Will he resign 2

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

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

Oh $#%#%!!!
Slanging!

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

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

Chin up, Urmstongran

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.

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.

I love you, urm

That bit wasn’t me MaizieD.

‘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.

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. ?

I agree wholeheartedly urmstongran.

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

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.

Maisie - ‘I really don't know where you get the impression that journalists have to 'speak for you' from.’ Maitliss obviously thinks so, again from M Grants piece,

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

No one is suggesting everyone has to spout the party line, all we ask and expect(!) is impartiality.

Urmstongran 21:05:23

I do agree that yes, that is the job of the Opposition parties.

However, it is the job of journalists to seek and report the truth.

What I would like to know, so that I could form a reasoned judgment, is what rules did DC comply with.

Here’s the PM’s letter to the nation 28 March that says stay at home is an instruction, and with specific exceptions (which don’t include DC’s “exception”), and which will incur fines if people don’t comply - assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/876876/CCS155_CCS0320349160-003_PM_letter_to_nation_on_coronovirus_Accessible.pdf
What and where is the guidance that existed at the time and was readily available to the public that said there were other circumstances than stated in that letter that allowed people not to stay at home?
If the govt could give me that guidance and tell me how the public were supposed to know it at that time, I might accept that DC wasn’t breaking any rules when he travelled late at night on 27 March, with his wife having coronavirus symptoms.

I don't think it is most of us, though.

The BBC are a disgrace they are cooking up a storm over Cummings.

Most of us are fed up of hearing about this and want to move on to more important issues like getting our country working again and Brexit.

Who is to hold the political establishment to account if not the media?

We are not living in an authoritarian state.

We must not let trial by media become the norm. They will force the sacking/resignation of anyone they dislike or disagree with in the political arena. They need to back off.

And 'several years ago' is not now. The opinions expressed by the people you quote are just that, opinions. They are free to express them but we do not have to be bound by them.

She does not speak for me.

Well, Ug, she speaks for me and for millions of other people. I really don't know where you get the impression that journalists have to 'speak for you' from. This is not supposed to be a fascist state where everyone has to spout the 'state' line. The BBC is not an organ of the state. There are questions to be asked about the Cummings affair and journalists have every right to voice them, as Maitlis did.

I don't watch much TV any more but as I recall, Newsnight is not a 'news' programme but a vehicle for analysis of the news. She was doing her job, analysing the situation and coming to entirely legitimate conclusions.

It is an evil day for democracy and free speech when journalists are silenced.

In an interview several years ago an ex-Director General of the BBC admitted that "There was massive left-wing bias at the BBC.". Also the recently retired ‘Today’ presenter, John Humphry’s agreed didn’t he?

Furthermore, Ex-BBC Newsreader Peter Sissons said "Left-wing bias? It's written through the BBC's very DNA.".

Plus, a former head of BBC TV news Roger Mosey, has previously stated... "Auntie leans so far Leftwards that she frequently topples over into propaganda.".

Further to that, a freedom of information request several years ago by a journo revealed that the BBC sends many of its senior staff to attend courses at the secretive political organisation known as ‘Common Purpose’.

I agree urmstongran. Here’s a clip from a piece by Madeleine Grant in today’s Telegraph re EM’s rant,

‘I simply cannot imagine the TV presenters I grew up watching in the 1990s, the likes of Moira Stuart, Trevor MacDonald or Alastair Stewart, indulging in didactic rants such as these. Even Jeremy Paxman, renowned for his abrasive style, never made it clear where his loyalties lay. His brand of “equal opportunities booting” left no doubt that his private views did not impinge on his methods, and when he outed himself as a One Nation Conservative following his retirement from the show, many left-wingers expressed a sense of betrayal or disappointment.’