[ali k]

this sort of patronising, elitist bullshit is exactly why I would never spend my own money on a subscription. When the chips are down it gets on its knees for the government and it's pathetic.

You would have thought the opinion polls yesterday might give them a good indication that most people don’t want to ‘move on’ before Cummings has gone. 71% think he broke the guidelines and 59% that he should resign. Together with a 20 point drop in Johnson’s approval rating. But instead, as you say, the right wing press seems to think they can tell the public different. Is this the clearest example yet of them leading public opinion rather than representing it?

In other news my (Tory) MP replied to me yesterday saying he thought Cummings’ position was untenable. And yet he still hasn’t publicly expressed that opinion and in fact re-tweeted something defending Cummings the other day. Pathetic man.

[spidermonkey09]

I slightly disagree,  although I do wonder about their leader article.  Today the paper seems to have changed its tune on Cummings somewhat.  I agree that yesterday they seemed pretty isolated in trying to justify his behaviour.  All the papers have their  downsides,  the Times employs some really good writers, as well as some terrible ones. Matthew Parris used to be good about ten years ago,  but now hes unbearable, whereas David Aaronovitch, Phillip Collins and several others are really good.  The Guardian, for example employs the brilliant Jonathan Freedland and also a lot of utter bilge.

I know there are good writers and bad writers at all papers. Thats not the point. My point is that the Times editorial line is so clearly designed to try and smooth things over for the government its an embarassment, and people can see through it. Watch John Witherow get a honour in a few years time. Maitlis on Newsnight is how it should be done, and even the Mail is calling the government out. Whoever wrote that Times piece is a propagandist, not a journalist. Court jesters; they make me fucking sick.

Like many in the country this has angered me beyond belief and I would love Johnson or Cummings to walk down my road so i could tell them exactly what i think of them both. What we dont need is newspapers noshing them off instead in the hope of an honour down the line. Kudos to those doing their job and holding these charlatans to account. Nothing but disgust for those scrabbling around for a distraction.

[spidermonkey09]

this sort of patronising, elitist bullshit is exactly why I would never spend my own money on a subscription. When the chips are down it gets on its knees for the government and it's pathetic.

You would have thought the opinion polls yesterday might give them a good indication that most people don’t want to ‘move on’ before Cummings has gone. 71% think he broke the guidelines and 59% that he should resign. Together with a 20 point drop in Johnson’s approval rating. But instead, as you say, the right wing press seems to think they can tell the public different. Is this the clearest example yet of them leading public opinion rather than representing it?

In other news my (Tory) MP replied to me yesterday saying he thought Cummings’ position was untenable. And yet he still hasn’t publicly expressed that opinion and in fact re-tweeted something defending Cummings the other day. Pathetic man.

Worth screenshotting his response to you and tweeting it out yourself if you havent already.

[Bradders]

Haven't read the Times stuff but have kept a close eye on the Telegraph and even some of their coverage is now heavily hinting that he should go. Lead article covering the large number of Tory MPs now saying he should go, another headline "Another lie" about his amended blog claiming to have predicted the pandemic, and a columnist calling for him to say sorry but stay; this might have washed 5 days ago, but it's too late now.

[ali k]

In other news my (Tory) MP replied to me yesterday saying he thought Cummings’ position was untenable. And yet he still hasn’t publicly expressed that opinion

Worth screenshotting his response to you and tweeting it out yourself if you havent already.

I’ve forwarded his email on to ‘the media’. Will see what comes of it...

Edit. Has been picked up by at least one paper, whether they will/can do anything with it who knows.

[Nigel]

Given the damage to credibility this is causing, the question has to be why is he so indispensible?

It is obvious that you really dislike him...

No actually, I've no idea what he's like. Having not met him, I would naturally default to assuming he's a decent bloke. To be perfectly honest I had little interest in the story initially as at first it looked like the usual media witch hunt / Westminster gossip nonsense which we don't need in the middle of a crisis. That changed with his press conference.

I do dislike what he's doing, and by extension what integrity-destroying contortions his actions are forcing the government to do. At the risk of going over old ground, he gave his press conference from 10 Downing St. I'm sure other spaces were available, but as an unelected advisor he does it from the seat of the UK executive. Unusual. He then proceeds to give to the public the explanation that it is said is absolutely fine with the PM. To pick the most egregious example, he says he drove a 60 mile round trip with his family to check his eyesight was OK to drive. That, surely, is as transparent a lie as you can get. It is a direct challenge - either both he and the PM are full blown idiots who drive long distances to diagnose medical issues, and we are to believe we should be fine with that sort of judgement call from those in charge. Or he is sitting there at the heart of government live in broad daylight knowingly telling a ludicrous lie which no one in their right mind could possibly believe. My opinion is that its the second of these. You can theorise as to why he would do that, but to see this and then have it defended to the hilt by government who apparently *do* believe it is a very odd look. At the very least it raises questions of who exactly is holding power, and for what purpose.

he's really good at winning elections....

