Will he resign 2

This is the REAL Cummings issue:

This is "trial by media" and nothing else. Jenrick did a similar thing in April. Did he get fired? Did he get hounded by the media?

This is the left-biased-media trying to get rid of someone who helped the Tories get elected.

The ONLY thing the left-biased-media want from this is to weaken the government.

I've personally read about no end of lockdown breaking. Here on GN too.

What Cummings did wasn't so unusual, but people who break the spirit of the lockdown have their own conscience to deal with, not mine.

I am fed up with this media hounding. I have literally not known anything like it before. As to people making comments over the moral aspect of the event, I refer you to Jenrick. I refer you to the press who have themselves broken social distancing rules every day they hound Cummings. This is political, NOTHING else.

Glorybee there is a difference between a news presenter such as Moira Stuart, Alastair Stewart and investigative journalists and political commentators.

I agree wholeheartedly urmstongran.

Glorybee ?

There’s not so many of us tonight in this echo chamber. Ah well, it’s nice to give them a run for their money! They love us really. ?

‘Apparently speaking for the nation (itself a problematic starting point) Emily Maitlis began:’ etc etc.

Opinion, Ug. Opinion.

And if you saw the poll results in the Daily Mail today I think you'll find that if she was 'speaking for the nation' she was speaking for a great deal more of it than you are. A surprisingly large proportion of the nation actually has some moral compass. They don't need to be told that what Cummings did was wrong, they knew. They know the difference between a mortal sin and a venal one.

That bit wasn’t me MaizieD.

I love you, urm

Callistemon - yes, the other example used by MG of Jeremy Paxman is more appropriate in this instance, and he has many clever and incisive predecessors who would aim at balance and fairness whilst not kowtowing to the person being interviewed.

It's a big mistake to ignore public anger. Boris will rue the day when he needs support in the future.

I cannot accept the lies that have been told and I'm a tory voting leaver so it's not political as far as I'm concerned. It's about hypocrisy and the absence of honesty and integrity.

Chin up, Urmstongran

Urmstongran- ??? it’s past my bedtime so I’ll be asleep in 10 minutes, I hope I don’t miss anything exciting!

At least we are all able to hold strongly opposing views without it turning into a slanting match,

Oh $#%#%!!!
Slanging!

a slanting match
We slant one way, some slant another.

It's a strange word, isn't it.

Yes, it is..

The complaint against the press and that the furore is political would be valid, but for Dominic Cummings own speech.
His description of what happened was full of problems. Without going over his tale again I will just comment on one of his poor judgements.
When I was recovering after an operation, I rang my consultant and insurer for advice. There was no way that I would self diagnose and risk the public and myself.
Of course there is panic and knee jerk reaction, which if I am generous looks like what happened to him.
In that case he could have apologised, simple !

Maybe we need the journalists to hold the government to account due to the fact that, in the middle of a pandemic in which thousands of people are dying, parliament has gone into recess.

I think that, because lockdown has eased slightly [or, from what I've seen around me, totally broken down] a lot of people are forgetting just how it was at the time that Cummings took off to Durham and then had his day trip out. At that point we'd even stopped having our hours daily exercise. I also wonder what would have happened if Cummings had done that in, say, Italy or Spain when they were in complete lockdown. As it is we have a PM who describes the incident as a bit of 'political ding dong'.

Just don’t watch BBC then UG if you don’t like it. Simple.
Did you watch Boris this afternoon ? Did you think he did a great job ?

Of course there will be the supporters who think Johnson's doing a great job and won’t hear a word against him because their heads are firmly stuck in the sand. The ironic thing is, if Cummings has just come out and apologised and said - I made an error of judgement, I was anxious, I’m sorry etc many of us would have said fair enough, and moved on. But it’s the arrogance and lies and “I don’t care what you lot think” attitude that makes this an issue that many won’t forget in a hurry.

I think most of us, quite rightly, were expecting a resignation and/or apology - not a completerefusal to admit any wrongdoing.

His wife's article, giving the impression that they'd stayed in London, is the icing on the cake!

What the Cummings crisis has so well demonstrated would be that social media has no real power even when many millions turn to its use to demonstrate their anger.

Undoubtedly there has been in Britain over the last week an outpouring of outrage over the actions of Dominic Cummings. In that, many took to social media as an outlet for that outrage in the belief that those in government would respond to such an outpouring, and Cummings would be removed from his position. However, that has not happened and Johnson has well demonstrated it will not happen.

The main media in Britain undoubtedly took their lead from the social media outpouring and believed that riding on the back of that current of opinion they could bring about Cummings dismissal from office or his resignation. What that press pack failed to recognise was the fact that any campaign has to have centralised organised leadership, and that the press and social media could not give.

Power resides in authorities specifically set up to wield various powers whether that be in Britain's boardrooms, trade unions charities or any other institution that requires management. In the case of the Cummings situation that power resided with the political parties that had the authority to gauge the strength of the public opinion and channel that through the laid out democratic processes.

Johnson has realised the above throughout this crisis and used the power of government and his office to manage the situation. All others including the political parties of opposition believed that public opinion demonstrated through social media could bring about what they wished to see. That did not and could not happen because social media has no real power to change anything.

As stated, that power resides in the institutions set up or elected to wield such power and in the case of the Cummings crisis, the main parties of opposition have not acted in any way as they should have done.

Following on from the television interview in which he made clear that either Cummings should resign or be sacked. Indeed saying that he would have sacked his. Own aid if indeed his aid had acted in the way Cummings had, Starmer has now written a long article in the Mirror, outlining his thoughts on the debacle and what Johnson should now do regarding the crises.

It is worth understanding that Starmer would have no problem sacking any aid, as he is not totally reliant on any aid. Being both competent and intelligent neither qualities that are obvious In Johnson.

mirror.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-dominic-cummings-broke-22097178

Morning campers.
?

grandad what you omitted from your post was the fact that Johnson has a very large majority, and until and unless he is faced with a vote if no confidence, all he has to do is sit tight and wait for it to blow over. A vote of no confidence is all that will unseat a Johnson.

However, what I don’t think you have recognised is the power of the media to sow the seeds of dissatisfaction and government action that underpins this criticism. The polls are showing the result of the past weeks debacle.