So angry about this witch hunt

Dominic Cummings is typical of the Conservative government thinking they are more important and their family more needy than anyone else. He has made a right muppet of himself and the prime minister and I now feel less confident about heeding their advice

My group last night discussed him after we had finished talking about the book. Two members are media people in radio,they both thought he would get away with it. Sadly I suspect he will, Boris appears to be shackled to him!

Perhaps he needed an urgent ‘comfort’ break’. I think that’s the polite expression for it.

He has carte blanche to do what he likes.
That's it; I've talked myself out of accepting this imaginary apology.

We aren't going to get any acknowledgement of his wrongs, though.

I doubt he deliberately sat around for 35 mins twiddling his thumbs thinking it would be a good idea.

He also flouted the rules of decent behaviour when he kept the media and millions of the public waiting for 35 minutes, only to give a mumbled half apology "sorry I'm late", but no explanation. All part of snubbing his nose at us and asserting, without much subtlety, that he can do whatever he likes and we can't stop him. Very Trumpian behaviour.

ish very ish!

DH has renamed him Notgoings

And he should be made to apologise.
I'd be content ish with that.

Perhaps a 3 month suspension without pay would be seen as a token gesture & put this incidentb to rest.

Thanks Rowntree and Mawb luckily there has been a collection and they have raised a fair amount which will help the family and young daughter.

Elegran I'm not sure who your earlier post was alluding to. Two wrongs don't make a right. I for one have never backed Cummings and what he did. The anology you give is exactly what has happened. I mean people would lose respect and trust in the minster of transport if he breaks rules he had made.
And that is what has happened.
Personally I think this is all about personal risk that doesn't mean to say that one person is not thinking of another's safety but lots don't. And soon we will be able to have BBQs of ten people but no doubt some have already had them.

When DC allegedly commented, 'if that means elderly people die, too bad,' Downing Street strongly denied it.

Before the farce in the Rose Garden, they also denied DC had driven to Barnard Castle.

If Boris thinks this will all die down then he's seriously deluded.

The dress code is unimportant, it advertises his attitude of not caring what anyone thinks of him, but doesn't necessarily affect his approach to more relevant matters.

However, you can't be goat-like about matters of integrity and honesty without compromising your suitability to high office or influence. Added to Johnson's past record in the honesty and integrity sphere, that doesn't make for a stable and dependable high executive. Would you buy a used car from either of these men?

Oh Growstuff likening Cummings to Trump, Cummings is going to love that! But you are right, Cummings doesn't give a stuff what others think about him, but it doesn't stop them thinking that he's not that clever after all.

Well said Elegran (Thurs 10.16).

He is also doing it to emphasise that "the rules" that existed previously were for the sheep, and he is not a sheep. Whatever he says about not caring what anyone thinks of him, that endears him to that portion of the population who would rather die of a disease than be sheep-like to avoid it ( and it is probably calculated to appeal to them)

That wouldn't be bad if he acted like a shepherd to all the "sheep" who depend on getting reliable advice and example. As it is, he is acting like a goat.

I think he dresses like he does purely for attention.

Silly little man

The same has happened in America. People have said "look at Trump" - he's a joke with his orange face and stupid hair. He says things which are totally outrageous and pushes the boundaries of respectability, which would have killed anybody else's reputation stone dead - but he's still President and the chances are he'll get re-elected.

Curlywhirly Did you hear what he said to the reporters? He doesn't care what people think of him.

I don't think his reputation is damaged. He has deliberately created a reputation as something "counter culture", which is why he dresses as he does. He used to dress more conventionally, but the message he's giving now is that he's not following conventional rules. It's a way of putting two fingers up at everybody and letting everybody know that he's going to do things the way he wants because he's too important to follow rules - and sod everybody else.

No, it's not time to let it drop. It's about moral leadership if nothing else - for all the reasons people have stated.

Apart from that, other people have been fined for doing what Cummings did. Moreover, the drive to Barnard Castle with impaired vision was an offence.

I expect people remember Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce, who were prosecuted and served time in prison for perverting the course of justice. Huhne's parliamentary career was over. The original crime had been to claim the other had been driving, so that Huhne could escape penalty points for speeding. AFAIK no harm had been done and nobody was injured, but that's no defence. They broke the law and were punished. Once a society turns a blind eye to that kind of thing, it's on a slippery slope.

I think the current situation is worse because Cummings' behaviour is likely to affect that of others.

Rudd the latest high profile Tory to say sack Cummings.

It is mounting up.

Well, Cummings, the highly intelligent stratagist certainly got this one wrong, he's lost credibility with at least 50 Tory MPs (who have called for his resignation) not to mention great swathes of Joe public. He might think he's been very clever with his fabricated story and ridiculous excuses (testing his eyesight - hilarious!), and we should all move on. But, like it or not, the damage to his reputaion is massive. How can anyone now take him seriously or trust him?

The more people are told to move in the less likely it is to happen. Yvette cooper had Johnson squirming yesterday when she asked him to clarify who he supported - his aide or public health.

Cummings has displayed his deviousness and lack of principles by -

driving hundreds of miles on a jolly when no-one was supposed to be driving unless on urgent missions, ( and there were support organisation locally to him who would have helped in an emergency

travelling with a probably infected wife and a small child cooped up in the car,

visiting his parents when the rest of the country couldn't even visit theirs on their deathbed or most of them attend their funerals

"testing his eyesight" by again driving a long distance,

obfuscating his story with his so-called "explanation",

and - this is not being stressed but for me is symptomatic of the man's honesty level - altering the record on his blog.

This is what we know he is capable of. The question is - what else? what next?

getting on with the extremely complex job of getting the country slowly out of lockdown.

Nothing complex about it at all, JE. Support an extremely high profile rule breaker and, bingo, job done.