Maybe so historically. But I'm sure someone else would crop up sometime before the next GE in 4.5 years. Anyway, I doubt that distant election, or even the next local elections, are uppermost in his mind. He is not a Lynton Crosby character specially brought in at election time - he's chief political advisor to the PM. All the time. If his advice is indispensible to the degree of what we are seeing to shield him, then I would ask why our pandemic response has not been quite up to par. Given that he's a superforecaster, master of large projects, attends SAGE etc. Perhaps if this was explained clearly and truthfully we might all see that actually, of course we all agree that he is indispensible? As usual though, the route of bullshit piled on bullshit was chosen instead. At the clear risk of undermining all public health messaging up til now. That's the problem, not that I dislike him.

[SA Chris]

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1531630717011866

Pie has been let out

[ali k]

To pick the most egregious example, he says he drove a 60 mile round trip with his family to check his eyesight was OK to drive. That, surely, is as transparent a lie as you can get. It is a direct challenge

Yep, it's basically a big "fuck you" to the police. "Yeh, I broke the lockdown rules. What ya gonna do about it? My mate Johnson backs me up too so fuck you some more".

If I was the Chief Constable of Durham police I'd be incensed.

[Oldmanmatt]

Brexit was a good bit about dishonest propaganda, dirty tricks, breaches of election law and leveraging the fact the remain leaning middle classes foolishly labelled a good lump of the population as idiots and racists (only fair for a small minority). Dom's popularist exceptionalism was always on the edges of acceptability and law.

Yes that's the usual lefty mantra isn't it,  "they only win because they're lying cheats, we were betrayed by the middle class etc etc".

Or perhaps,  people like Cummings are plainly quite good at what they do.

I'd like to make it clear that I think he is a liar, Johnson should have sacked him, and that hes awful at the process of government.  But he is good at elections.

Ah, someone else who noticed that Labour’s failing for the last couple of decades, has always been the fault of the “Middle class” not thinking the way they “should”.....

[ali k]

The FT's legal writer goes through Cummings' statement line by line (If you have a spare 25mins).

https://www.ft.com/video/e82b5a00-3ad5-4d2c-9703-ff14942aa5b1

Summary: Written by lawyers to explain, or explain away, all the various bits of evidence and close down loose ends. No surprise, but interesting nonetheless.

[mrjonathanr]

Ah, someone else who noticed that Labour’s failing for the last couple of decades, has always bien the fault of the “Middle class” not thinking the way they “should”.....

Bourgeois false consciousness.

[sdm]

The FT's legal writer goes through Cummings' statement line by line (If you have a spare 25mins).

https://www.ft.com/video/e82b5a00-3ad5-4d2c-9703-ff14942aa5b1

Summary: Written by lawyers to explain, or explain away, all the various bits of evidence and close down loose ends. No surprise, but interesting nonetheless.

David Allen Green did the same live on twitter and came to the same conclusion. Along with every other lawyer I have heard opine on the subject, he also concluded that Cummings admitted to breaking the law. Cummings has to go, but not primarily because he broke the law.

He has to go for being instrumental in the inaction and and failed policies that have resulted in possibly the worst response worldwide to the greatest crisis of a generation.

60,000 people are dead who should be alive and more will follow. Many suffering painful, lonely, unnecessary deaths because he and others have failed at their job.

[mrjonathanr]

Rather bathetic, and I wouldn't normally link to this nnewspaper, but quite revealing:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/27/daily-star-dominic-cummings-mask-coronavirus-boris-johnson-adviser#img-2

[ali k]

Dido Harding: ”If you have one of the symptoms of coronavirus you must immediately self-isolate and book a test. Do not leave home for any other reason. If you’ve been in contact with an infected person, NHS test and trace will instruct you to self-isolate, even if you don’t have symptoms. You must follow the instructions.”

Hancock: ”It’s your civic duty to follow the instructions.”

This would have already been a big ask for people five days ago. What chance of anyone following instructions now?

[ali k]

Also, Hancock said “This is important. If you’re a contact of somebody who’s tested positive and you’re instructed to self-isolate, your household members don’t have to isolate - they can carry on under the normal guidelines”.

