Covid Inquiry

There are certainly a few posters on the current thread about the GB news channel who are voicing their support for BJ and excitedly awaiting his arrival as a presenter on the channel.

I too assumed Shinamae's comment was tongue in cheek!
I'm intrigued as too why she still supports this man.
Perhaps she hasn't listened to the enquiry.

I think that Shinamae is deadly serious, and brave to stick her head above the parapet, but, like Dickens I'd like to know why she still supports Johnson.

The enquiry is shockingly riveting. What is coming out is worse than I could possibly have imagined.
The conservative government cannot crawl back from this even if no blame is apportioned.
It is completely shameful.

Shinanae I would hope that your post was tongue in cheek. I'm not sure anyone could defend Johnston after this inquiry. Ultimately the person at the top is responsible for the action of others.

Shinamae

MaizieD

Ilovecheese

It is horrible to know that this is the way our Prime Minister and his Government thought about people our age. As if we are disposable as long as the economy doesn't suffer. As if we have nothing to add to society or indeed the economy.

Just think of all the people our age who staunchly defended him on GNet

Are any still willing to do so?

I am!! 😜

I'm intrigued Shinamae!

In spite of the mounting evidence that he lied, behaved in a cavalier manner, was incompetent, kept changing direction, and had little-to-no compassion for "the old"...

... you're still willing to defend him!

I admire your tenacity, but I'd love to know on what grounds you are willing to 'stand-by-your-man' (so to speak)!

I suspect that of a number of comments Ms MacNamara has made about Cummings, noting that he was a history graduate and was unable to understand the science will annoy him most (since it punctures his soi-disant polymath persona so neatly).

I also disagree about Johnson having - and maintaining - widespread support. Thanks to FPTP, his large majority of seats was obtained with a minority of votes cast, and I do t believe his popularity has improved since 2019. Gransnet, by the nature of its demographics, is not typical, obviously.

Things that have stood out for me in the current module of the inquiry, beyond the marked incompetence and dishonesty of Ministers: Williamson’s ideological hatred of unions exposing children, teachers and staff to serious illness; the idea that Frost could have been given a national security lead role; how many journalists are professing themselves surprised by the extent of Johnson’s mendacity, laziness, and procrastination, when people outwith the media (and some within, who’d worked with him) were screaming that information from the rooftops years ago; the extent to which the entire Cabinet was divorced from the reality of the electorate’s lives. Anyone who ever questions why having lived experience as a key factor in policy making is important should be forced to read any number of the written evidence to the Inquiry.

Mainly, I hope this module alone is enough to stop the oft-repeated nonsense about how Johnson/the Cabinet ‘got all the big calls right’.

I have been watching this all morning and am hooked.

I totally agree with the comments about Helen McNamara. Night and day compared to Cummings.

I am appalled at what I'm hearing from this enquiry, but im not in the least surprised!
Agree corporate manslaughter charges should be brought.

I heard this on the radio this morning and even if it does originate from Cummings I wouldn't say that this exchange was out of character for Johnson. He is beneath contempt.

Writing on his blog, Mr Cummings said: "One morning in mid-January he [Boris Johnson] called me into his study.

"'Dom, I want to run something by you. Do you think it's ok if I spend a lot of time writing my Shakespeare book?'

What do you mean?

"'This f***ing divorce, very expensive. And this job. It's like getting up every morning pulling a 747 down the runway. [Pause] I love writing, I love it, I want to write my Shakespeare book'.

"I think people expect you to be doing the PM's job, I wouldn't talk to people about this if I were you..."

Johnson and Hancock literally 'murdered' 26,541 of our elderly in just ONE month - April 2020, they changed the directives so that anyone elderly in hospital with a respiratory illness, regardless if it was Covid or not, was shipped immediately to a care home, where no-one could visit to see what was going on. Hancock has subsequently LIED to the Covid Inquiry, saying he hadn't heard of the drug Midazolam, yet here he is discussing 'a good death' with Dr Luke Evans where he discusses Midazolam - the 2 year supply talked about was used up between March and October 2020.
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dr+luke+evans+and+hancock+discussing+a+good+death&&view=detail&mid=D28F3EF506C6B373221FD28F3EF506C6B373221F&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Ddr%2Bluke%2Bevans%2Band%2Bhancock%2Bdiscussing%2Ba%2Bgood%2Bdeath%26FORM%3DHDRSC4

Anyone who really wants to see the real picture should watch this documentary - and start questioning whether our Government really had our best interests at heart?

ugetube.com/watch/the-sequel-to-the-fall-of-the-cabal-part-19_x9qWCFv7k8MRQsB.html

What a difference between the calm, clear evidence from Helen McNamara and that of Dominic Cummings. It becomes clear why he used offensive language and misogyny in whatsap messages about her.

It’s hearbeaking listening to Ms MacNamara. I don’t know how people managed to continue to do their job in that environment. It’s making my blood run cold.

MaizieD

ronib

MaizieD I wish DC would go back to helping on his family’s farm and stay away from politics altogether. It isn’t in this country’s interests to have such poor quality advisers in government. I think DC continues to meddle.

Cumming's family doesn't own a farm, ronib and he doesn't live up here.

