Cummings and goings...

[Stuart70]

Look at the others who have gone due to breaching the CV lockdown rules.

He should go.

If he does not, it says much about the culture of our government and country.

[anonymous-user]

He’s going nowhere. Boris seems utterly dependant upon him and the opposition know Cummings is the reason the tories won the election and have a huge majority hence will use any means possible to discredit him in a bid to get him out. It’s laughable were it not so serious.

[Cold]

"Questioned by police". Not admitted fault, not found guilty and not even charged. Questioned.

So why would he resign?

[Stuart70]

Sambucket said:

His example of travelling the country to visit parents in the garden, isn't miles away from new guidance.

Maybe the childcare thing will screw him. Lucky for him, this came out after the rules were relaxed.

He took the kid to stay with the grandparents. How was that allowed under the rules?

[Stuart70]

Cold said:

"Questioned by police". Not admitted fault, not found guilty and not even charged. Questioned.

So why would he resign?

As a matter of honour, for breaking the rules.

Ah, right, I see my failing right there...

[NoddyonNitrous]

Sambucket said:

The 'using parents for childcare' is an odd admission. Doesn't help at all. If he omitted that bit, it would be fairly similar to Boris going to Chequers to recover. (I assume his parents have a couple of guest houses on the estate for staff...) Instead he is in a situation where he knowingly exposed the virus to his elderly parents. I wonder if that will be walked back?

Chequers is owned by the state, not the Johnson family.

[anonymous-user]

He will go over this

Cummings & his wife drove 250+ miles, while knowingly having corona
Did they stop off for loo?
Then exposing his parents to it
Is it legal to do that journey with an infectious disease ?
Against gov.uk advice

Apparently his wife told the story in paper, failing to mention Durham!

Johnson too will have some interesting questions. He will have known about it, given the timelines

[Eric Mc]

Sambucket said:

His example of travelling the country to visit parents in the garden, isn't miles away from new guidance.

Maybe the childcare thing will screw him. Lucky for him, this came out after the rules were relaxed.

It wasn't the guidance in place at the time the incident took place.

[bitchstewie]

As I said on the Boris thread in reply to a comment on this.

Cummings behaviour is unacceptable and indefensible if it's as reported.

It'll be interesting to see anyone defending this given reactions to Ferguson and Catherine Calderwood.

You could just about argue their scientific and medical guidance made their positions a little more tenable from a "we need the skills" perspective but so far as I'm aware Cummings is simply a political advisor.

[230TE]

I suspect this story is about a fortnight too late to have much impact. What we have now is LINO - Lockdown In Name Only - with a large chunk of the population only following the rules when they think someone is watching. It's hard to stir up outrage in those circumstances. Cummings' enemies will throw the kitchen sink at this story over the weekend but unless something juicier comes out I can't see this going anyway. Having said which, what the hell was he thinking? Surely he should have realised that if he left his London home for any reason at all, someone would grass him up.

[anonymous-user]

There is an irony that such an ardent supporter of eugenics panics at the first hint of having this virus and rushes the kids miles away with the risk of passing on the virus to an elderly couple....

[Eric Mc]

Sambucket said:

Eric Mc said:

It wasn't the guidance in place at the time the incident took place.

Very true. But if that guidance was still in place today, the chances of him being sacked would have (slightly) shorter odds.

Pointless point. He broke the rules in place at the time - rules he was helping to formulate and foisting on the rest of us.

It annoys me immensely that we are making massive sacrifices in order to "do the right thing" and protect each other - sacrifices that are costing us drastically both financially and emotionally. And these cretins blatantly ignore these very same rules. These are similar to the "Let them eat cake" utterances of Marie Antoinette - and look what happened to her.

[Blue62]

The interesting thing for me is that the story broke at all. It was suggested that the Ferguson story was broken some time after the information came to light, as though somebody had decided they’d had enough and it was time to start to discredit him.

I suspect the same could apply here, it may be the start of an orchestrated move to get rid of Cummings and leave Boris exposed. Gove has been very low key, even on the schools reopening (given his background) and I wonder if there are Machiavellian moves afoot?

[shed driver]

Eric Mc said:

Pointless point. He broke the rules in place at the time - rules he was helping to formulate and foisting on the rest of us.

It annoys me immensely that we are making massive sacrifices in order to "do the right thing" and protect each other - sacrifices that are costing us drastically both financially and emotionally. And these cretins blatantly ignore these very same rules. These are similar to the "Let them eat cake" utterances of Marie Antoinette - and look what happened to her.

