So angry about this witch hunt

To some extent, his mother should have not mentioned that his uncle had died so that was one of the reasons he was in Durham,

Don't get the uninformed defenders any ammunition. His uncle died, in London, five days after Cummings hit Durham. I believe it was actually on his mother's birthday.. So visit of condolence doesn't apply at all.

maddyone

We do care - I just asked DH if we are the only family *not breaking the rules.

However, we did not make the rules.
Those who make the rules should lead by example.

Well said maddyone

Should there be demands that the photographers at
Cummings home and breaking the two metre rule be sacked

Actually maddy thousands of people who have broke the law have been fined for travelling.

It was asked if they could now have their fines repaid because they used the same reason as Cummings.

That has been firmly kicked into touch.

One law for the elite and one law for you and everyone else.

I don't think Starmer or anyone from the Labour Party needs to say anything- give a man enough rope..you know. It looks as if this crisis could split the Conservatives, after all the backbone of the party is middle class, law abiding citizens, many of whom are now innundating their MPs with messages of disgust. You shouldn't interfere in family squabbles

No one is remotely interested that many Gransnetters and no doubt others are breaking guidelines every day. No one cares that the photos of beaches and other areas show people thronged together and breaking guidelines.

What are we supposed to do about it, maddyone? Johnson has given everyone carte blanche to do exactly what they like.

And don't call me a hypocrite. I care a great deal and because I care it seems to me that eliminating the prime architects of this disaster is the best thing we could possibly do so that, hopefully, the government might be in safer hands which do everything possible to save as much as possible from the wreck.

There is a bit in Shakespeare that "Caesar's wife should be above suspicion" So should Caesar's chief advisor!

How can you say that "no-one cares" about those who ignore lockdown rules? Whenever it is mentioned on Gransnet, or else where, there are plenty of replies showing that people do care - very much. The whole policy only works if everyone co-operates. Everyone.

I thought the rules were you shouldn't drive unless absolutely essential as you could unknowingly have the virus and would therefore be a danger to others if you broke down or had an accident. Driving while knowing you have the virus is surely absolutely against the rules.
Of course most of us care that so many are ignoring lockdown, and many such people have been fined, but Cummings didn't even face that. Those that make the rules must be held to the highest accountability when they break them, not have the interpretation amended beyond what millions understood them to be. Sad to say I think the biggest hypocrites are those that condemn the ordinary rule breakers while excusing the rule-making elite.

Elegran no chance of confusion
Your posts are a beacon of rationality, objectivity and common sense.
Awesome in fact!
(Last phrase included just to annoy Gransnetters who take exception to the inclusion of American usage in posts?)

Okay, I’ll try to respond to you all, because you’ve all very kindly responded to my impassioned post. I respect your points of view re DC but I despair at the lack of condemnation towards Gransnetters who not only break the guidelines but openly speak of it on here. To be fair, none of the regular posters on the political threads have said that they are breaking the guidelines as far as I am aware.
Thank you for your posts lemon and Annie agreeing with me.
Callistemon I agree with you, leaders should lead by example, but unfortunately they never do. So I’m not surprised, and DC isn’t really a leader, he works behind the scenes, supposedly. He says he had childcare difficulties, and having brought my children up 240 miles from any family at all, I do understand that.
Whitewave since other people have been fined for driving then DC should also be fined for driving. If I was in a similar position I might have done what he did, but during this crisis I haven’t had any such emergency. Were my daughter and her husband ill and in hospital I would not have let their three little children go into care. We would have brought them here and cared for them. We haven’t needed to do that and at no time have we broken the guidelines.
Maizie I know we can’t do anything about other Gransnetters breaking the guidelines but we can tell them that what they’re doing is wrong because it endangers others.

What really upsets me is that people break guidelines every single day, and are photographed doing so. These mass gatherings, whether they are on the beach, or a pack of journalists, they are the method by which the virus spreads. As long as my own daughter and her husband as doctors have to keep giving palliative care to Covid19 patients in care homes, then their risk continues. I care more about throngs of people gathering together and increasing risks than I care about DC.

