genuinely thinks that the MSM is being led by the general public is so sadly deluded it's almost unbelievable.
Of course he's made mistakes. But going to Durham in the first place wasn't one of them. And yes, he should have apologised for his lack of judgement once there. But the fact remains that not one of his mistakes has put anyone in any more danger from the virus than they were already and certainly not nearly as much danger as some of the cock-eyed suggestions as to how he should have played the situation in the eyes of his critics! Nor have his actions been as dangerous as some MPs who have been attending funerals and birthday parties with large numbers of people or having picnics when it's against their country's explicit rules. For this reason alone, baying for his resignation or dismissal is wildly out of proportion with the lack of admonishment dealt out to those others,
On the subject of not being able to drive to places to exercise because you're in Wales or Scotland or wherever, and your own assembly is making the rules for you... how is that his fault? Your electorate wanted your own assemblies, you voted for it and then bleat about not being allowed to do what we're allowed to do in England! You want to try and lay that at the door of this man as well and you still say it's not a witch hunt?
I'll retire to Bedlam!