Cheshire Cat
Landlord.
I’m no fan of Cummings but he’s telling the whole truth here. Boris is an incompetent fool and Hancock is unfit for the role. They both should be removed now for causing so many extra deaths.
Cummings testimony
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Do you honestly believe he went to Durham because his family had been threatened as it says below i may be in a minority but i don't believe a word of it.
Dominic Cummings' controversial trip to County Durham during lockdown was due to security threats, not just childcare reasons, the ex-No 10 aide has said.
Speaking to MPs, Mr Cummings said he moved his family out of London after his wife received death threats from a gang of people outside his home.
He said not explaining this at the time was "a terrible, terrible mistake".
He described the episode as "a major disaster for the government" which had "undermined public confidence".
However, appearing before the Health and Science committee on Wednesday, Mr Cummings said he had first moved his family out of the home for six weeks in autumn 2019 following security threats.
He then said that on 25 February he received a call from his wife who told him "there was a gang outside the family home saying 'they're going to break into the house and kill everybody inside'."
He continued, saying that on 22 March a "fake quote" appeared in a news story "saying I was happy for everyone to die".
"After that weekend I then said to my wife...we've got to get out here by Friday - it had already been decided that I was going to move my family out of London regardless of Covid rules."
When, in May, the story emerged that Mr Cummings had left London, he said "the prime minister and I agreed that because of the security things, we would basically just stonewall the story and not say anything about it."
I don't. Remember his comment at the time?
A reporter told him ' you know what it looks like, one rule for you and another for the rest of the population'. Cummings replied 'I don't care what it looks like'.
His wife conveniently also had a birthday during their stay at Durham. His sister has a property at the farm and is (reportedly) a director of a company which was involved in designing the original Test & Trace app.
Then that farce for over an hour in the garden at No. 10 and he never mentioned it then but went into great detail about everything else.
That press conference was unprecedented for a special advisor but today he said he had no power and no one listened to him. If no one listened to him, why were ministers forced to tweet the same supportive message? I think only Patel and Hancock didn't.
He's angling to get his job back when Gove overthrows Johnson.
A reporter told him ' you know what it looks like, one rule for you and another for the rest of the population'. Cummings replied 'I don't care what it looks like'.
His wife conveniently also had a birthday during their stay at Durham. His sister has a property at the farm and is (reportedly) a director of a company which was involved in designing the original Test & Trace app.
Then that farce for over an hour in the garden at No. 10 and he never mentioned it then but went into great detail about everything else.
That press conference was unprecedented for a special advisor but today he said he had no power and no one listened to him. If no one listened to him, why were ministers forced to tweet the same supportive message? I think only Patel and Hancock didn't.
He's angling to get his job back when Gove overthrows Johnson.
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I wouldn’t take on board much of what Cummings has to say about anything. Much of what he did say was his biased / self-serving opinion. He (everyone) should stick with facts.
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In fact Cummings did mention the security thing at the time :
https://news.stv.tv/politics/no-regrets-pms-adviser-cummings-defends-lockdown-trip?topI was subjected to threats of violence, people came to my house shouting threats, there were posts on social media encouraging attacks,” he said. Mr Cummings said he was worried that “this situation would get worse”, adding: “I was worried about the possibility of leaving my wife and child at home all day and often into the night while I worked in Number 10. “I thought the best thing to do in all the circumstances was to drive to an isolated cottage on my father’s farm.”
The way to look at this is that 90+% of what he says is true, as he knows it can be cross-checked. And there's stuff which is very plausible, like ex-Telegraph journalist Johnson being particularly influenced by the media in general and the Telegraph's anti-lockdown stance in particular.
The skill is to create this background of plausibility and then drop things into it. So for instance we don't know if Hancock lied 100 times or 0 times, we have to take Cummings' word that it was 15-20 times. In fact we can do a bit better than that, there are some cases where Hancock does seem to have verifiably lied.
The politics is fascinating though, albeit through Cummings' weird comic-book view of goodies and baddies - Sunak can do no wrong, and Gove seems to have been completely absent from proceedings.
https://news.stv.tv/politics/no-regrets-pms-adviser-cummings-defends-lockdown-trip?topI was subjected to threats of violence, people came to my house shouting threats, there were posts on social media encouraging attacks,” he said. Mr Cummings said he was worried that “this situation would get worse”, adding: “I was worried about the possibility of leaving my wife and child at home all day and often into the night while I worked in Number 10. “I thought the best thing to do in all the circumstances was to drive to an isolated cottage on my father’s farm.”
The way to look at this is that 90+% of what he says is true, as he knows it can be cross-checked. And there's stuff which is very plausible, like ex-Telegraph journalist Johnson being particularly influenced by the media in general and the Telegraph's anti-lockdown stance in particular.
The skill is to create this background of plausibility and then drop things into it. So for instance we don't know if Hancock lied 100 times or 0 times, we have to take Cummings' word that it was 15-20 times. In fact we can do a bit better than that, there are some cases where Hancock does seem to have verifiably lied.
The politics is fascinating though, albeit through Cummings' weird comic-book view of goodies and baddies - Sunak can do no wrong, and Gove seems to have been completely absent from proceedings.