How many of those photographers have families

janipat we have more often agreed than disagreed. I don’t know what my daughter and her husband would think about DC but I suspect that you’re right, I think that they wouldn’t approve, but also knowing them as I do, they might think it’s unimportant in the wider scale of things. We never have time to discuss anything anymore because FaceTime is about talking to the children, and snatched chat as she drops something off that’s been suitably sanitized are only for a couple of minutes and at a distance. They tend to avoid any talk about their work, I suspect they don’t want to worry us. She does text me daily so we stay in touch that way, but we don’t talk politics.
My HUGE worry is that one or both of them will contract Covid19. I live in fear of that, and that’s why I care about crowds and not so much about one man.

Indeed Annie and that’s the nub of it. People crowded together spread the virus.

maddyone Many more people will break the guidelines now that DC has got away with doing so. Some have said so on social media - they say "If he can do it, so can I." He has caused far more damage with his example than any other one person by their individual action, because he is such a public figure. No man is an island.

11:10Anniebach

How many of those photographers have families

Precisely Anniebach hyprocrites the lot of them.
If anything happens to his family the media and the armchair Internet warriors will have blood on their hands.

A crowd is just a whole lot of individuals, all believing that they can do this without making a difference. Added together the effect is multiplied.

No, DC will have blood on his hands for demonstrating that there is no need to follow the guidelines. If he doesn't have to, the photographers don't!

I understand what you are saying maddyone and I too have NHS family members who are exposed every day. And I condemn the rule breakers, but and it's a big but, the actions of the likes of DC make no difference to those that have been breaking the rules, but do stir resentment in those who have been assiduously keeping them. If that then encourages them to put their own interpretation on the rules, because they feel their circumstances are exceptional too, then it's a very slippery slope. You say you'd break the rules if your grandchildren were in need, but there was no "need" at the time DC and wife did what they did. It was an imagined need that actually never materialised, so they potentially put other people at risk for nothing. Which adds to the belief the whole thing was an excuse to go to a nice part of the country. Imagine if every family with a young child/children had done the same?
I consider he was reckless and dangerous by testing his fitness to drive by taking a 60 mile round trip to a nearby beauty spot unless it was a lie and just an excuse for a jaunt out, which broke the rules in force at the time.

maddyone I was typing very slowly while you were answering me so I apologise if it looks like I'm hounding you. Yes we have agreed far more than disagreed. I suppose I was surprised at what I percieved as a lack of criticism of a man who not only broke the rules he helped draft, but then insisted he hadn't.

No armchair warriors and the MSM baying for blood and whipping up people into a frenzy are the ones if anything happens to DC or his family will have blood on their hands.

Let's hope we don't have another tragedy like Jo Cox.

I often get cross with the BBC pathetic interviews but I must say that they have an absolute star in Emily Maitlis.

Another strong woman to add to the list of strong women, all dealing with the crises in a no nonsense won’t take any s...t way.

Really great posts Janipat.

Why anyone would bring up comment about a gran that drove so many miles to get bits for her poorly son is beyond me when they know they would drop every thing and break rules to help their own family.
The only person DC was thinking about was DC this was not an act to help, rescue or aid anyone this was an act of 'just in case.' I wonder how many of us feel we should have broke the rules 'just in case' others needed us. I'm glad to hear some have used their instinct to help their children as now it comes to light that was the right decision.

maddyone I know that you have family members working on the front line and I know that you must be worried sick about them. That's why I care so much about one man, for all the reasons others have given. He and Johnson are destroying trust in the government and what they are asking everyone to do will have no authority behind it because the public have seen that a 'rule maker' has been allowed to break the rules with impunity. Why should they obey when he doesn't?

I know that people who care for the safety of others will continue to do everything they can to avoid spreading the virus but not everyone seems capable of thinking that way unless absolutely required to.

I sincerely hope that your family stays safe.