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Even more wow. Cummings is going to make a public statement and take questions from the media later today.
Unprecedented?
Hugely telling about how badly the PM fucked things up at yesterday's briefing, and that he can't manage it today. He's so out of his depth it's frightening.
The only way to win is to sack Cummings, and I can understand why they haven't done so yet—the PM is so incompetent that he's outright dangerous without Cummings, as he and everyone around him well know. If Cummings gets the boot, I have no idea who is best suited to take his place; anyone who might want the job is probably some kind of creepy asshole or other :o
Boris screwed up by clearing Cummings himself.
He should have said there would be an independent investigation and if the law was broken then Cummings would have had to go.
Probably would have resulted in same outcome but would have been more plausible having an investigation being led by someone else.
Silly mistake.
I agree an investigation would have been a better option. Time is the biggest healer and they could have done what they've done with the Russia report - never publish it.
Surprising misjudgment when they've usually been good at controlling the story and the media. Makes me feel like they've really got something to hide and are in a major panic.
Thank God for Brexit, the UK is almost back to the good old times when there were people who made laws and people who were made to live by them.
It must be nice to have rules you can interpret in your own personal way, without interference of the government. After all, if you have two houses, why should paupers be the judge of where it is you stay when you're at home?
I used to think Cummings was a deeply intelligent man. Based on his account of events just now, it's clear I was wrong.
One conclusion that can be drawn is that he's not a good person to be advising the PM.
You can see why they keep him away from these briefings. Even Priti Patel is better.
Well reasoned explanation of events by Cummings and fair enough. There must be one rule for all - if he'd broken the law he would have to go.
But good to see reasoned detailed explanation of the timeline of events. Good to see the regulations regarding childcare that applied pointed out. Feel sorry for him with what he went through - not just sick himself, not just his wife sick, but his child rushed to hospital in an ambulance too. There's people across the country undergoing worse, but that's not something I'd wish on any healthy family either.
But as far as the law's concerned, Boris's judgement matches the original Police's judgement. No law was broken. And it turns out now the Guardian lied in its original reporting too, I wonder if the Guardian will print a retraction or not?
But no doubt none of this will be enough for people who already hated him and want to live through an Orwellian Two Minutes Hate and get Cummings to go for reasons that have nothing to do with his actions while his family were ill.
Do you genuinely believe he drove 1.5 hours to a castle and back, stopping to sit by a river, on his wife's birthday, to make sure his eyesight was ok?
If you do, is that really the judgement of a man you want advising the PM?
He also went back to work when his wife had symptoms. That's a clear breach of lockdown rules that has nothing to do with childcare.
Edit: his wife can drive...
Do I believe that after recovering from a serious illness he thought that a small drive before a cross-country drive might be a good idea? Yes I do.
I've always had the view, since I was 18, that if I was going on a cross-country drive and either my car hadn't been driven recently or I hadn't been driving recently then it was a good idea to drive for half an hour before going on a cross country trip. It was a tip given to me by an RAC mechanic when I was 18 and I've lived by it since, its good for both the car and the driver.
He went back to work when his wife was ill, with no COVID19 symptoms. That's fine, the symptoms to watch for at the time were coughing and fever and she had neither is what he said.
He drove 60 miles. 1.5 hours.
That's not a quick check to see whether you can cope with driving. It's a day out.
On his wife's birthday.
He put his kid in the car when he was concerned about his ability to drive, because his eyes weren't working.
All when his wife was better and can drive.
Nobody does that. It's the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard.
And I bet if this was happening to a Labour government, you'd be all over it. I call hypocrisy, Sir. Rank hypocrisy.
Edit; and he said himself "she was I'll, she might have Covid, though she did not have cough or fever". So he suspected she might, yet he jumps right back into no.10.
Which emergency was driving him back south?
Hahaha, you know Cummings is in trouble when even the De Pfeffel's court circular (previously known as the daily Telegraph) denounces him.
But as we know, Randy is so far up De Pfeffel's arse these days that he's typically a week late in smelling the coffee.
A 60 mile drive to test his eyesight my fucking arse. :haha:
Who the heck is going to believe such obvious nonsense.
Randblade.
Gove completely unable to justify or defend the Birthday family day trip to Bernard Castle.
But let's say you believe it, wasn't it excessively irresponsible of him to drive for 1,5 hours doubting he could see good enough to drive a car?Quote:
Originally Posted by Timbuk2
Cummings updated one of his old blogs to make it look like he'd been prescient about the corona-virus:
https://dominiccummings.com/2019/03/...transmissible/
https://web.archive.org/web/20200409...transmissible/
Before April 8th this year
(Context note: he's quoting large sections from another article, adding his own highlight to parts that are relevant to the point he's making)
Live:Quote:
‘But mandatory incident reporting to FSAP and NIH actually does provide sufficient data to quantify human error in BSL3 biocontainment labs…
[An example] A fourth release in 2014 from the CDC labs occurred when “Scientists inadvertently switched samples designated for live Ebola virus studies with samples intended for studies with inactivated material. As a result, the samples with viable Ebola virus, instead of the samples with inactivated Ebola virus, were transferred out of a BSL-4 laboratory to a laboratory with a lower safety level for additional analysis. While no one contracted Ebola virus in this instance, the consequences could have been dire for the personnel involved as there are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for this virus.”…
Quote:
‘But mandatory incident reporting to FSAP and NIH actually does provide sufficient data to quantify human error in BSL3 biocontainment labs…
‘Among other things, the GAO report called attention to a well-publicized incident in which a Defense Department laboratory “inadvertently sent live Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, to almost 200 laboratories worldwide over the course of 12 years. The laboratory believed that the samples had been inactivated.” The report describes yet another well-publicized incident in China in which “two researchers conducting virus research were exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus samples that were incompletely inactivated. The researchers subsequently transmitted SARS to others, leading to several infections and one death in 2004.”
The mother of our PM died, her son didn't visit her at the home where she was in care. Simply because it was against his own corona-related rules. He had the decency and courage to not re-interpret them in a way that would give him a privilege ordinary citizens didn't have.
The regulations that Cummings cited were apparently designed for women and children at risk of domestic abuse.
What boggles my mind is that he considers it acceptable to break lockdown rules because he suspected they might be infected. I mean, that's exactly when you should self isolate.. The whole point of a lockdown is to prevent spreading the disease and he traveled while infected, and he suspected he might be. :bulb:Quote:
Originally Posted by gogobongopop
It may have been technically legal, but I think he (and given the firm defense, the government) were seriously naive if they expected this wouldn't cause outrage with people who didn't visit dying relatives, self isolated with their kids, and suffered in many other ways due to this lockdown. He should at least have apologised if he wanted to get away with it, but I think it's too late for that now.
Well, that makes sense then.Quote:
Originally Posted by gogobongopop
Huge if true:
https://mobile.twitter.com/RussInChe...49109449777160
(thread)
Tories are wild.
No doubt Randy will be galloping in soon to tell us we are are wrong and that the Guardian is written by lying haters to start with.
That's a fun read.
Shows us the contempt Cummings has, and those Tories who have publicly supported him have, for the general public.
Twitter Link
He's so... ignorant.
Poor widdwe babies:
https://amp.theguardian.com/media/20...mmings-remarks