The Cummings Effect - are people rebelling?

I dont know why the gov't would have a man 'advising' the PM who was never in favour of the lockdown and who wanted to sacrifice the elderly people in the first place!! He clearly does have a hold over the PM

NoddingGanGan - Oh, they really have won you over, haven't they. "...wrote the rules and therefore knows that he didn't break them, or he doesn't understand them and therefore can't have written them..." Oh really! He wrote the rules for the plebs, for the hoi polloi, for us. He and Johnson don't consider themselves to be so squalidly low. Incidentally, Cummings' wife, Mary Wakefield, wrote at the end of April in the Tory publication, The Spectator, that they had stayed in London. (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/28/quarantine-article-by-dominic-cummings-wife-reported-to-regulator) So which was it? Her account or his? Johnson and Cummings are unforgivable liars, through and through - we saw that in their behaviour over Brexit. Do you seriously believe they've changed? No wonder Johnson wants us to 'move on'. And I am I the only one who remembers that Johnson has suppressed the 'Russia Report' on Russian infiltration into British elections? It should have been published last October? Are the corrupt elite hoping that we'll forget it?

Cummings and Johnson are arrogant and should go, I don't feel safe with this gov't and its poor handling of the crisis that has such a high death toll, Cummings was heard at the start of the crisis to say its ok if a few older people died & I think this is exactly what he has presided over. Johnson is way out of his dept, governing now is a much different thing from before Covid where being PM could be seen as a bit of a laugh, but now it needs a much greater skillset and boris hasn't got it

@Baguette123 : "Fearing he'd be left without childcare"? I would have thought a Norland Nanny, or similar, would have been available at the click of the fingers for someone with his wealth and influence! And if you cared that much about your child's welfare, why bundle him into a car for a long journey, with at least one of the other occupants suffering Covid symptoms?

Plus of course, why couldn't his wife drive them back?

Lexigranny, you echo our thoughts too and are in a similar situation isolating because we are in that very vulnerable group. When people break the rules they are fooling only themselves and are the most selfish of people to think that they are immune, safe, not going to catch it etc. It only takes one idiot to cause the spike which like others I think is inevitable

I think what he did was wrong but it shows he hasn't got one ounce of integrity otherwise he would have resigned rather that have the PM and govt have to fire fight on his behalf instead of concentrating on the dire circumstances we find ourselves in.

There is a Linda Cummings who is a director of a comoany called Idox which has put out a statement to say they it's not involved in the NHS track and trace system nor, to their knowledge, is Linda Cummings any relation to D.C. The don't have any offices in Barnard Castle, their H.O. is in Berkshire. (D.C.'s sister seems to be called Francesca.)
All information freely available online to anyone bothered enough to inform themselves rather than be fed nasty lies and rumours on social media or by MSM.

I don’t believe in being driven by what ‘celebrities’ do. I also don’t believe in blindly following rules, especially when some of them make no sense.

I HAVE been taking isolated walks since lockdown began. I HAVE been visiting my daughter, who lives near me, and having a chat outside, from a safe distance. I HAVE visited the supermarket once a week, even though I’m 80, and have taken every precaution while doing so. I don’t consider that I have put myself, or anyone else at risk. Some of you will probably disagree, no doubt.

By blindly following the rules many people have become isolated, agrophobic and terrified for the future. There will come a point, very soon, where human contact must begin again, albeit cautiously. We can’t hide in our burrows forever.

Sorry to hear that Seefah the more you read the more it does make your blood boil. I can't watch his mumbling speeches anymore but I remember him saying, 'lots will lose their loved ones.'
It was a pre warning as they didn't and still done have a clue.

I find it beyond my comprehension that DC has not been sacked. He broke the rules, plain and simple. What if everyone with symptoms and children decided to drive 260 miles? He thought the rules didn’t apply to him. Boris is desperate not to lose him, so it suggests to me that Boris is not capable of being Prime Minister without him. He is not fit for purpose. I think they should both be sacked.

Totally agree Greengran78 your approach sounds sensible and what other should we approach it? Have a nice dayx

There is a Linda Cummings who is a director of a comoany called Idox

Shes' not called Linda, she's called Alice. Absolutely right that IDOX have refuted this story.

www.idoxgroup.com/archive/statement-re-inaccurate-and-misleading-social-media-posts/

Alice Cummings was born in 1963. There is very little chance that she's Cummings' sister as his mother, b1949, was only 14 at the time.

The Cummings family is not the only one in the UK with that surname.

I think we should have a pinned thread of Facts about Dominic Cummings (all referenced) tthat posters could read before they pass on something they saw on facebook, or someone told them..

If there is one thing I have learned in my 64 years on this earth, people please themselves, no amount of shaming or turning a blind eye will change them.
I just abide by the guidance given, as I am shielding, and am grateful for every day. Live and let live, with the caveat of don’t come whingeing and whining if there is another surge, and no critical care beds available.

