Westminster Politics

noodlehair said:
I kind of wish I could believe that, but we're talking about someone in the public eye, who thought they could make a 260 mile trip in lockdown and pretend they didn't, and that no one would notice, and concluded that this wasn't a terrible idea.

I mean, no one could care less what I get up to but if I fecked off to Durham for a couple of weeks, people would probably notice.

There's just no way to spin it that doesn't lead back to the conclusion that Dominic Cummings is a bit of an idiot.
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It’s less idiotic and more incredibly arrogant, obviously thought he’d get away with it and he wouldn’t even need to explain himself if caught. That said, now he has been caught, I cannot believe the excuse he gave does not have some ulterior motive. He and the people around him cannot be that braindead.
 
BobbyManc said:
It’s less idiotic and more incredibly arrogant, obviously thought he’d get away with it and he wouldn’t even need to explain himself if caught. That said, now he has been caught, I cannot believe the excuse he gave does not have some ulterior motive. He and the people around him cannot be that braindead.
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There's a point at which idiocy and arrogance become the same thing and most of the time it's the second you start letting the arrogance dictate your behaviour or judgement.

It's really not that difficult for me to believe they are that braindead seeing as it's the sort of fumbling stupidity that's followed Boris around since, well, ever.

He hasn't ended up prime minister and Cummings hasn't ended up advising him because they are very smart people. They have ended up there because they latched onto a lie in immigration that was easy to sell and appeal to people. It's been quite a while now since British politics has had anything to do with being smart and I feel like all the time when people are analyzing these buffoons, they are looking for layers that just aren't there.

You're talking about people who think they can beat a world wide epidemic with some slogans rather than a plan. Just glorified apprentice contestants.
 
Smores said:
I wonder how much input Cummings had on the new PHE slogan? Given he knew he'd been caught and has been going to lengths to re-edit content since the initial enquiries weeks ago.

That's the question they should be asking because if there's any implication he's altered messaging to suit his needs that's as bad as the original offence.
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Aye this is a worrying thought. We know the journalists approached Cummings/Johnson a few weeks back for comment about this issue. Even if Cummings had a subconscious motive to adjust the advice for his own benefit, isn't that enough to be a serious issue?
 
noodlehair said:
There's a point at which idiocy and arrogance become the same thing and most of the time it's the second you start letting the arrogance dictate your behaviour or judgement.

It's really not that difficult for me to believe they are that braindead seeing as it's the sort of fumbling stupidity that's followed Boris around since, well, ever.

He hasn't ended up prime minister and Cummings hasn't ended up advising him because they are very smart people. They have ended up there because they latched onto a lie in immigration that was easy to sell and appeal to people. It's been quite a while now since British politics has had anything to do with being smart and I feel like all the time when people are analyzing these buffoons, they are looking for layers that just aren't there.

You're talking about people who think they can beat a world wide epidemic with some slogans rather than a plan. Just glorified apprentice contestants.
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Good point. Don’t get me wrong I’m not one of these people who buys into the ‘Cummings is a strategic genius’ narratives, and there is no 4D chess going on here. He has been stupid and arrogant. But on the specific point of the excuse about driving to test if he was blind...yeah I’m gonna draw a line there and say he’s not that stupid and assume it was a deflection technique, which judging by the reaction you’d have to concede has worked as well as it could.
 
noodlehair said:
The thing I don't get is that for someone who lies all the time, Cummings doesn't seem to know how a lie works. He had three days and managed to come up with a lie that was somehow not only completely unbelievable, but also worse and more irresponsible than any actual true reason why he might have visited a castle.

Examples of lies that would have been better and no less believable than "I wanted to check I could see properly"
- I like castles
- It was my wife's birthday
- I forgot I didn't live at the castle
- It's my first day
- Jeremy Corbyn did it
- What castle?

Then not only that but he throws some bonus lie in about predicting corona virus in his blog, which is basically akin to trying to claim you knew what the winning lottery numbers three weeks ago would be, but then played and somehow selected the wrong numbers anyway.
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He thinks he is genius. I think he thought the long-winded, outrageous story would confuse and distract from the core facts.
 
RedChip said:
He thinks he is genius. I think he thought the long-winded, outrageous story would confuse and distract from the core facts.
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Perhaps he is a genius? I mean he is the one still picking up a hundred grand a year of our tax money for such amazing insights as:

Take back controll
Get brexit done
Stay at home
And
Drive whilst blind
 
RK said:
Aye this is a worrying thought. We know the journalists approached Cummings/Johnson a few weeks back for comment about this issue. Even if Cummings had a subconscious motive to adjust the advice for his own benefit, isn't that enough to be a serious issue?
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Seems to be that the case, and now with Hancock reviewing (but not reviewing) the fines given to other people. Which just screams of rewriting the rules so much that it reeks. It also doesn't get rid of the anger from people who didn't break lockdown despite missing funerals, birthdays, and so forth, only for them to find out that whilst they were sacrificing these things the same cnut who orchestrated the plan telling them not to was doing it himself.
 
Silva said:
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I just looked at his twitter account and well..... There was huge outrage over Grenfell, and May’s ill-judged reaction helped destroyed what was left of her credibility after the hung parliament election. Although I think May is just awkward and shy rather than sociopathic like her successor.
 
