Dominic Cummings accused of perverting the course of justice.

It really does not matter what Dominic Cummings did or did not do. What is a disgrace is the Prime Minister defended his right to break rules he was instrumental in formulating. I would like to believe if found guilty DC would be treated as any other guilty person in the same circumstances. I fear however it is unlikely to be the case.

Once the pandemic is under control English courts will inundated with cases concerning deaths of the elderly and others. Most of them foreseeable and due to incompetence in being ill-prepared for such a crisis having been forewarned in 2016 of lack of readiness. Those responsible will sail off into the sunset as is usually the case when the privileged thought to be brought to account.

England will never be the same again and trust in government of any colour unlikely; and I fear in a medical profession instrumental in carrying out a policy of neglect of the elderly sick and dying.

Good for Nazir Afzal. He's a man of courage, integrity and intelligence.

The Cummings issue isn't going away is it. I agree with others who say they lost respect for Johnson when he continued to support the indefensible. Of course the Cummings family shouldn't have driven when they did. The majority of the country were following the guidance he was instrumental in making. They are wealthy, resourceful and had family in London. Ridiculous to say it was a child welfare issue.

Sunny82z, I don't understand why the behaviour of your friends makes it 'a bit petty having a go at Cummings'. Just because you have friends who don't follow guidance doesn't make it petty to criticise a senior government advisor. He didn't only breach the guidance he lied.

Sunny82z No it is not the same..though still breaking the regulations..DC is a high profile & powerful SPAD, guiding the cabinet, creating the rules not Mr Nobody down the road!
He should have been a model for the rest .
Imagine a teacher in school chewing gum & swearing....Not appropriate, the local architect doing the same..not such a problem

Not at all, unless your friends were instrumental in setting up the lockdown rules?

I have some friends who live in the Midlands and have a holiday home in Devon to which they have been making regular visits since March and, I expect they are not alone. Hence it seems a bit petty having a go at Cummings.

He couldn’t have sought help at home as that would have involved asking someone to enter an infected household.

If it was to have groceries dropped off are we saying Mr Cummings would not have been able to get a supermarket delivery, just like the hoi polloi were expected to do? If they had both become too ill to look after their child in Durham, then a member of their family would still have had to enter an infected household. No different at all. If they removed the child to another household this could be done as easily in London. It was a load of bullsh*t from start to finish.

He was going on holiday! All this nonsense about childcare is just that - nonsense!

What did he imagine a single parent in a high rise flat with 2 kids was going to do when they got ill? So many people have had to cope in really difficult situations without driving (if they had the resources to do so!) 300 miles to granny's holiday cottage. Never sure why London aunt or uncle could not help out..either in transporting child to granny or dropping the shopping as apparently Granny was doing in Durham. To many loopholes for it to ever feel honest.

They have family in London.

Jaberwok, at the time only essential travel was allowed.

A 300 mile journey to the family pile isn't essential.

He drove to an empty cottage on his parents farm where they isolated. His sister dropped shopping off for them. Apart from the ridiculous trip to Barnard Castle, he broke no rules whatsoever.

So he drove all members of the infected household to somewhere else.
Yes, perfect sense.

I believe when he drove to his parents’ farm he either hadn’t yet been infected or else he was in the very early days of it and still feeling ok.

Like I said at the time of the Spring lockdown, provision was made for certain rules to be broken where childcare was concerned.

He couldn’t have sought help at home as that would have involved asking someone to enter an infected household.

His solution provided them with isolation yet help from family if needed.

Unfortunately he later made the idiotic trip to the castle which was inexcusable.

Arrogance is not attractive and DC has a huge amount of that..

The nonsense about childcare .... who could really believe that this couple had no people locally who could help out..or know someone they could pay to look after him..

he has been fairly low key recently..he knows he ballsed up..but he will never admit that ..

The Cummings issue was disgraceful! I will never understand the arrogance of the man - he wrote the rules which he ignored but the rest of us were expected to follow.

Totally agree Varian and GagaJo - once Johnson let Cummings get away with it, that was the turning point in many, many people deciding to no longer follow Government advice/rules. Johnson's inability to manage or deal with Cummings had a catastrophic effect on people's behaviour regarding controlling the Covid pandemic.

It makes a mockery of "We're all in this together".

Agree Vairan. For once, we WERE fairly in it together. In my opinion, it all changed NOT when Cummings did it, but when Boris stood by and defended him.

If the PM allows rule-breakers, the PM clearly doesn't really give a s**t.

DC's misbehaviour and the fact that he seemed to get away with it was the beginning of the slippery slope.

Up till that point almost the whole UK population obediently complied with the lockdown rules.

But after the notorious trip to Barnard Castle, a large number of folk thought "If he can do what he likes and get away with it why should I stick to the rules?" and acted accordingly.

In other countries where the government commands respect and there is a strong feeling of community solidarity, people continue to observe the rules, but Cummings trashed any feeling of community solidarity in the UK and is responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of deaths.

Well, that's one bit of good news.
Our government need to be accountable.

I cannot believe that anyone could possibly believe that he drove hundreds of miles to his parents' house for help with childcare! And as for taking a 30 mile journey (together with his family in the car no less) to check his eyesight, laughable.

Exactly WWM.

Jaberwok

For what it's worth I agree with J.E. I note that nobody seems even remotely bothered by other breaches of lockdown by prominent figures! Still less by the hordes of journalists camping outside DC's house breaking every rule in the book! but of course that is always the nature of a witch hunt, one person among many is gunned for exactly the same crime while others are ignored. I cannot believe that anyone thinks that DC actually caused thousands of deaths by the example of his one foolish action! (no one elses?!!) If that is the unlikely case, well, we certainly are a nation of nincompoops and deserve everything we get!

No body else helped draw up the rules for the entire country, then broke them, then barefaced lied about his movement in a press conference in the No 10 rose garden.

Brilliant.....bring it on?

For what it's worth I agree with J.E. I note that nobody seems even remotely bothered by other breaches of lockdown by prominent figures! Still less by the hordes of journalists camping outside DC's house breaking every rule in the book! but of course that is always the nature of a witch hunt, one person among many is gunned for exactly the same crime while others are ignored. I cannot believe that anyone thinks that DC actually caused thousands of deaths by the example of his one foolish action! (no one elses?!!) If that is the unlikely case, well, we certainly are a nation of nincompoops and deserve everything we get!