The Dominic Cummings file

[killer b]

The man has become a complete joke, does anyone take him seriously any more?

He's regularly published by all the worst news & opinion sites in the world, so I guess they all do.

 

[The39thStep]

oh no, here he is, condemning... that guy who sent the tweet from the civil service twitter account before being sacked.

Yup good with data and analysis but for him any outloud thinking on Twitter is a no go area .

 

[ska invita]

At last confirmation that Durham police have started their investigation.

Durham police open investigation into Dominic Cummings

Key witness interviewed and police have access to vehicle-tracking software amid claims aide broke lockdown

www.theguardian.com

Just another bit of fun.

The Police's record on investigating top Tory brass is about as good as their investigations into themselves.
I live in hope though....wouldn't take much of a new revelation to do for him

 

[DexterTCN]

Dunno if it was mentioned but I think JK Rowling said she'd give the civil servant a years salary if he got sacked.

 

[vanya]

In the Rose Garden

After keeping the TV schedules waiting for half an hour, did Dominic Cummings do enough to save his bacon? It's doubtful his presentation ...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

After keeping the TV schedules waiting for half an hour, did Dominic Cummings do enough to save his bacon? It's doubtful his presentation in the Downing Street rose garden changed anyone's mind. If you're prepared to defend the government and Cummings after the weekend's revelations you're going to carry on doing so. After all, for the likes of Dan Hodges and Guidelet-at-large Tom Haywood the truth is a firm second to media profile - even if it means eating shit on the government's behalf. And if you're angry because Cummings flouted lockdown rules, you're still going to be angry.

In an impressive display of doublethink, Cummings said he did nothing wrong. And then admitted to the assembled pressers all the times he disobeyed the rules he helped write:

1. Concerning the events of 27th March, Cummings admitted he went home, discovered his wife was ill, and then returned to work at Downing Street. The rules, of course, were very clear. He should have immediately self-isolated as a member of his household was ill. Now, Cummings has attempted to get round this by arguing Mary Wakefield did not have a cough. If he didn't suspect this was Coronavirus, then why did he leg it back from Downing Street and drive all the way up to Durham to self-isolate? Hmmm.

2. The actual relocation itself was against the rules. If you or a member of your household were displaying symptoms or otherwise suspected of having the disease, you are supposed to stay put. As it happens, the common sense argument Cummings makes in his defence is one, I'm sure, most people would sympathise with. If you had an alternative bolt hole that was even more isolated and you could travel to it without risking exposing anyone else, then why not? Except, again, the rules have been very clear. In the early part of the lockdown there were repeated complaints of our more affluent citizens fleeing London for their holiday homes in the arse end of nowhere. Readers might recall Neil Gaiman had to publicly apologise for heading to Skye for the duration. Cummings has also tried justifying this in terms of "exceptional circumstances", but when tens if not hundreds of thousands of parents have been placed into a similar position and abided by the rules then his situation isn't exceptional at all.

3. You couldn't make it up. He said he stayed on his family's land in a cottage/nissan hut. After having recovered somewhat following a couple of days in bed, he felt his eyesight had been adversely affected. So to see if his eyes were up to driving, he packed everyone into his car and drove 30 miles to Barnard Castle - a 60 mile round-trip in total. I'm sure you would agree this is an entirely normal thing to do. Again, the rules were clear. You were supposed to stay put, and go out once a day in your locality for exercise. Cummings did not. Instead, he was one of those awful people the likes of Derbyshire plod and the Daily Mail were moaning about for travelling into the countryside. Also, entirely coincidentally, the Cummings/Wakefield visit to Bernard Castle was on the occasion of her birthday.

Asked about issuing an apology, Cummings repeated he'd done nothing wrong. Asked about whether he had considered resigning, he said no. Instead, he tried turning it around to the press and blame them for the furore. Perhaps if the Scottish chief medical officer and the author of the lockdown strategy hadn't lost their jobs and the right wing press hadn't demanded their heads - a certain Tom Haywood among them - this would be a non-story worth a shrug and a couple of column inches in Private Eye.

And so he's dug his heels in, and Boris Johnson is backing him to the hilt. Their fates are now tied - they stand together or they full together. And are they going to? There is a real split among Tory ranks on this, if Conservative Home is anything to go by - props to the contributor arguing driving with impaired insight is exactly what you should do). And so far 21 Tory MPs have called for Cummings to resign. However the bulk of the right wing media are also against Cummings, reflecting the anger of their thinning readership. And Tory MPs generally are reportedly in a flap, with their WhatsApp groups buzzing with complaints and those worried by the growing pile of hostile letters from constituents. Good, let them feel the heat.

The question is will it matter? I guess we won't know until we see the first clutch of polls, but it feels like it does. The government were starting to look a bit shaky anyway, and doubling down on the nothing to see here defence is hardly helpful for keeping popular confidence on side. Could this be Boris Johnson's Black Wednesday, the moment when speculation forced the pound out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 and afflicted a blow on John Major's government from which it could never recover - despite being fewer than six months on from a famous general election victory? The parallels are there. With widespread doubts over the return to school and return to work strategies, there's nothing like a case of brazen hypocrisy on the part of a self-styled people's government to provoke anger and collapse confidence along with popular support. Whatever the case, the story isn't about to go away. Because of Cummings, the whereabouts and movements of other senior officials and the cabinet itself comes under the spotlight and other examples or rule-breaking are sure to be uncovered.