He's been very low profile since he left Downing Street. I would imagine that he is probably involved in some sort of project to achieve world domination by manipulating people through their captured data. It worked really well for the Leave campaigns that he 'led'... I understand that he seriously believes that he is a world class genius...

I’ve been told that he’s living on Lindisfarne…

I'm following Helen McNamara's evidence live now. In a way it's far more shocking that Cumming's. She is measured, intelligent, authoritative and with a great sense of awareness of how 'ordinary' people behave.

A fine example of the ability which existed within the Civil Service that the government at the time was so dismissive of.

Absolutely compelling to watch.

MaizieD that about sums up DC

GrannyGravy13

Dominic Cummings is a poor excuse for a man.

He is throwing everyone under the bus and trying to save his own neck.

I posted upthread that the Government appears to have been drowning under the enormity of Covid and all it entailed.

I think the sketch writer for The Critic nails it.

But Dom is arguably the originator of Hot Dog Toryism, the act of wandering through a smoking ruin with your empty petrol can and asking loudly what caused that big fire. For years now, he has been telling anyone who’ll listen that actually, Boris Johnson was a bit of a wrong ’un, and he seems baffled that people aren’t more grateful to him, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, for this insight.

Take the useless fuckpigs. Hugo Keith, the inquiry counsel, asked him if this description of the country’s most senior politicians, made to Johnson in August 2020, was an overstatement. “I would say if anything it understates the position,” Cummings said, apparently surprised at the very suggestion.

But the qualification for being in Johnson’s Cabinet, under rules Cummings had laid down, was a belief that a no-deal Brexit was a good idea Or, at least, a willingness to say loudly that this was what you believed. Cummings was disappointed to find that the only people who qualified for the job were morons or liars, but he had written the job description.

thecritic.co.uk/keeping-the-beaches-open/

MaizieD yes definitely a world class something …. Interesting how there’s so much misinformation about the small details - no family owned farm? Oh well… who is funding the world domination project? Bit worrying.

MerylStreep

GrannyGravy13

Dominic Cummings is a poor excuse for a man.

He is throwing everyone under the bus and trying to save his own neck.

I posted upthread that the Government appears to have been drowning under the enormity of Covid and all it entailed.

Could I suggest that the reason being that not one of them had the capability to organise a piss up in a brewery 😡

Actually they were pretty good at arranging piss ups

Just out of their depth with the enormity of the pandemic and all that went with it.

I was never in favour of across the board lockdowns, despite being vulnerable myself, I have always thought my health was my responsibility.

Closing schools was a disaster for children’s mental health, I have two GC born just before lockdown, they missed out on all of the early years baby groups and interaction with others. Consequently one was withdrawn and clingy the other was so hyper whenever they went out and saw other people. As a family we are still dealing with that and the fallout of lockdowns on our teen neurodivergent GC.

I have to give praise were praise is due, and the furlough scheme stopped many many businesses from going to the wall and saved 1,000’s of jobs.

It will be interesting to see if Government members offer up their WhatsApp and text messages, I have read that senior SNP MSP’s messages appear to have been lost along with Mr,Johnson’s.

ronib

MaizieD I wish DC would go back to helping on his family’s farm and stay away from politics altogether. It isn’t in this country’s interests to have such poor quality advisers in government. I think DC continues to meddle.

Cumming's family doesn't own a farm, ronib and he doesn't live up here.

He's been very low profile since he left Downing Street. I would imagine that he is probably involved in some sort of project to achieve world domination by manipulating people through their captured data. It worked really well for the Leave campaigns that he 'led'... I understand that he seriously believes that he is a world class genius...

Casdon I don’t think DC is gaggable. Only suggestion is that DC needs to reevaluate where his talents and abilities lie. Politics/public life could be a better place without him??

GrannyGravy13

Dominic Cummings is a poor excuse for a man.

He is throwing everyone under the bus and trying to save his own neck.

I posted upthread that the Government appears to have been drowning under the enormity of Covid and all it entailed.

Could I suggest that the reason being that not one of them had the capability to organise a piss up in a brewery 😡

ronib

MaizieD I wish DC would go back to helping on his family’s farm and stay away from politics altogether. It isn’t in this country’s interests to have such poor quality advisers in government. I think DC continues to meddle.

He’s no longer employed by the Tory party though ronib, he resigned, so I’m not sure what you mean - are you suggesting he should be gagged?

MaizieD I wish DC would go back to helping on his family’s farm and stay away from politics altogether. It isn’t in this country’s interests to have such poor quality advisers in government. I think DC continues to meddle.

Casdon

ronib

I would find it impossible to communicate with Dominic Cummings at any level. How did he get appointed to a government position in the first place? What does he do now?
With millions of deaths worldwide from COVID, I agree that BJ wasn’t best suited to the task but it was a tough call for all world leaders. I thought BJ did take action to protect the elderly even though at first, he was reluctant to do so.

Here’s the background ronib. Cummings was a political appointment, ie hired by the Tory party, who originally worked as a special advisor to Michael Gove.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/special-advisers

Cummings previously led the 'No' campaign against 'devolution' in the North East. He's a 'local lad', something that doesn't fill us with pride..

Before that he spent 3 years in Russia, doing heaven knows what, but there is association with running a failed airline. In fact, there is a strong Russian connection among prominent Brexiters, most noticeably Johnson and his wife...