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The phrase of trial by media is pertinent from the last couple of days. I may only be in the adolescence phase of reading law, but I am sure in the fact that convictions come from trial by judge and jury and not by Owen Jones.
I will be clear. Dominic Cummings did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. Mary Wakefield, who writes for The Spectator and is the Svengali’s wife, said that her husband was confined to his bed for 10 days with severe breathlessness. She was of the belief that he should have been hospitalised with his condition worsening over time, but he refrained from doing so, fought it thankfully, and went back to work as soon as possible a little after the Prime Minister recovered from his blissful country retreat.
“Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours”. A quote that should be emailing to every journalist in the country after this fiasco. This should not really be aired on a public forum but to prove his innocence, it seems it must. Dominic and Mary’s child has a form of autism. The government issued guidance on April 9th saying that ‘you can leave your home to travel beyond your local area if this is important for your mental health’, and ‘they do not have to stay the two metres apart with social distancing’.
Not only had Dominic and Mary contracted the virus and became severely ill, one of their children has a diagnosis of autism. Autism is a wide spectrum, as I should know. You can be perfectly fine and manage your life perfectly, with occasional bouts of issues, or you can be rather severe and have many complications. It is not my, your or anyone else’s business to know the ins and outs of Mr Cummings’s child health, but this could have been a factor in why they moved.
The pair also had to decide how can they best look after their children and allow our children to, e.g. go on a walk or play for their mental health, whilst having to self-isolate indoors for 14 days minimum. They concluded that they would move to Mr Cummings’ parents’ residence in Co. Durham. One would imagine that they made the judgment call on their personal belief that it would be the best for their children and themselves.
They go and stay in a separate residence on their parent’s estate and self-isolate. They subsequently recover and go on a few trips to nearby Barnard Castle. I remember visiting Barnard Castle last year, just thought I would mention that if you ever are walking onto the high street, a visit in the antique shop is rather blissful. The whole family, all recovered, return to London and back to work.
I am truly struggling to see the issue here. He used his personal judgment about his risk to his children, the recent death of his father’s brother – whose mental health would have been boosted seeing his grandchildren – and the wellbeing of his own son. This is what any normal father would do.
This whole saga then gets lynched upon by the old Brexit dogs within the Tory Party who try to ruin the reputation of Dominic. I do not believe that their treachery was sincere at all. They have never liked him since he brandished them all as dysfunctional idiots, which the votes on Mrs May’s treaty proved to be handsomely correct. I am surprisingly disappointed in Steve Baker, however. I thought he may have been the light in the sea of banshees within the Spartan ranks that may have had some intelligence and could see that without Dominic, the whole Number 10 operation would crumble and fade.
The irony is that those who were outside Mr Cumming’s house, ‘journalists’ I believe, were not even obeying the guidelines that they were there to question him apparently breaking them himself. The hypocrisy from everyone is beyond belief.
I do not trust anyone who has said they have held to lockdown laws, by the letter. There have been many liberal interpretations by the public on how to behave themselves and now they are acting like the world’s Moral Maiden in this situation. The case for the prosecution has been quite handsomely defeated and he is free to go.
I look forward to his elevation to the House of Lords when the Prime Minister retires. He is one of the good guys.
I agree totally. This witch hunt, for that’s what it us now that Blair’s dodgy dossier author is being invited by the BBC to demand Cummings’s resignation, and busybodies are reporting his movements to the new stasi, must end.
We left the EU. Get over it.
Boris won’ the election. Get over that too.
Whilst my stance before his statement was defend Cummings, his own statement shifted my perspective.
Yes, for ordinary people, under the circumstances, if there was a facility available to isolate in one of three farm houses as compared to being holed up in a London house, there are merits in the argument to go North.
There are however two key decisions that open up questions, as well as his role and the environment in which he was working.
He is to be commended on a performance worthy of a SpAd, out-Campbelling a model for spin. For someone in such a role, what is left unsaid is perhaps more important that what has been said.
In the environment, his boss has already gone down with coronavirus symptoms, his wife was also showing such symptoms. As was later shown, he was a high risk and went down with it himself. His own endorsement was to “stay at home”. He was also in the ideal place to establish how quickly the onset of symptoms is likely to affect one’s own abilities.
We do not know if Cummings himself had shown any symptoms when making the decision to drive North, whether this was a deliberate omission or not. What we do know is that he claimed to have symptoms the day after he arrived in County Durham (if not before).
Among his wife’s symptoms were vomiting. He made the decision to take the five hour drive, presumably in the knowledge of the probability that the need would arise to stop. It is an omission whether the journey was made in one stint or how many stops were made.
It would undoubtedly have crossed his desk that facilities have been made available for hauliers and other employees who needed to drive should have stopping facilities available. Commercial health and safety requirements typically suggest that on a journey of that length, two stops should be made.
In short, such stops may create the risk of passing on the virus. Impairment of ability to drive, through headache, fatigue, nauseous feelings and others make him a danger to both his family and other road users. His car becomes a lethal weapon through his own potential negligence.
The second key decision was to test his eyesight and ability to drive. As an experiment, it was a risk Cummings stated that symptoms showed that he needed to take a break. His wife was in the car and one might assume she provided back up for the drive back to the farm.
The key omission is why such a caring, protective father should take such a risk of taking his son in the car when there were two nieces available to look after his son back at the farm, a journey that, if Cummings is to be believed, was not essential for his son even if it was dubiously essential for the father.
Finally, the red herrings. Steve Baker’s intervention highlights that this is not about Brexit. indeed, my own position is well documented. These incidents draw on different perspectives. Should he have made either journey, given the rules he had a hand in crating when at least his wife, if not he himself, were highly probably carriers, even if the farm had greater appeal.
On to the press, is it a red herring to show “journalistic” activity outside his house AFTER the story had broken?
The press have certainly been negligent failing to identifying the omissions and provide answers.
Cummings is of course welcome to respond as to whether or not the Barnard Castle trip was in breach of rules which he had a hand in creating. He is also welcome to elaborate on his calculation of the risk of both passing on coronavirus during the five hour drive (plus stops?) as well as to what extent symptoms may have been expected to make him a potentially mortal danger to other road users. me most certainly should explain why his son was part of the Barnard castle trip.