Cummings has always been fancied as something of a chaos agent, a tsunami of terror that would roll in and sweep way the corrupt establishment that has held back British politics for so long. After today's press conference, it's looking like he'll meet this happy objective.

 

[two sheds]

In the Rose Garden

After keeping the TV schedules waiting for half an hour, did Dominic Cummings do enough to save his bacon? It's doubtful his presentation ...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

Good summary. One thing confuses me though: "After having recovered somewhat following a couple of days in bed, he felt his eyesight had been adversely affected" I thought his wife said he was in bed for 10 days virtually unable to move.

 

[phillm]

I locked my dog in the house then set it on fire to see if the fire-alarm was working.I didn't do anything wrong but it was one hell of a hot dog...

 

[phillm]

 

[DexterTCN]

 

[phillm]

I set fire to my bakery on Pudding Lane in 1666 because I knew smoke alarms would be invented 200 years later. I wrote a blog about this at the time.

"I turned up half an hour late to my own press conference just to check if everyone's watches were working"

 

[ska invita]

At last confirmation that Durham police have started their investigation.

Durham police open investigation into Dominic Cummings

Key witness interviewed and police have access to vehicle-tracking software amid claims aide broke lockdown

www.theguardian.com

Just another bit of fun.

The Police's record on investigating top Tory brass is about as good as their investigations into themselves.
I live in hope though....

From that blog piece:
"And so he's dug his heels in, and Boris Johnson is backing him to the hilt. Their fates are now tied - they stand together or they fall together"

Lets say plod do uncover something that contradicts his already dubious account, at that point Johnson can still distance himself, pin it on Cummings for lying, express his disappointment in him, and wipe his grubby hands to some extent

 

[two sheds]

He does have to watch out in his criticisms though. He wouldn't like to turn Cummings against him to provoke a proper Kiss and Tell expose.

 

[kenny g]

Misconduct in Public Office | The Crown Prosecution Service

www.cps.gov.uk

"Misconduct in public office is an offence at common law triable only on indictment. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is an offence confined to those who are public office holders and is committed when the office holder acts (or fails to act) in a way that constitutes a breach of the duties of that office."

 

[ska invita]

He does have to watch out in his criticisms though. He wouldn't like to turn Cummings against him to provoke a proper Kiss and Tell expose.

Im not feeling this Ive Got The Dirt So Watch It Blackmail angle at all tbh...seems fantastical to me

 

[two sheds]

Im not feeling this Ive Got The Dirt So Watch It Blackmail angle at all tbh...seems fantastical to me

Not needed - if they fall out it's likely all to come out with no talk of blackmail.

 

[Ax^]

not that a condone drinking driving


"sorry officer i wanted to test if i was to pissed to drive"

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Misconduct in Public Office | The Crown Prosecution Service

www.cps.gov.uk

"Misconduct in public office is an offence at common law triable only on indictment. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is an offence confined to those who are public office holders and is committed when the office holder acts (or fails to act) in a way that constitutes a breach of the duties of that office."

Does Cummings hold any kind of public office? I thought he was a SPAD.

 

[killer b]

Im not feeling this Ive Got The Dirt So Watch It Blackmail angle at all tbh...seems fantastical to me

it's absolute bollocks, verging on conspiracy theory. embarrassing to see it bandied about tbh.

 

[equationgirl]

Yes, more likely Bojo would face that offence as an elected official, not Dom.

 

[two sheds]

it's absolute bollocks, verging on conspiracy theory. embarrassing to see it bandied about tbh.

Where was it bandied about?

 

[not-bono-ever]

good trout fishing on the tees at barnard castle- salmon too

Look at the size of this brown trout caught on the River Tees

THIS fish pictured is a huge wild brown trout that a Teesside man caught while fishing on Wednesday (May 20).

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

Beautiful native brown trout there- look at its colouring

/derail

 

[killer b]

Where was it bandied about?

what, that Cummings has the dirt on Johnson and that's why he's being looked after? everywhere. Multiple posts on this thread, the whole of twitter and facebook for the last 5 days...

 

[two sheds]

Ah ok. Your post was in response to ska's which was in response to mine. To clarify I'm not talking about blackmail, I'm talking about if two people with huge egos fall out.

 

[equationgirl]

Ah ok. Your post was in response to ska's which was in response to mine. To clarify I'm not talking about blackmail, I'm talking about if two people with huge egos fall out.

Some kind of ego-apocolypse I would expect. Like the worst, most acrimonious divorce ever.

 

[Raheem]

Some kind of ego-apocolypse I would expect. Like the worst, most acrimonious divorce ever.

Johnson gets Brexit every other weekend.

 

[brogdale]

Really dark stuff from Steve...

 

[equationgirl]

Johnson gets Brexit every other weekend.

They fight over who doesn't get custody of Gove.

 

[bimble]

The ‘scumedia’ thing is scary now, does anyone know where it started? Just pure trumpism, tribal dangerous shit.

 

[killer b]

These cunts know better than to fall out like that. That's why Gove's knifing of Johnson in 2016 was so shocking - they don't do it like that.

 

[SpineyNorman]

So you are arguing that people who say "I don't know whether he should resign" are in fact people who "think he should resign"?

The fact is, amongst tory voters, it's a minority who think he should resign.

But a majority do not think he should not not not resign too.