From the report on the radio it would seem most of the stuff he is saying cannot be proved, he did himself no favours going to Durham even if the threats to his family are true as he could have told the truth at the time, he lied then why would he believe people won't think he's lying now.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I never understood how people can say, on the one hand, that they value democracy and, on the other, that they're not going to vote. Everyone should be obliged to turn up at the polling station, imo, even if it means spoiling the ballot paper. It's the idea that a vote for anyone other than Lab or Con is a wasted vote that perpetuates the two-party system. I'd certainly like to see a few more Greens and Independents and Free Beer for Flat Earthers in the Commons.
Well I don't know in what direction KS wants to take labour and I will never vote tory so unless things change and soon I won't be voting.
Talking about democrosy let's change the way we vote in elections so we all vote and the party who gets the mosy votes wins unlike the shambles we have now where Thatcher moved us from Lancashire to Cumbria so she would get mote votes.
This is the reason turnout is always low the system is bent and needs fixing.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
Gerimandering is a crime against democracy and would be impossible under proportional representation. The latter would also ensure that those who favour the values of a minor party are indeed represented. Our system is more than bent, Chippy, and it's not democracy either.
The thing is, it’s going to be a bit tricky for Boris now in terms of local lock downs.
It’s looking like some areas such as Bolton for example are having a hard time with this new variant. How will Boris act now. Will he impose lol all lock downs, since we now know what happens with indecisive and late action/decisions.
Or will he what Cummings has told us he heard, and let the bodies pile high?
Yesterday saw the largest number of new infections. I see that’s up 18%
It’s looking like some areas such as Bolton for example are having a hard time with this new variant. How will Boris act now. Will he impose lol all lock downs, since we now know what happens with indecisive and late action/decisions.
Or will he what Cummings has told us he heard, and let the bodies pile high?
Yesterday saw the largest number of new infections. I see that’s up 18%
clib
Landlord.
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What we appear to have is a group of deficient liars running the country, and an electorate/electoral system that keeps voting them in. Cameron / May / Johnson, each period has been chaotic, fumbling about in the dark. Lots of divide and rule. Culminating in many thousands of needless deaths and billions of pounds frittered away. The public wants what the public gets...
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The biggest problem is there is no yardstick to say the socialists could have performed better. Tories will get in with another landslide because the populace knows that the roll out of vaccine was second to none in Europe. And the Labour party can't makeup its mind whether to be left or right of centre.
clib
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I'm sure you are right, but it feels to me like the government is getting away with a hell of a lot that just gets overlooked. Thousands of lives wasted, billions of pounds wasted. But we got the vaccines right so it's all ok.
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And who could have done any better, well the Labour Party are experts at wasting tax payers money so that gives them the nod there. But coming up with policies about how to tackle something unknown it is only down to speculation who would have done better.
No fan of this government.
Not sure that I can believe too much of what Cummings says after the whole castle incident and changing stories. However I had my suspicions that this lot in charge were either not taking it seriously at the start and then flailing about when it became obvious that it was serious. I'm no soothsayer, but I remember in December/january 2019/20 saying to my wife that this virus thing looked serious.
I have no doubt that the majority of those in government are totally incompetent. Are labour any better, probably not but they don't seem quite so self serving. @foxy is right, there's no yardstick to say whether labour would have performed better, but I think they might have....we need to shoulder some responsibility though, we are generally less healthy than lots of the world and we need to do better.
Not sure that I can believe too much of what Cummings says after the whole castle incident and changing stories. However I had my suspicions that this lot in charge were either not taking it seriously at the start and then flailing about when it became obvious that it was serious. I'm no soothsayer, but I remember in December/january 2019/20 saying to my wife that this virus thing looked serious.
I have no doubt that the majority of those in government are totally incompetent. Are labour any better, probably not but they don't seem quite so self serving. @foxy is right, there's no yardstick to say whether labour would have performed better, but I think they might have....we need to shoulder some responsibility though, we are generally less healthy than lots of the world and we need to do better.
I don’t think the Labour Party has much chance of winning anything really. I’m not a political expert, but as I see it, Labour does not seem to be the party it once was.
Years ago, it was quite clear what Labour was. Maggie kept them out for years, then Tony came along, and he looked to many people like a middle of the road sort of option and took votes away from the conservatives.
I think that may have been the start of the slippery slope for Labour. To me, it looks like the Labour Party is actually two parties, or at least two sides that are not going to get together to form one electable party.
Years ago, it was quite clear what Labour was. Maggie kept them out for years, then Tony came along, and he looked to many people like a middle of the road sort of option and took votes away from the conservatives.
I think that may have been the start of the slippery slope for Labour. To me, it looks like the Labour Party is actually two parties, or at least two sides that are not going to get together to form one electable party.
An Ankoù
Landlord.
I don't think Cummings has told us much that we didn't already know or suspect. All his done is joined up the dots so that we've got a coherent story of utter incompetence. You're right. Labour wouldn't have done a better job because they wouldn't have been allowed to by the fascist press that we enjoy in this country. the same press that hasn't really exploited the opportunities for good stories afforded by the current lot.
Cheshire Cat
Landlord.
No one knows if Labour would have done better but we do know the Tories did a terrible job and as AA says Cummings told us what we already knew. Hancock cannot survive after what's been said but since these people have no decency he will cling on to power. We now have a government with no accountability to the electorate.