This doesn’t fucking make sense. So you get a call and are told to isolate. You go home to isolate. But members of your household just go into work as normal the next day while you’re waiting for your test results to come back? Then if you end up testing positive your household members wait for a call for them to isolate themselves.

That’s not breaking the chain - it’s just chasing contacts 24 or 48hrs after potential infections have happened. Or am I missing something?

[spidermonkey09]

Emily Maitlis shunted off Newsnight tonight. Apparently the BBC apology wasnt enough for the suits. I despair, we're being played. And its so obvious.

[SA Chris]

I was musing about this while out running. DC has been a right arsehole about this. If he actually gave a crap about Boris and the Tory party as a whole, he would have done the decent thing and resigned. As it now stands, he put Boris in a very difficult position, either sack him and be seen to be bowing to the left wing press, or not sack him and suffer the current consequences.

[ali k]

Cummings doesn’t care about the Tory party. That’s why he’s disliked by so many of its members and backbench MPs. He’s like a virus himself using the Tory party as a vector in order to achieve his goals. And I think Johnson is being played by him just as much as the rest of the country is.

[Oldmanmatt]

Cummings doesn’t care about the Tory party. That’s why he’s disliked by so many of its members and backbench MPs. He’s like a virus himself using the Tory party as a vector in order to achieve his goals. And I think Johnson is being played by him just as much as the rest of the country is.

Have you heard this rumour about Bozo supposedly having once got a bit squiffy and coming on to Cummings wife, up to and including naked willy helicoptering?
Obviously no clue of the veracity, just love the thought that Bozo lives in fear of “that” Spectator article coming out...

Edit:
Original tweet of rumour (by former Spectator journalist) now deleted, but it came out of this time/era (allegedly):
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-touching-charlotte-edwarde-dominic-cummings-wife-mary-wakefield-638727

I know, I know, rumour bad etc.
It’s mildly amusing.

[mrjonathanr]

_h

Emily Maitlis shunted off Newsnight tonight. Apparently the BBC apology wasnt enough for the suits. I despair, we're being played. And its so obvious.

Supine.

[TobyD]

I watched that Maitlis newsnight last night and thought it was pretty fair comment to be honest. I was rather surprised to find out anyone had objected.

The reporters extended piece showed in detail how contradictory Cummings account of events is, and how he did break the guidelines by any reasonable interpretation a number of times.

Listened to some of the committee questions to Johnson today, but too annoying to continue. It's always total piffle, no grasp of the most basic elements of detail or any attempt at appearing like he might give a shit about running the country.

Sadly, unless some enterprising journalist has more details on Cummings, I think it'll blow over by next week.

[TobyD]

Brexit was a good bit about dishonest propaganda, dirty tricks, breaches of election law and leveraging the fact the remain leaning middle classes foolishly labelled a good lump of the population as idiots and racists (only fair for a small minority). Dom's popularist exceptionalism was always on the edges of acceptability and law.

Yes that's the usual lefty mantra isn't it,  "they only win because they're lying cheats, we were betrayed by the middle class etc etc".

Or perhaps,  people like Cummings are plainly quite good at what they do.

I'd like to make it clear that I think he is a liar, Johnson should have sacked him, and that hes awful at the process of government.  But he is good at elections.

Ah, someone else who noticed that Labour’s failing for the last couple of decades, has always been the fault of the “Middle class” not thinking the way they “should”.....

Or them being betrayed by some section of the electorate. Happily, I can't see Starmer coming out with that sort of thing. I may be wrong, but he does actually seem like an effective politician

[ali k]

Emily Maitlis shunted off Newsnight tonight. Apparently the BBC apology wasnt enough for the suits. I despair, we're being played. And its so obvious.

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1265709657089343488?s=19

[tomtom]

Also from Carole Cadwollas twitter feed - the Government is paying for sponsored articles in the Mail... you know the ones that look like real articles but have a little sponsored bit right at the bottom.


£60k a pop a few years back.

[James Malloch]

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1265592505724256257

As James O’Brien pointed out. We’ve had tens of thousands of people buried without proper funerals.
We’ve now got, according to the FT, the highest excess death rate in the world.
The country is in uproar because the government won’t fire it’s advisor whom blatantly broke the rules.
Ministers are outright lying that they also would test their eyesight by driving.
Testing numbers have been artificially inflated (admitted now by government) - when I swabbed both my throat and nose, that was two tests, not one.
The government is using taxpayer money to pay for positive articles in the Daily Mail.

But, the chancellor is posting about the great news that Nando’s is reopening...