Will he resign?

He ought to resign.

I don't think he will.

I'm definitely watching the briefing this afternoon.

How did they manage to drive themselves 250 miles when they were so ill? Or did they use a driver?

Why, in Mary Cummings' touching account of their experience of covid19, with poor Dom flat out in bed for 10 days, did she not mention the dreadful 5 hour drive to Durham with a 4 year old to keep amused when they were both feeling so poorly? It would have added some more real human interest to the tale, wouldn't it?

The article which Cummings wife wrote for the Spectator made it clear that they were both isolating with their child. I wonder why they had to drive 250 miles to do so.

@Nfk

We’ve known about this for some time, and I’m not sure why it’s suddenly come to the Beeb’s attention when they reported it shortly after it happened.

You obviously have a good memory for these things. Can you recall how much publicity the Beeb gave to this story at that time? Was it a lead story or was it one of the minor ones? Was it mentioned on the TV or just on their website? Was it long or just a paragraph. I'm surprised it went more or less unnoted.

It wasn't the BBC who brought it up yesterday, it was the Guardian and the Mirror; apparently they'd worked on the story together.

Where is the vitriol for Prince Charles who went to his holiday home to be looked after by staff? The Queen had quite possibly been in recent contact with lots of people who could have been incubating the flu, including Boris, and then she went to stay with a bloke who is nearly 100.

Yes, I think Cummings was silly to travel to his parents' home but there is no news that they caught the disease from him so it's not always that contagious. There is no criticism of ordinary people or carers either who have looked after vulnerable friends or family, maybe putting them in danger. Ferguson and the Scottish Minister who resigned were directly responsible for advising people to stay at home. In fact, Ferguson just broke the rules for a shag and had claimed a quarter of a million would die in the UK from covid-19 which resulted in the lockdown.

You all only want Cummings to resign because you think it will hinder Brexit; well you need to get a grip because you haven't got a chance there.

I don't think that the Cummingses could lie straight in bed. (As we say here in Durham )

So many versions of this story emerging...

I'm sure I have enough vitriol to spare some for Charlie.
I've had plenty to say about anyone flouting the rules.

And I couldn't give a flying fart about Brexit.

I posted this on another thread not realising there was one already.

Yes. What a thing to do, putting his parents in danger like that. The children could have been symptomless carriers.

The rules, however, are just for the plebeians and not for those who make tem.
He's the latest in a list.

No wonder so many in England are travelling to crowded beaches and beauty spots when they see their advisers flouting the rules themselves.

Growstuff
I would love to have have your eloquence. I’d like to have put that in words. Completely agree.

If they were isolated in a separate annex from his parents why couldn’t they just have stayed at home in the first place? Ok the child was a consideration but others have had to look after their children in similar circumstances and the auntie would have been from a different household so against lockdown rules.
I have no axe to grind just looking at the “facts” as they have been presented and it seems totally wrong for anyone to have done this. Idk about resigning or sacking but an apology at the very least should be forthcoming but I doubt that will happen.

Where is the vitriol for Prince Charles who went to his holiday home to be looked after by staff?

I seem to recall some quite strong criticism of him on here at the time.

However, qq, do you have insider knowledge of the workings of his household? I should think that self isolation would be pretty straightforward with lots of rooms available and staff to take care of all the domestic details and extra sanitising involved. Do you know differently?

The Queen had quite possibly been in recent contact with lots of people who could have been incubating the flu, including Boris, and then she went to stay with a bloke who is nearly 100.

Once again, Covid-19 is not 'the flu'. It is far more serious and particularly deadly to the over 70s+. Once again, do you have insider knowledge of the Queen's domestic arrangements? Because I would suspect that she would, on medical advice alone, have isolated for 14 days, just because of the factors you've mentioned, before seeing her husband. But, if you know differently, do tell us.

Ferguson and the Scottish Minister who resigned were directly responsible for advising people to stay at home.

Well, b*gger me, qq. Has it not yet penetrated your brain that Cummings was involved at just about every stage with devising the policy? That in most people's opinion he is running the PM? This isn't just any old guy. This is an unelected bureaucrat with massive power over ordering our lives...

Maisie, I seldom read national newspapers and have an appalling memory, but I have a dislike of Mr Cummings (I think he wields too much power) and I do remember seeing that shot of him legging it down Downing Street and thinking that he was sprinting very well for a man who was so ill and then realising it was taken well before he got sick. It was a throw away piece on the news. Obviously it needed the newspapers to run with it to get it to attention.

DH remembers it too so I didn’t imagine it.

And Quizqueen, I don’t want him to resign because it will hinder Brexit. I want him to resign because he was taking advantage of his position and thinking he was more entitled than the rest of the nation. He’s showed himself to be a right selfish g*t.

I voted Out, and agree his going won’t make any difference. It may even improve things!

There was plenty vitriol for Charlie from me ,my friend who is fighting cancer lives in the area Charlie and his infected staff landed on.The staff were seen around the town the weekend they arrived.I certainly said he should have been made to go HOME ..any of his homes in the south where he flew from

.Cummings is even more despicable he's part of the rule making machine ..or he IS the rule making machine and when he says NO ONE can take children to parents he should hav emade sure HE got the memo.
No surprise though that the tories will make excuses for him ..after all they all think Bojo is some kind of sun god with the sun coming out of his backside .

People have not been able to attend funerals, adhering to the government guidelines. Haven't seen parents for months in an effort to save the country, at their instruction. How is his position tenable?

Charles, Cath Calderwood, Boris, Neil Ferguson have all been thoroughly discussed, found guilty and sentenced to the thorough disapproval of Gransnetters, quizqueen.

This had been shoved under the carpet.

No, Boris wan't found guilty, Callistomen. The rules don't apply to Boris because;
deaths door,
working day and night,
new baby
got Brexit done

Poor lamb can do exactly what he pleases...

Oh come on he was just being nice going to visit his mum and taking her a lovely present for her birthday- the possibility of a virus that could kill her. So he drove 250 miles from an area with the highest rate of infection to another where the rate was low. Maybe he stopped to get petrol or take the 4 year old to the loo. Well he was just spreading it about and encouraging herd immunity. What possible reason could there be to ask for his resignation?

Why do some people insist on mentioning Brexit at every irrelevant opportunity? This is simply a case of a man who helped to write the rules breaking them when it suits him. a) stay home, b) don't let grandparents look after your children and c) don't mix with people from other households.
Young men, restless and bored, living in flats with no outside space were, at that time, being fined for being on the streets. Near where I live, in Derbyshire, the police were harassing people for going on walks in deserted countryside.

The story is changing now, he says his sister volunteered to look after the child. So he is drawing others in to lie for him. People are angry because he has a history of being arrogant in the extreme and he was the one who at the beginning of the crisis advised the government to take the ‘herd immunity’ route then did a U turn Thus wasting valuable time. He obviously follows the Trump school of politics, lie, change your story and blame others to survive. The anger against him is justified.

At the beginning of Lockdown I had an image of somebody at Buck House placing the royals around the country like an RAF plotter.

Well, we don't have a low infection rate now, trisher.

Durham is 5th highest in the country I saw recently... Perhaps Dom sprayed a bit around while he was here... Dancing to Abba in the front garden perhaps, the aerosol goes much further when breathing heavily...

Oh well.. I mean, someone volunteering to break the very rules you made..

It sounds like the kind of excuse a child would make when they're caught out.

What an insult to everyone.

Magsymoo someone I know had a notice left on her car by police threatening her with a fine if she walked her dogs in deserted woodland again. There was one other car in the car park and she saw one other person in the far distance.