If there was a shred of decency and backbone he would be sacked or have resigned immediately. It's not going to happen and with parliament closed again for 2 weeks then it's sadly not going to get the attention it deserves.

It will be an interesting few days though to see if lockdown doesn't break completely. It's Eid as well so there is an added pressure in some areas.

SD.

[JagLover]

Sambucket said:

The 'using parents for childcare' is an odd admission. Doesn't help at all. If he omitted that bit, it would be fairly similar to Boris going to Chequers to recover. (I assume his parents have a couple of guest houses on the estate for staff...) Instead he is in a situation where he knowingly exposed the virus to his elderly parents. I wonder if that will be walked back?

I believe his son is four or five and the under tens are a very low risk group for onward infection.

The Scottish medical advisor went to a holiday home she didn't travel to self isolate when both her and her partner had the Coronavirus and they had a five year old to take care of.

Another difference with the Scottish situation is that Downing street were presumably aware of where Cummings had travelled to.

I can understand those saying that Cummings should have been smart and realised that there are many media organisations constantly on the look out to take him out. That said though there is also the problem that both he, and his wife, came down with it at the same time and they had a five year old to take care of. There was therefore a legitimate concern that there would be no family member healthy enough to take care of the child.

I recently (last year) had bad Flu and could barely take care of myself let alone a five year old as well.

[rover 623gsi]

Blue62 said:

The interesting thing for me is that the story broke at all. It was suggested that the Ferguson story was broken some time after the information came to light, as though somebody had decided they’d had enough and it was time to start to discredit him.

I suspect the same could apply here, it may be the start of an orchestrated move to get rid of Cummings and leave Boris exposed. Gove has been very low key, even on the schools reopening (given his background) and I wonder if there are Machiavellian moves afoot?

Possibly yeah. I’m sure lots of people in govt must have known at the time that Cummings had fled London - somewhat ironically to Cumbria, one of the worst affected areas in the country.

Edited by rover 623gsi on Saturday 23 May 08:42

[motco]

Sambucket said:

His example of travelling the country to visit parents in the garden, isn't miles away from new guidance.

Maybe the childcare thing will screw him. Lucky for him, this came out after the rules were relaxed.

According to the 'Today' programme this morning, it was not his parents that he asked to look after the child(ren) but his sister. The parents, I infer, happen to be nearby. That being the case all he did was look to his family to help with a vulnerable member of his household. The sin, if sin it is, was to drive 290 miles to do it.

[JagLover]

motco said:

According to the 'Today' programme this morning, it was not his parents that he asked to look after the child(ren) but his sister. The parents, I infer, happen to be nearby. That being the case all he did was look to his family to help with a vulnerable member of his household. The sin, if sin it is, was to drive 290 miles to do it.

This was the guidance

BBC said:

The reasons you may leave home include:
For work, where you cannot work at home
Going to shops that are permitted to be open - to get things like food and medicine
To exercise or spend time outdoors
Any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid illness or injury, escape risk of harm, or to provide care or help to a vulnerable person

I trust we can all agree that a five year old needs someone fit and able to look after him.

[standards]

If parents can drive all that way they seem capable of looking after children at home as per advice.

If parents deteriorate and need hospital care and grandparents unable to go and pick up grandchildren they’re unlikely to be able to look after them.

Seems to me they wanted a nicer place than Mugsville-on-Thames to isolate and Durham plus grandparents seemed to do the trick.

Only the trick got spotted. Curtain twitchers rule.

[ClaphamGT3]

Sambucket said:

Eric Mc said:

Pointless point. He broke the rules in place at the time - rules he was helping to formulate and foisting on the rest of us.

It annoys me immensely that we are making massive sacrifices in order to "do the right thing" and protect each other - sacrifices that are costing us drastically both financially and emotionally. And these cretins blatantly ignore these very same rules. These are similar to the "Let them eat cake" utterances of Marie Antoinette - and look what happened to her.

I 100% agree with you, but this is not the question OP asked.

He asked if this will cause much trouble for the current government.

What will make or break this issue is how much the press decide to make of it; rather in the manner of Andrew Mitchell all those years ago.

Whilst Boris, a few months into a very large majority, may feel somewhat more secure than Cameron there will come a point where sustained media focus on Cummings will become a distraction. Add to that Boris’ recent approvals ratings taking a tumble compared to others in Govt, notably Sunak, and concerns over the Conservative party’s appetite for regicide May begin to assert themselves and he will want to show the party that he has dealt with the issue decisively.

In the next few days we will learn whether the story is Cummings broke lockdown guidance or whether the story is Cummings has to go.