Apparently Cummings wife didn't necessarily have the virus. And you were allowed out in the time of the 'test drive'.
Two issues there:
1) If Cummings' wife DIDN'T have the virus, then that leads to two more questions in itself.
1.1) If she was 'so unwell' as to not to be able to look after her 4 year old child, what did her Dr diagnose her with? I recall the gov pushing the message to contact your Dr if you felt unwell still. The NHS wasn't Covid only. So what did she have?
1.2) Does this mean he didn't need to make the drive anyway? Why would Cummings think he would get the virus, if his wife wasn't infected? And how did he know his wife wouldn't feel better the following day? If his wife DIDN'T have the virus - and at that point he didn't either - then there was no need to lockdown anyway was there? Not only does Cummings spin, it appears he's some form of Tiresian seer.
2) Yep, you could exercise - that part of the spin is true. But you couldn't drive to exercise.
I feel so dizzy with all this spinning. The spin is now so fast that it is developing its own gravity. Gravity not gravitas. Sucking the truth in and spitting out untruths.
Yes - all of the above as well as taking someone strongly suspected (or known) to have the virus from a place with lots of facilities for treatment to a place with much less capacity to cope has been, from the outset, identified as the main risk for spread. And this sort of behaviour is very probably why the northeast now has a far worse rate of spread than London - people from London took it there.
And regardless of all this, the point is not whether what he did was the best option for anyone, but that it explicitly went against the rules. Now we're told the rules are 'more like guidelines, really' so where does that leave us in the next wave of it?
There is no level on which this is OK. And although it's true that the fact he's an arrogant a**e who believes he's the only person in the world who really understands and the rest of us are all just stupid plebs who can be manipulated into believing whatever 'truth' he's decided suits his purpose may not be helping in his current treatment by the press and other MPs but there is a real issue at the heart of it.
I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. He chose to alienate them all.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
That's a bit unfair to Londoners. If a person has family in the north, they are likely to be notherners.😉 The first recorded incident of the disease was in York.
Every family/household set-up has different ways of dealing with situations. Some have no choices and struggle through.That is not to say if they had more choices they would do the same. Dominic Cummings made choices based on his family set-up. If he had waited his family in Durham may not have been in a position to help. What if both Mr.Cummings and his wife became seriously ill and something tragic happened to their child,would not people then say he should have done something earlier? At the time he made those decisions he had no idea how things would pan out health-wise and was probably looking at the best way to deal with a worse case scenario. Many decisions we make on the spur of the moment don't seem the same in hindsight. Many here are lucky enough to have a garden to sit in and a family and enough money not to worry too much,others have ill-health,some live alone,some have a large family. We can only make decisions based on our own circumstances and should not judge others based on our own. There was also the security threat,something most of us don't even have to consider. Based on what Mr. Cummings said in his statement,which is what he says actually happened,and not all the conjecture and supposition on what others think may or could have happened,I think he made the right call.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
It is wonderful how travel has broadened the mind isn't it @B3 ? Fifty years ago Londoners thought there was a vast desert north of Watford, most maps just showed 'Ere be dragons' it was to be avoided by civilised folk.
Even now my mother's family is blamed for hanging the monkey. Progress hey?
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
Just to add ,when Dominic Cummings made his decision on Mar 27th the UK had less than 17,000 cases and under 2000 deaths,no-one at the time knew how it would pan out. Things will always look different with hindsight.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
That's a bit unfair to Londoners. If a person has family in the north, they are likely to be notherners.😉 The first recorded incident of the disease was in York.
My neighbours are 'Londoners' in the sense that they used to live there. I'm Cornish as that's where I was born. Cornwall would not have been happy for me to go there these last few weeks because that's not where I live now. My neighbours are perfectly entitled to be here because this is where they live now. It's nothing to do with where you're from. It's about where you live. And only that. The York case was people who had travelled from China. Probably through London. I doubt they caught it in either London or York. The problem was that they travelled and probably infected lots of others on the way.
Which is exactly what we're talking about, innit?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Not sure I follow your use of 'choices'. Are you saying you can 'choose' which rules apply and which don't?
If Cummings and his wife became ill? Tiresias? Isn't that then TRUE of everyone? I may become ill tomorrow. You may. The world may. Cummings spins his wife two ways - she did have the virus and she didn't have the virus, depending on what he's trying to excuse. If he wants to excuse the trip to Durham - she had the virus and he was concerned that he'd get it as well - leaving his darling child unprotected. BUT he then virtually makes sure he gets the virus by travelling with a suspected carrier in a CONFINED space for hours. Common sense? Trying to protect his child? Let me think about that one. Yep, thought about it - B****cks.
