Dominic Cummings

lemongrove I respectfully disagree. I voted for them and I am extremely interested in what he (Cummings) had to say. I don’t like Johnson nor Cummings, but I think Cummings gave a very sensible clear eyed description of what went wrong, I think the public could see what was happening internally and Cummings is just confirming it.

lemongrove

I think the general public are more than happy with how the PM has done his job, certainly regarding the mass vaccinations.
Dom’s witterings ( yes, boring!)? will be a nine day wonder.

And DC has forgotten about Eat Out to Help Out?
It was so important that mask-free Rishi Sunak had to prance around a restaurant, annoying customers.

news.sky.com/video/chancellor-is-worlds-worst-waiter-rishi-sunak-serves-wrong-table-12024363

I have caught as much of this as I could today, but I was working this morning and missed the end as I had another commitment, but I hope it is available on iPlayer for a while. I don't want to do a marathon watch, but I would like to hear it all 'as it happened'.

FWIW I agree that he is being vindictive, but I don't think that that means that what he is saying is not true. He is under oath, and whereas that may or may not matter to his own moral code, it could come back to bite him if he can't back everything up with evidence. Whatever else he may be, he is very clever, and will have had cast iron legal advice.

Sky News have a programme about it at 8 tonight. Should include all of the important bits.

Book your seats ladies- in 2 weeks time it’s Matt Hancock’s turn to face the Select Committee- could be interesting but he could always pull the ‘no comment’ line if things get tricky!

Has anyone read the Times article today about Cummings? It seems there is nobody in the government, the country, or indeed the universe who is as clever, informed and able to foresee the future as he feels he is. He has criticised and condemned virtually everyone that he has come into contact with.
I did once read the definition of a narcissistic personality disorder.

I’m with you Lemongrove

It’s easy with hindsight to make these criticisms. I’m not saying that some of them are not true.

I’m surprised DC stayed so long as an advisor if he was so unhappy with what was happening.

Can you imagine the outcry there'd have been if the whole country had been completely closed off ??
Short of being armed at borders and entries into and out of the country, what else could have been done ?

Even now I don't agree with this free movement while the Indian strain is around, so what's going on?
I keep repeating that a pandemic lasts for 2+ years and it's not safe to travel.
Why are the Olympics still being held when Japan is rife with infection ? Why aren't the competitors being told that they're not going ? Who's in charge of that ?

????

Led By Donkeys

Told you

"Lions led by donkeys over and over again"

Dominic Cummings says it was "completely crazy" he was in such a senior role, "just the same as it's crackers that Boris Johnson was in there and that the choice at the last general election was Jeremy Corbyn"

Why I would agree that DC would put a spin on things, he must have a paper trail to back up what he's saying. It's confirmation of what seemed to be happening. No one could have got it all right, but as a country we got it very wrong. The other issue is the timing of the public enquiry, it needs to start sooner than later but that doesn't suit the political agenda. They need to learn from what has happened, our lives depend on it.

EllanVannin

Can you imagine the outcry there'd have been if the whole country had been completely closed off ??
Short of being armed at borders and entries into and out of the country, what else could have been done ?

Whatever are you on, EV?

Of course they could have closed the borders, without resorting to armed border control. Other countries did it. Essential travellers only coming in* and strict quarantine once they got here. Many people were questioning, at the time, why that didn't happen.

*Indeed, I believe that there are still some Australians who can't get back into their country..

Cummings is a strange chap, thought to be brilliant, ( and perhaps is) but just not as brilliant as he thinks he is.
Yes NanKate if he was so unhappy with the the way things were he could have left at any time .....instead of stirring up so much division and dislike that he had to be sacked.
If he had come out at the time and said all the ‘he said this’ and ‘he thought that’ stuff then the general public may have lapped it up, but as it is.....
Vaccinations are going on apace, the sun is now shining and things are looking up.
Things can always be done better ( with that old friend hindsight) and that’s what inquiries may show, and lessons learned for the next pandemic.I expect most countries in the world will be doing the same thing.
Some posters on here may be fascinated with the minutiae of politics, but most just aren’t, unless it involves a sex scandal or loads of public money being mis-used.As we all know from long lives, today’s scandals or revelations are next week’s chip paper.

Whitewavemark2

????

Led By Donkeys

Told you

"Lions led by donkeys over and over again"

Dominic Cummings says it was "completely crazy" he was in such a senior role, "just the same as it's crackers that Boris Johnson was in there and that the choice at the last general election was Jeremy Corbyn"

That comment that it was completely crazy is such a weird comment. Of course, it was crazy and loads of people were saying so, so why was he appointed and kept on? The Barnard Castle fiasco was the perfect opportunity to sack him.

