Dodgy dealings?

I've just read that identifiable data won't be deleted and that it could be kept for up to 20 years.

The legality of the whole system is being questioned, but it's obvious what will happen. There will be moral blackmail accusing those of wanting more safeguarding of blocking an essential tool for public safety.

Exactly Furret and now we know some of the connections.

The whole thing really stinks!

Neither am I going to download it.

daisymae his usual problems with the truth I guess

I'm not in the least bit surprised, NotSpaghetti.

I don't intend to download it either.

Dido Harding is also married to a Tory MP. The way Johnson spoke about her in terms of being some sort of NHS technology expert but turns out that she has been in post a couple of years.

MaizieD are you surprised people won’t want their data stored?
I know I’m not.
Can’t see my sons using it, that’s for sure.

OP was corrected and has removed the false assertion from their main posting.
I didn't notice you rushing round all the relevant threads correcting the many people who repeated the same mistake qq...

Lady Dido Harding was CEO of Talk Talk when it hacked and thousands of users data was stolen. Now she's in charge of the test, trace and isolate programme. The government has already refused to delete the app users' data at the end of the programme. Consequently many people are saying they won't download and use it. It's going to be another tory led shambles.

Growstuff even those who could barely recognise a Bunsen burner or remember the chemical formula for water were querying why events like the Cheltenham Festival was given the go-ahead.

Apparently the ‘science’ behind that was that there was little chance of infection from crowd situations. Half the nation gasped in disbelief, the other 50% assumed ‘they’ knew what they were talking about.

The Jockey Club and the sporting and political elite got their way. People died as a result. So what? So long as the money is flowing in their direction the little people, the punters, don’t matter.

Hands up! I take it all back! Cummings was right! The UK is ruled by a highly connected and wealthy elite.

A company called Randox Healthcare is the official healthcare partner of the Cheltenham Festival and is one of the main sponsors. It also sponsors the Grand National.

Randox, which is advised by Owen Paterson, was awarded the £133 million coronavirus testing contract unopposed by Matt Hancock.

So Cummings is right. What he forgot to say is that he is part of the same clique.

Just a reminder about the Cheltenham Festival …

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52797002

So who exactly agreed that it should go ahead?

So the OT was "fake news". This one isn't …

Lady Dido Harding, the wife of Tory MP John Penrose and person in charge of the NHS's tracking and tracing scheme, is a former board member of Cheltenham Racecourse and a current board member of the Jockey Club, which runs the Cheltenham Festival.

I'm sure she had no influence at all in giving the go-ahead for this year's Cheltenham Festival .

Oh dear. Full investigation by impartial people now please.

I haven't seen the OP return and apologise for giving false information in her opening statement and asking for the thread to be taken down.

It has become very obvious as the day has gone on listening to Hancock, that the Test and Trace is nowhere near ready. It isn’t working.

But Hancock is driving this platform to try to get the focus away from Cummings
.

It is disgraceful

I agree Grandmafrench it was embarrassing to see him squirming and spouting such a lengthy piece of utter drivel.

There is more to this that we have yet heard. It is unthinkable that an ‘adviser’ should wield such power and influence. And it’s not just a Johnson - there’s the canny role being played by that delightful Mr Gove.

Something is rotten but not in the State of Denmark.

critical thinking well done, for those questions and so many more.......it's not often that I am witness to such buttock-clenching nonsense! Two whole minutes into his monologue and I remembered the last time I was forced to witness such a pantomime. It was when I witnessed 6 Police officers take the stand and lie, lie, lie to the Court about circumstances of an arrest they had made - resulting in injury and then charging of an innocent young man. Just when I felt I couldn't listen to any more, Defence Counsel absolutely kicked their asses.

So many people would like to see a properly managed outcome to the actions of this law-breaking Aide, who was actually allowed to squat in the rose garden of No. 10 and allowed to spout a rambling tale as he twitched and scratched and treated the media to story which would have done credit to the Brothers Grimm; with more nonsense and twists and turns than could ever be credible, or necessary. Is he never to get his comeuppance? Does he have Johnson in a death grip....why? And why is the Government now being led by an Aide? Is that o.k. ? And what might his actual qualifications for "the job" be? He himself advertised for staff, seeking out those who stood out as essentially being "weirdos". Is that what's required now at No. 10? The confidence in the Government at present must have plummeted to an all-time low.

I read the 'Why Barnard Castle?' blog and it has a convincing ring to it but, firstly, why on Easter Sunday? Seems a funny time to be making deals and secondly, as grumppa says above, the Skripal poisonings. I think he called it completely wrong on that.