Did Tiresias Cummings also see he wouldn't break down, that darling sonny wouldn't need the toilet and they'd have to stop, that they wouldn't have an accident caused by a boy racer, that....that his wife wouldn't deteriorate more and requie serious mediacl attention...that he hadn't ALREADY had the virus for days and was just about to deteriorate rapidly...that....
Stay at home...Self Isolate...7 Days individual, 14 days family...Contact 111 on deterioration ....NOT drive 260 miles and RISK others.
Let play a mind game.. let's say that Cummings stopped at a services to let darling sonny have a 'comfort break'. Cummings has the virus on his hands. He touches something. A lorry driver then also uses those services, contracts the virus and takes it home to his family - and his darling sonny. The lorry driver dies 'n' days later. In your mind is Cummings still right? The WHOLE POINT of the rules was to stop that scenario:
Stay at home > Protect the NHS > Save Lives.
I covered the security threat. He rushed back to the 'insecure' pad that he was worried about didn't he? And you're then ignoring the possibility that his London pad already had security - and the call to Durham police was to arrange extra security for there - increasing the risk for some other poor sod who may then have contracted the disease from clan Cummings.
YES you should judge a person who is instrumental in defining the rules, implementing the rules and enforcing the rules - who then himself flouts the rules. That is exactly what you MUST do. If a police chief is caught drunk in charge of a car, the book should be thrown at him. If a judge gives a lenient sentence to someone who turns out to be a friend - book, throw. Cummings was in a position of power and privilege. That is why this is so important.
When my kids were young, like all parents, you lay down rules. You say what they can and can't do. But kids do stuff you don't cater for.. kids have accidents.
I tried to get into my kids that accidents are events where you haven't been told what is right or wrong. If you been told NOT to do something and you do it anyway, you can't claim it is then an accident. Because that is the point of the rule - to stop accidents.
If anyone (had) then caught the virus because of Cummings actions - it could not be deemed an accident could it? It would be a wilful act. And when Cummings (obviously not looking through his Tiresian glasses (good image eh?)) took that drive - he knew the rules and WHY the rules were in place - he helped define them - and decided to wilfully ignore them.
Do you think Cummings would be happy if his dear sonny was one of those very rare kids that caught the virus and died because somebody else wilfully ignored the rules?
Cummings IS NOT Tiresias - he cannot see the future. He could NOT know what the outcome of his insane 260 mile trip would be. Luckily it appears that no one has died. BUT Cummings didn't know that before the event.
Posts
And regardless of all this, the point is not whether what he did was the best option for anyone, but that it explicitly went against the rules. Now we're told the rules are 'more like guidelines, really' so where does that leave us in the next wave of it?
There is no level on which this is OK. And although it's true that the fact he's an arrogant a**e who believes he's the only person in the world who really understands and the rest of us are all just stupid plebs who can be manipulated into believing whatever 'truth' he's decided suits his purpose may not be helping in his current treatment by the press and other MPs but there is a real issue at the heart of it.
I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. He chose to alienate them all.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The first recorded incident of the disease was in York.
Some have no choices and struggle through.That is not to say if they had more choices they would do the same.
Dominic Cummings made choices based on his family set-up.
If he had waited his family in Durham may not have been in a position to help.
What if both Mr.Cummings and his wife became seriously ill and something tragic happened to their child,would not people then say he should have done something earlier?
At the time he made those decisions he had no idea how things would pan out health-wise and was probably looking at the best way to deal with a worse case scenario.
Many decisions we make on the spur of the moment don't seem the same in hindsight.
Many here are lucky enough to have a garden to sit in and a family and enough money not to worry too much,others have ill-health,some live alone,some have a large family.
We can only make decisions based on our own circumstances and should not judge others based on our own.
There was also the security threat,something most of us don't even have to consider.
Based on what Mr. Cummings said in his statement,which is what he says actually happened,and not all the conjecture and supposition on what others think may or could have happened,I think he made the right call.
Even now my mother's family is blamed for hanging the monkey. Progress hey?
Things will always look different with hindsight.
The York case was people who had travelled from China. Probably through London. I doubt they caught it in either London or York. The problem was that they travelled and probably infected lots of others on the way.
Which is exactly what we're talking about, innit?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”