The UK response to Covid-19 [MOD WARNING 1ST POST]

Igotadose

Gary from Channel 4 is holding him over the coals somewhat. "Some circumstances you won't be able to follow the rules." Really? I think he's making it up

Harry Palmr

Is the regular briefing cancelled today?

AdamD

This has turned very badly now, car crash stuff.

Igotadose

Will he be gone by the next PMQ?

Panthro

He's clinging on to that guidance technicality for dear life.
If he'd come out and said "my actions were totally unacceptable and I apologise to the nation" he may have some sympathy.

Trying to put this back on the media is Trump levels of dick move.

Enzokk

No Mr Cummings, if you are so ill that you cannot look after your 4 year old then social services will look after him until family can pick him up or you are well enough to do it.

Timberrrrrrrr

Daily mail ragging him now, questions get harder with each journalist.

Igotadose

Daily Mail has the gloves off. "You've driven a coach and horses through the spirit of the instructions."

robinph

Now his wife suddenly didn't have symptoms before the drive to Durham.

Panthro

(you'd nearly forget there's a worldwide pandemic!)

Christy42

maebee wrote: »

He is completely incapable of admitting that he even made one tiny mistake.

It is a strategy at this point I think. Give your supporters anything to cling to and they will believe you are right. Once you start explaining why you made a mistake you are lost.

It is of course a horribly immoral strategy but from the UK and US it is an effective one.

Igotadose

Daily Mail : Did you offer to resign when you saw the PM?
Cummings: No, haven't considered it, etc.

Brass neck.

Enzokk

So when they left the house the wife was just ill and not confirmed with coronavirus. So why the need to rush 260 miles away?

Also, his child has some bladder control to not pee on a 260 mile trip but had to stop on the 30 mile trip to the beauty spot on the weekend. He just keeps lucking out that these unfortunate things keep happening to him that makes this situation look bad.

devnull

robinph wrote: »

Now his wife suddenly didn't have symptoms before the drive to Durham.

And you kno what they say about people who change their stories....

Judging by his hesitation afterwards and stuttering he's got the sinking feeling he just failed to keep his story straight.....

Igotadose

He could've stayed in an isolated cottage and still be involved. There's an Internet thing he ought to familiarize himself with it.

Can't wait till the media chases down his expert medical advice.

Kermit.de.frog

This fella is some piece of work.

Nothing to see here, did nothing wrong.

In reality he has completely undermined the containment measures of the government for everyone else.

CH3OH

He has a brass neck the size of a hippo

Call me Al

Igotadose wrote: »

Daily Mail : Did you offer to resign when you saw the PM?
Cummings: No, haven't considered it, etc.

Brass neck.

Oh the arrogance is almost tangible.
Breathtaking.
Not even looking at this journalist asking the questions, writing on paper while being spoken to.
ETA, he writes on the paper when he's under pressure I think.

namloc1980

Drove 30 miles with his family to check his eyesight was ok to drive to London! That's comical stuff. He's having a laugh.

Muahahaha

So he was having problems with his eyesight and decides to put the wife and 4 year old in the car to see if he would be alright to drive. Very safe thing to do Dom, put your wife and kid in danger of a car crash.

Harry Palmr

Ouch! The media are not taking any prisoners today. And this is bad news for the entire government and maybe their SAGE team come the media briefings. They have smelt blood and the existing levels of deference may well vanish.

Igotadose

Not well enough to drive, important government official, there was NO other way to get from Durham to London? There's like, no army that can help him?

The reality assault is pretty...impressive.

nacho libre

Enzokk wrote: »

No Mr Cummings, if you are so ill that you cannot look after your 4 year old then social services will look after him until family can pick him up or you are well enough to do it.

But if he was so ill, and his excuses for flouting the rules was his concern for the welfare of his child, why then do a 30 mile drive to test your eyesight with your family in tow. It's just absurd. Even Allforit will have to rest his case for the defense now.

murpho999

I think this statement and performance will be the end of him.

Arrogance beyond belief.

devnull

namloc1980 wrote: »

Drove 30 miles with his family to check his eyesight was ok to drive to London! That's comical stuff. He's having a laugh.

So he drove that far just in case but say his wife didn’t have COVID symptoms.. so what was the need to drive “just in case”

Changing his story again......

robinph

Since when has a day trip been counted as a way of testing your eyesight?

Panthro

Look out the window. Can you read the car reg? No? Stay put.

wish i was able to watch this. Sounds like he is digging a hole. Its like the Simpson's episode "dig up, dig up!!!"

Kermit.de.frog

He drove 30 miles to test his eyesight. lol.