Dobba said:
Lots out of past tense terms being used in regards to Grenfell. Nothing has happened with it, at all, to warrant the change to that tense.
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Fair. I guess part of the outrage for me was the lack of action. Though the entire thing was is appalling
 
Fingeredmouse said:
You're absolutely right. His actions are irrelevant. It's a witch hunt.
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Bollocks. It’s got nothing to do with political persuasion.
I can’t stand Cummings and despise what he stands for. But that is not the reason why I think this is such an important issue and why people are so angry about it. It’s the fact that people are being treated as mugs that makes them angry. People all over the country have been asked to make drastic sacrifices on a very personal & emotional level by this government. Yet one of the most important figures in government has breached their own rules and now the government is trying to deceive the public again with smoke & mirrors in order to protect his position. It’s dreadful and thankfully this time joe public isn’t falling for it.
 
This is the same Dominic Cummings who when confronted by an MP about the abuse they were receiving, said to them well you just need to ‘Get Brexit Done’. I must have missed his outrage when all of the MPs were getting daily abuse during the Brexit discussions.
 
Silva said:
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He is right and he is wrong.

He's right in that a lot of middle class middle England have followed lockdown rules impeccably, sometimes with huge emotional cost, hence why they have empathy to the issue, and Daily Mail has represented that view by coming out strongly against Cummings.

But from my memory, the immediate reaction to Grenfell was equally vociferous. The Government response was initially very badly co-ordinated, but I don't remember middle class middle England being nonplussed or negligent to the matter. Beforehand, most of the country wasn't even aware of such issues, but certainly not immediacy after the fire.
 
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Rams said:
Bollocks. It’s got nothing to do with political persuasion.
I can’t stand Cummings and despise what he stands for. But that is not the reason why I think this is such an important issue and why people are so angry about it. It’s the fact that people are being treated as mugs that makes them angry. People all over the country have been asked to make drastic sacrifices on a very personal & emotional level by this government. Yet one of the most important figures in government has breached their own rules and now the government is trying to deceive the public again with smoke & mirrors in order to protect his position. It’s dreadful and thankfully this time joe public isn’t falling for it.
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That was sarcasm in retort to the other poster. Perhaps I should use that wee roly eyed thing in future.
 
What's one of the more egregious things about the driving to check vision statement is how ludicrously dangerous it is from a medical perspective
Transient painless visual loss can be in some cases pretty nasty things (e.g. mini stroke - which is not exactly unheard of either in the context of covid). Michael Gove saying he had been told he was fit to return to work and thereby justifying the drive, pretty sure if he had mentioned the vision thing advice may have been a tad different
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaurosis_fugax
 
Northumbria Police has confirmed it received a report yesterday that Dominic Cummings was in Wooler, Northumberland, in April. The force is not investigating as there is "insufficient information to pursue this any further".

Downing Street denies it.
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Full bodied red said:
350,000 people are dead

The Western economies are trashed for decades to come

We're all or have been subjected to restrictions on our civil and professional liberties which have previously been unheard of outside world wars.

A man in the UK makes a 500 mile journey to his parents and the MSM and Joe Public go off-the-scale-apeshit.

It's a genuine pity that they and the nobodies on your list can't generate the same degree of anger towards Communist China for creating our current situation.
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Bit hyperbolic, no? Decades?
 
My instinct when seeing any Daily Mail stance is to go completely the opposite way.

If they are gunning fo Cummings to go, it'll be because some utter ERG cnut is in the wings wanting to influence the government to be even more gung-ho.

People should be wary of what is likely to happen if Cummings left. The immediate void would almost certainly be filled by something far worse than what it currently has.
 
groovyalbert said:
People should be wary of what is likely to happen if Cummings left. The immediate void would almost certainly be filled by something far worse than what it currently has.
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Is that even possible? I mean, I get the impression that Cummings is the kind of zealot who would actually advocate wiping out the human race and starting afresh. Maybe I'm totally wrong about that impression but, if I'm not, how could things get worse if he was gone?
 
Wolverine said:
What's one of the more egregious things about the driving to check vision statement is how ludicrously dangerous it is from a medical perspective
Transient painless visual loss can be in some cases pretty nasty things (e.g. mini stroke - which is not exactly unheard of either in the context of covid). Michael Gove saying he had been told he was fit to return to work and thereby justifying the drive, pretty sure if he had mentioned the vision thing advice may have been a tad different
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaurosis_fugax
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It’s as @Mr Pigeon intimated in an earlier post. It’s all bollocks.

No one in his family was sick, had bad eyesight or even caught covid19. They enjoyed a holiday on parents estate for 2 weeks, hot family dinners on same table every night, and went out often (Eg new claim about being in Wooler), only getting caught once at the castle.

More I think about it, they have gathered all evidence where they got caught and built a story which can’t be disproved around that. Hence why story is so disjointed and weird.
 
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SteveJ said:
Is that even possible? I mean, I get the impression that Cummings is the kind of zealot who would actually advocate wiping out the human race and starting afresh. Maybe I'm totally wrong about that impression but, if I'm not, how could things get worse if he was gone?
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I am by no means a fan, and find his drive for utter efficacy and "scientific" expertise incredibly uncomfortable as it totally forgoes any sense of duty or care a government should have to the most vulnerable in society.

However, there are still far-right, old-school Tory nut-jobs waiting in the wings to push through a far more brazen and archaic Brexit I feel. Again, this is a side of the argument I would never choose to align myself, but of those with access to number 10 and directly impacting the UK over the next 4.5 years, I fear the old-school ERG/JRM-mouthpiece mob far more.
 
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