Covid Inquiry

I'm glad I started this thread. I, too, was a little surprised it didn't have more traction Marydoll but Dickens has explained it very clearly. I don't often post under news and politics because I'm not robust enough! However, the inquiry is so important to us all.

Johnson is obviously a disgrace and should never have been PM. If the Lib Dems hadn't ratted on us voters and joined the Tory coalition we would never have had the miserable trail of Tory PMs which led to Brexit, the Buffoon and beyond. I don't trust the Lib Dems not to do it again.

All I see from the enquiry is lots of people earning obscene amounts of money telling us something we all knew. 😡

A projection was displayed on Barnard Castle last night showing the the amount of people who died with covid.

Sadly, Grandmabatty, I am not horrified. It is truly horrifying, but I feel my senses have been blunted by the knowledge we already have of how the people elected to provide protection - surely the first and most major job of government - thought of us and behaved towards those they serve.

I am glad that it is a legal enquiry rather than one by the right wing media for once. Justice must be served and views towards the elderly, the less able and disentitled exposed for what they were.

M0nica your phrase except, of course, so many people do is the truism that really does strike horror. The thought that we could put the inheritors of this creed back in a position to have power over us really does strike fear into my heart.

Marydoll

*Dickens*, thank you for responding to my post. You have summed it up very well.
I think I may have naively assumed some eyes would now have been opened to Johnstone's failings. I obviously have underestimated the numbers on GN, who still support him.

Another poster mentioned corporate manslaughter, that is exactly what my husband and I were discussing last night.

I don’t entirely agree with Dickens’ post, because the evidence is that Johnson’s political star has waned. If you look at the surveys carried out by the pollsters there is a steady and continuing decline in his popularity. I suspect that people who were great supporters of his are seeing the facts now, but they don’t want to either publicly admit that, or publicly defend him.

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.

I don’t usually watch day time tv. I wasn’t well yesterday, got cozy on the sofa and decided to watch ten minutes of Dominic Cummings. I confess - two hours passed with me watching.

The stand out for me was the conclusion that watching Cummings simply confirmed my belief that Johnson wasn’t fit to be prime minister. He appointed this cold hearted, self promoting narcissist and stood by him during the Barnard Castle horror.

I’m not qualified to diagnose either maddyone, but neuro diverse occurred to me as well. Then I reflected and concluded anyone as intelligent as Cummings clearly is, is responsible for their own behaviour. Throughout his testimony he blamed everyone and denied any problems were of his own making. He denied misogyny despite clear evidence.

I did enjiy the forensic kc 😏

It's quite difficult to admit you were wrong so I don't really blame people for that.
I would also like a public discussion about the lockdowns that looks at the cost on children for one group, but we will not get that yet, maybe in a decade or so.
I think it will be almost impossible to 'enforce' a lockdown in the future.

Iam64 you do not need to watch daytime tv. The BBC News site has up to date reports with live excerpts.

Thanks Monica,mi’d bern listening to 5 live as I pottered round tidying up and was intrigued enough to put the tv on as I really needed to rest up.

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

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.

M0nica

Iam64 you do not need to watch daytime tv. The BBC News site has up to date reports with live excerpts.

The very comprehensive Covid Inquiry site has everything on it! Transcripts, videos, timetables etc.

I posted the link earlier.

The successful vaccination programme was run by someone outside government (wife of our MP). This is why it was successful.

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...

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.

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?

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 😡

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??

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...

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.

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.

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 that about sums up DC

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.