He used the same reasoning when he was talking about the referendum (after the event). I can't remember his exact words, but it was something like not believing that Vote Leave would win because they didn't have a solid argument. In other words, he thought it was crazy, but he's such a clever chap (in his opinion) he managed to dupe people into voting.

Has anybody ever read his blog? It's hard work because he rambles, but he clearly has some "out of the box" ideas. He doesn't claim to be right, but thinks he has the ability to persuade people - it all seems to be about the game to him.

FWIW I don't think he's lying now.

A scientist has just said on the news that it doesn’t matter whether the public are interested or not, the point to learn from this evidence gathering is that serious mistakes were/are being made and tens of thousands of lives were needlessly lost.

Not least the care home disgraceful scandal. The fact that the U.K’s PM can make decisions entirely against all advise.

This must never be allowed to happen again.

Today’s scandal? We’re talking about 120,000 dead people here lemon grove. Are they next weeks chip paper? Pretty low comment imo.

Whitewavemark2

A scientist has just said on the news that it doesn’t matter whether the public are interested or not, the point to learn from this evidence gathering is that serious mistakes were/are being made and tens of thousands of lives were needlessly lost.

Not least the care home disgraceful scandal. The fact that the U.K’s PM can make decisions entirely against all advise.

This must never be allowed to happen again.

....and I agree with the scientist saying that.What we cannot know is how much to believe from Cummings.
You all do realise that many countries may not have done the right things at the right time either? Their governments, like ours, struggled for a very long time and some are struggling still.

GrannyGravy13

I have just browsed Twitter and frankly it’s hysterically hilarious, all those who this time last year were wholeheartedly trashing DC as a liar and incompetent are now hanging on his every word as gospel...

It will be interesting to see the PM’s and Conservative Parties position in the polls next week though.

Oh, dear. Some people are getting a little hysterical and certainly straying away from any sort of logical argument.

How about just waiting to see what comes of this. Just because Cummings is Cummings doesn't stop Johnson from being Johnson, does it? He (Cummings) is saying much that we know so what is the problem?

I wouldn't be surprised if the polls do go up. We have seen several times in recent years where the vote of those who lack knowledge, even actually rejected knowledge, goes.

I hope we mark time and listen to what comes out, until we can have a swift and in-depth inquiry, preferably rather sooner than Johnson plans. The sadness is that those who cannot bear to think of any wrong where Johnson is concerned may not want to know 'what happened', 'why did it happen', 'who is to blame' and 'how can we preventing this happening again', but many, many will.

The care home deaths were indeed awful. But it wasn't just the UK who had massive death tolls.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html

This article, more than a year old shows evidence of a world wide tragedy

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/16/across-the-world-figures-reveal-horrific-covid-19-toll-of-care-home-deaths

lemongrove

Whitewavemark2

A scientist has just said on the news that it doesn’t matter whether the public are interested or not, the point to learn from this evidence gathering is that serious mistakes were/are being made and tens of thousands of lives were needlessly lost.

Not least the care home disgraceful scandal. The fact that the U.K’s PM can make decisions entirely against all advise.

This must never be allowed to happen again.

....and I agree with the scientist saying that.What we cannot know is how much to believe from Cummings.
You all do realise that many countries may not have done the right things at the right time either? Their governments, like ours, struggled for a very long time and some are struggling still.

I am entirely at this point uninterested in how other countries have handled the pandemic. I am however very interested in the elected government of my country and how it has performed. The evidence today, chimes with much that we heard and read and argued over, since January 2020, which in turns lends me to believe there is truth in what Cummings was saying.

Bernard Castle gets more bizarre with each telling though.

How can you be uninterested in how other countries have coped, WW2?

If he had come out at the time and said all the ‘he said this’ and ‘he thought that’ stuff then the general public may have lapped it up, but as it is.....

How useful would that have been, at the time? Not very.
It could very likely have precipitated a 'Barnard Castle' effect even sooner.

Some posters on here may be fascinated with the minutiae of politics, but most just aren’t, unless it involves a sex scandal or loads of public money being mis-used.

Loads of public money was misused.

Who Bernard??

It would have been very useful FarNorth and he could have brought about changes at the time ( presuming he wasn’t lying.)

Gannygangan

How can you be uninterested in how other countries have coped, WW2?

In the context of this issue.

I am very interested outside of this issue. I won’t get sidetracked by whataboutery, that’s all.