I know he's a former diplomat but it's not necessarily a recommendation.

The only conspiracy theory that's grabbing me at the moment is the capture of the tory party by the extreme right, with links to some objectionable US white supremacists and power maniacs, to Russian oligarchs with criminal tendencies and to disaster capitalists, with the objective of milking the UK in the chaos that will follow a no deal Brexit. I'm not sure that Cummings is totally part of that, he has his own agenda of destroying the civil service and the institutions of the state which fits conveniently with the far right agenda at the moment.

The thing about this 'conspiracy theory' is that it can all be seen out there, in plain sight, in the writings of the people involved.

Is this the Craig Murray conspiracy theorist who suggested the Israelis were behind the Skripal poisonings?

Never mind his relatives, I think one should consider the place. There is a very interesting, speculative but thoughtful post entitled Why Barnard Castle? by Craig Murray that is well worth a read.

www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/05/why-barnard-castle?/

Jack lives in London and is a good friend of Cummings, it was through him that Cummings met his wife, apparently.

I suppose Uncle Jack couldn't have been asked to do some shopping and a bit of emergency childcare if needed because he's a man...

I've seen somewhere today that it was his Mother in law's birthday as well (though this may well be a rumour on a par with his son being autistic). If that is so, maybe Uncle Jack had toddled up the A1 from London, too. And would account for a claimed (but unproven) sighting of Cummings in Wooler, which is near Chillingham.

Here's a genuine family connection.

Mary Wakefield's brother, Jack, was a Director of Firtash Foundation for years (he also writes for the Spectator). The Foundation is owned by Dmytro Firtash, who is close to Putin and the Russian Mafiya boss Semion Mogilevich. He was the centre of the Donald Trump-Ukraine scandal.

Cummings and Jack Wakefield have been friends for years. Cummings has always been a bit secretive about what he actually did when he lived in Russia. Who knows?

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202005/medium-835669-butcherborispermillioney-fhyexgbm5aid.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202005/medium-828981-domcum202005film.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202005/medium-896488-domcum202005tour.jpg

bit.ly/2THsC3F <==

Questions a journalist would have asked.

1. Why did you not seek police and medical advice before driving to Durham?

2. Were the threats to your safety in London greater than the threats Diane Abbott has had? Can she stay at the extra house on your parents' estate now you are travelling less frequently to Durham?

3. Why, for your wife Mary's 45th birthday, did you drive to Barnard Castle rather than simply driving around the estate and private woodlands or setting out for London with the option of turning back if in the first half hour that seemed best?

4. If your eyesight had gone weird and you wanted to see if you were capable of driving, is it wise to put your child in the back of the car and drive thirty miles to a beauty spot on your wife's birthday?

5. Why go back to work when your wife Mary first had COVID-19 symptoms?

6. Why is there zero evidence you or your wife were ill or had COVID-19? Why were neither you nor your wife tested for COVID-19?

7. Did you hold your Downing Street garden press conference in breach of section 14 of the Government's Code of Conduct for Special Advisers in order to emphasize that you are entirely above the law?

8. Did you consider going to your family's other property, Chillingham Castle, a much larger estate than the Durham property? During the pandemic there are eight empty flats usually rented out to tourists. And the main part of the castle is very spacious.

9. Was Barnard Castle chosen for your pathetic excuse because you thought it witty to allude to the English language usage of Barnard Castle signifying a pathetic excuse?

"Sir Walter Scott: Rokeby (1813), Canto I. i, opening line (Part of the action of the poem is set at Barnard Castle, Rokeby itself is nearby, close to Greta Bridge. )

Barnard Castle: Durham dialect term that derives from the Northern Rebellion by the Catholic earls in 1569, when Sir George Bome refused, despite many opportunities, to leave his position in Barnard Castle to engage in battle. Hence the expression come, come, that's Barney Castle, meaning that's a pathetic excuse."


assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/832599/201612_Code_of_Conduct_for_Special_Advisers.pdf

Section 14. Special advisers must not take public part in political controversy,through any form of statement whether in speeches or letters to the press, or in books, social media, articles or leaflets. They must observe discretion and express comment with moderation, avoiding personal attacks, and would not normally speak in public or their Minister or the Department.

www.legalcheek.com/lc-journal-posts/cummings-and-goings-did-dom-break-the-law/

www.tatler.com/article/who-is-mary-wakefield-dominic-cummings-wife

Try this one. It's a goodie:

truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/dominic-cummings-a-cover-story-obscuring-something-far-darker/

This link may be conspiracy theory - or maybe not.

www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/05/why-barnard-castle/