Originally Posted by
Aimless
It's about the perception of credibility. British society is plagued by class-associated inequality, but ordinary people treasure the notion that everyone is, at least, equal before the law—and that, in this time of national crisis, they and their leaders are all in it together, with everyone pitching in and making personal sacrifices for the greater good. The Cummings scandal shatters these comforting delusions in a very public manner. Here we have a privileged man who can—because of his connections—not only get away with casually flouting the onerous and restrictive rules imposed by the govt. he represents, but also have powerful govt. figures intercede on his behalf, even up to the point of having the AG publicly making an erroneous announcement about his innocence of any wrongdoing.
The vast majority of ordinary Brits have adhered to these rules, enduring considerable psychological pressure because they believed the law required it of them—and because they believed everyone should do their part to fight the pandemic; thousands have been fined by the police (BAME Brits at a disproportionately high rate). It is galling to be faced with such a flagrant demonstration of class privilege.
As if that weren't bad enough, the govt. inexplicably chose to go on the offensive by presenting one transparently bullshit defense after the other. Cummings has—like Johnson, Bannon, Trump, etc—built his personal brand atop a general contempt for rules, norms, "enemy" legislators, the judiciary and the media; however, in his statements, he instead managed to convey contempt for ordinary people and their mundane, little, insignificant concerns. It was at the very least politically foolish for govt. reps to let themselves become associated with that show of contempt.
Ferguson had to resign his post because his work was partly responsible for the implementation of the lockdown approach, and then he was caught going against precisely those recommendations that he had indirectly imposed on millions of ordinary Britons; he no longer had any credibility on policy matters pertaining to the pandemic. It's like if the president of PETA were caught knowingly buying a mink coat—she'd no longer have any credibility when advocating for animal rights. You can probably think of many more related kinds of credibility-damaging violations of trust, such as an influential person watering a huge and extremely thirsty lawn while ordinary people are expected to ration water, or throwing a feast while ordinary people are expected to submit to rationing schemes. In this case, a representative of the political leadership has gotten away with enjoying luxury socialization and movement, while ordinary people have been expected to ration both—or face costly legal sanctions.