He is taking the pee here I think.

Seth Brundle

Correct me if I'm wrong but am I correct in thinking that so far he has not apologised for any of his actions?

Atlantic Dawn

The table he is sitting at is gas, like something you would use for wallpapering the living room.

Boris must be bricking it if this is going as bad as it sounds like

J Mysterio

dfx- wrote: »

Probably to announce that he has full faith in Boris and he will be a great PM under his tutelage.

The headlines tomorrow will now be this statement...it falls into another day. Has a Special Advisor ever been given a televised statement to explain himself? PM and cabinet going out to bat for them and still it hasn't worked?

Nicely encaspulated there.

Truly a bizarre moment, particularly as the tabloid media and almost all Tories have swung against Cummings. WTF is going on?

Panthro

Oh Boris.
Please sack this geezer.

Igotadose

Ooh. He admits to NOT seeking medical advice before going. The arrogance is strong in this one.

Call me Al

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but am I correct in thinking that so far he has not apologised for any of his actions?

LOL No!
Of course not.
He was never going to apologise.
Thats not his mindset.

BonnieSituation

robinph wrote: »

Beth Rigby just gave him an easy out of "should you have done different" and he still didn't take it.

Snap.

I posted that over in the British General Politics thread.

It was such a lay up.

---

This whole presser has been a disaster. It would have been better to not bother.

Igotadose

Panthro wrote: »

Oh Boris.
Please sack this geezer.

He's not that old!

ChikiChiki

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but am I correct in thinking that so far he has not apologised for any of his actions?

You are indeed correct. He will not even go a small bit of the way and admit regret.

ACitizenErased

Petrol question caught him.

devnull

robinph wrote: »

Since when has a day trip been counted as a way of testing your eyesight?

So let me get this right.

They're ill so they need help with their child, but still fit enough to drive 260 miles without a break, which would mean driving around 4 hours without a break which itself is not really advised. Generally you're supposed to break every 4 hours.

This was based on the fact both of them could get ill, but neither of them had coronavirus symptoms, but because they might then this was an excuse to do this drive.

He also decide, despite acknowledging he had vision issues, to drive his car for half an hour each way to test his eyesight on a public road.

Should someone with these kind of issues be driving at all?

threeball

He can remember every stop by a river and who he saw when out for a walk but can't remember if he stopped for petrol.

Call me Al

Oh this is not going well..

Igotadose

"How can you not feel apologetic towards them for undermining the rules you helped to create?"
"I feel sympathy but.... all I can do is repeat that my wife couldn't look after our child, I was surrounded by people with it or testing positive with it, I was ill the next day,..." but I won't apologize for my behavior.

robinph

DVLA need to revoke his licence.

Driving non stop to Durham. Driving for 30 minutes to test his eyesight.

Wife suddenly struck down with illness and highly likely the same will soon happen to him, yet hours of motorway driving was seemingly a good idea.

Patser

Igotadose wrote: »

Ooh. He admits to NOT seeking medical advice before going. The arrogance is strong in this one.

Also saying he's never been tested for coronavirus - despite working in close vicinity of of Boris Johnson who was at that time seriously I'll with the virus....



And what about all the stuff his wife (and he) wrote in Spectator and blogs about coping with the virus

banie01

This presser by Cummings is a car crash.
It exposes him as either a moron with extremely poor judgement and decision making skills.
A moron whom is instrumental in shaping British government policy...

Or a fairly sociopathic individual who frankly doesn't give a fúck what the plebs think.
He is sorry that other people are upset, not that he acted like a dick.

Frankly this episode and BoJo's choice to stand by Don has completely undermined any position of moral authority the UK government may try to impose.

Igotadose

Igotadose wrote: »

"How can you not feel apologetic towards them for undermining the rules you helped to create?"
"I feel sympathy but.... all I can do is repeat that my wife couldn't look after our child, I was surrounded by people with it or testing positive with it, I was ill the next day,..." but I won't apologize for my behavior.

so he is asking for sympathy but not apologising. How does that work?

murpho999

This guy would be better off saying he shouldn't have done it, misinterpreted the rules, say illness and stress had impaired his judgement and he panicked and made the wrong decision, should not have done it and apologise.

Instead he's saying he's done nothing wrong and it's ok for him to break the rules he helped formulate and is totally unapologetic.

He's bringing himself and BoJo down here.

Harry Palmr

Imagine how much easier life would be if he'd just said in a statement "I regret my actions in retrospect I've needlessly created a confusion that is unhelpful at such a time" and then let Boris take a few days of heat that would have passed.

Malcolm Tucker would surely have plotted this out in detail.