Only the stupid ones.

It has always been quiet around us during lockdown, but the last few days there has been a noticeable increase in activities in people's back gardens. I spend almost most of each day in my garden (it has been a real saver for me during lockdown), a day or so after the Cummings farce, the house behind me clearly had visitors, and 1 of the visitors sounded to be elderly and clearly with chest problems. Another house, where there is 1 young child, sounded like they had more than 1 chil there the other day. On hearing about Cummings ' blatant flouting, the rebel in me immediately wanted to go out and break all the rules, but then the sensible bit marched me into the back garden with my crochet and a glass of wi e, where I fumed in comfort.

@MaizieD I was reading an article, only yesterday, about the havoc that has been caused, and lives lost, because of fake and misleading social media posts. Facebook are taking down thousands of Covid posts which people share, in good faith, but many get through, at least for a while.
Trump, in particular, has a number of deaths attributed to him because of his stupid and ignorant remarks.

So the Kingmaker sits in the rose garden and spins a web of lies to protect himself whilst preaching to the plebs you must stay at home and do as I say but not as I do.
Take him to the Tower.....

Houndi I have no idea who Linda Cummings is. Did you mean Alice Cummings? If so you’ve still got it wrong I’m afraid.

fullfact.org/online/not-dominic-cummings-sister/

The Guardian are reporting that Durham police are saying that Cummings DID break lockdown rules. Surely this has to be brought to a stop? More is to follow
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/28/uk-coronavirus-live-test-and-trace-gets-under-way-in-england-and-scotland

Most of my neighbours have been doing exactly as they like right from the beginning. Friends and family visiting all the time.

Sadly there are some people who will take the attitude, well if he can then so can I . What is even more alarming is that this incident has taken the focus away from the most important issue that is Coronavirus !
I only listen to the early evening bulletin for news of the virus and what I have yet to hear is how schools are gearing up for opening when there is such a shortage of PPE.
My daughter is Business Manager of a local Academy Trust (all primary ) and has only been able to source hand sanitiser and wipes.
I think if I was in teaching I’d be very concerned that my safety requirements were not being met.

Ellanvanin and lexisgranny I agree with both of you. People who now do what they want would probably have done so anyway. The weather is lovely, people are bored of lockdown and BJ very wrongly said people can travel. DC was wrong though I can understand why he did what he did and , if he really cared about BJ, he would have gracefully and graciously fallen on his sword. It is his arrogance that has got me far angrier than what he did. I do think the media with their blood lust have an awful lot to answer for. Having run out of PPE and care homes stories they were desperate for something else (The testing numbers are going up and the scientists are working hard at track and trace so neither of those stories would provide the "everything is bad" headlines) . So DC played right into their hands. What does make me cross is the fact that MP Stephen Kinnock and his wife drove hundreds of miles to see his dad Neil for his birthday. And nobody has said a word about that.

Calendargirl No, she isn't. I didn't say Conservative MPs, I said Conservatives.
Ex MPs still have a voice in the party.

No, they haven't won me over. I think D.C. applied the rules as he saw fit and, having read the rules carefully myself I accept that they give room for manoeuvre where the safeguarding of young children are concerned.
To those of us who, "listened to understand" rather than, "listened to reply" to D.C.'s audience with the press, the answer regarding the articles that were written as though they were still in London was clear, he wanted to spare his elderly parents and his sister's family from the attention of the press. In short he admitted, albeit in a roundabout way, that he'd deliberately misled the public in order to protect his family. He didn't apologise for it because he felt it was the right thing to do under the circumstances.
As far as the article M.W. wrote, he quite rightly said he couldn't speak for his wife, she' s a professional writer, and nor should we be asking him to, it's 2020 not 1920!
I do believe that D.C.'s accounts of his actual movements and level of contact with other people during his escapade are true as, given the current witch hunt, I'm comfortable in my certainty that, should there be irrefutable evidence to the contrary, it would have been shouted from the rooftops and if any comes to light, it will be. So far, however, we are being thrown excuses without backup. Her sister was in London, (could be any number of reasons why she couldn't, wouldn't, they didn't want to ask, nobody's bloody business but theirs). Could have got a nanny in (expressly against "the rules" at the time, no question over that). Child in car with infected parent, (child already, given only 4-years-old, already been in close proximity to infected parent!) and on and on.
Every aspect of this I have given careful consideration and weighed up in my own mind and my feelings are: Justified in going to Durham, would have done same in his shoes. Articles? Hmm, can't comment as don't know what pressure M. W. was under to turn in copy and, if locked down, what else had she to write about and could she, in all honesty, open up her PIL to the baying mob in their doorstep? Too many unknowns to even begin to play judge and jury. Trip to Barnard Castle? Don't believe his excuses, they sound stupid and he's not stupid but there's no evidence that he broke social distancing guidelines so, man up, 'fess up, apologise, pay your fine like everyone else.