[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

No no you forget - you have to have responsibilities for a disabled dependent AND be the puppetmaster of a sad, scruffy, stumbling Prime Minister. THEN you can consider travelling around for childcare if you get ill.

It makes perfect sense I don't know why people are struggling with the concept.

Omg, I forgot about his other dependent.

[Tom4784]

He's a tory so it's okay for him to break the rules since tory supporters don't have standards and will only hold the opposing side accountable.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

He's a tory so it's okay for him to break the rules since tory supporters don't have standards and will only hold the opposing side accountable.

No more of a Maverick

[arista]

At Last Sam
just one Paper for you Lad

[The Slim Reaper]

https://www.ft.com/content/6aa50a68-...2-0526869b56b0

At least 1m people in Britain are estimated to have lost their jobs since March. Dominic Cummings is not one of them. That’s all you need to know about this week in British politics.

Or maybe it’s not. Maybe this week is one of those events that merit meticulous repeat viewing. We have seen Boris Johnson, the man who craved to lead the country, revealing that he can’t do the job without a chaperone. We have seen that chaperone, his chief adviser Mr Cummings, who has insulted the foresight of almost everyone else in politics, grubbily exaggerating his own superiority. Because the most amazing part of the Cummings saga is not his attempt to bankrupt opticians and car insurers with a new system of on-road eye tests. No, it is his attempt to mislead us all about his handling of coronavirus.

At Monday’s press conference, Mr Cummings played the Nostradamus of north London: “Only last year I wrote explicitly about the danger of coronaviruses.” Turns out it was a bit more complicated than that. Instead, last month, on Mr Cummings’ first day back at work after his Durham trip, one of his blogs from March 2019 was edited to add an express reference to coronavirus. History will be kind to Mr Cummings, for he intends to rewrite it.

I don’t like calling politicians liars, because it’s hard to know what’s going on inside their heads. You’re only lying if you say something you know to be untrue. Yet Mr Cummings has a track record in calculated misleading statements, such as, “We send the EU £350m a week” and, “Turkey (population 76m) Is Joining the EU”. I don’t want to call him a liar. But I also can’t say that he isn’t a liar. Because then I would be a liar.

I suppose Mr Cummings sees the truth as a civilian casualty in his offensive against the establishment. A non-exhaustive list of his targets includes: teaching unions, the civil service, anti-Brexit MPs, pro-Brexit MPs, the UK Statistics Authority, the CBI, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, a number of print publications, except the one his wife works for. Perhaps everybody else in Britain has to change so that Mr Cummings can stay the same, but it does seem like changing a lightbulb by screwing the whole world. There may be an easier solution.

Apparently Mr Cummings doesn’t respect any cabinet ministers. Then again, neither can anyone else, after seeing how they spinelessly defended him on national television.

The government now wants us all to move on, so that Mr Cummings doesn’t have to. But it’s not clear where it wants us to move on to. Downing Street’s mantra on the pandemic was once, “We took the right decisions at the right time”. It has since mutated to something more like, “We couldn’t take the right decisions because we were unprepared. Then we kept shaking hands, contracted the virus ourselves and were incapacitated”.

One of the best arguments against Brexit was the opportunity cost: leaving the EU would distract the government from more important tasks. Mr Johnson now admits we hadn’t learnt the lessons of the 2012 and 2015 Mers outbreaks. Who could have foreseen that?

Not Mr Cummings apparently. For all his love of super-forecasting, he couldn’t even predict that after driving 260 miles from London, across the length of the country, he might be recognised. Maybe when he championed blue skies ideas, he just meant the view at Barnard Castle.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” one of his idols, Warren Buffett, once said. Mr Cummings has been in politics for 21 years. “People like me who make the rules should be held accountable for their actions,” he said on Monday.

It bears repeating. At least 1m people in Britain are estimated to have lost their jobs since the start of lockdown, and Mr Cummings is not among them.

[arista]

[arista]

[Oliver_W]

I saw "resigned" on top of Twitter trending, and was like surely not! finally!

But no, it was a Labour MP who was having relationship troubles...

[Kazanne]

Originally Posted by arista

So many different stories coming out this is why I never take what the press says as fact .

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by arista

I want to know more about that tatler article

[Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I want to know more about that tatler article

We’d know all about it if it was Meghan...

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

So many different stories coming out this is why I never take what the press says as fact .

That's not really a different story. It's just saying that the guy who spotted him was also breaking lockdown rules. If he did invent story, then he guessed really well, because dom confirmed most of what was reported was true. His only issue was the 2nd journey back to Durham, nothing else is disputed.

Worth pointing out that both he and his wife also invented a story that was published in the spectator, that was just a bunch of made up stuff about how they stayed in London suffering.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Mitchell

We’d know all about it if it was Meghan...

[Liam-]

You mean, a royal is suing the press about an article she didn’t like? Whew, I’m sure people will be outraged about this right?

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

So many different stories coming out this is why I never take what the press says as fact .

She is the mirror journalist who broke the story.

[The Slim Reaper]

Part 2. Good to see folks learning the lessons of yesterday

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

Part 2. Good to see folks learning the lessons of yesterday

Oh well, bet some of them are the same people moaning it not safe to go back to work as well

[arista]

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by arista

Well, maybe some Remainers and people who are against the Tories are doing nothing more than using this as a stick to beat the party with ... so what? People of all political stripes use what they can. And sometimes ... they have a point.

Demonic Cummings is dry rot that needs to be excised.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by arista

The idea that anyone gives a stuff about Brexit at this point is far-fetched to say the least. I know people had a lot invested in it, and were very much enjoying that celebratory feeling of having achieved it, but those potatoes are now so small that you'd need a microscope to find them. I honestly can't believe he sat there, in June 2020, and with a deadpan straight face repeatedly used the word "remoaners"... honestly. I almost envy it. Imagine living in a world where that stuff is currently at the forefront of your mind.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Demonic Cummings is dry rot that needs to be excised.

The irony really is how many Tory supporters are up in arms to defend him... when the absolute best thing the Conservatives could do (for us and for themselves) is forget Dominic Cummings ever existed.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The irony really is how many Tory supporters are up in arms to defend him... when the absolute best thing the Conservatives could do (for us and for themselves) is forget Dominic Cummings ever existed.

It's really damaging their credibility. BoJo's handling of the coronavirus and response to this shows who he really is. He'd managed to maintain the image of a "good old boy" who'd probably be great fun down the pub for so long, but now he's actually PM the spotlight is showing it all.

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The idea that anyone gives a stuff about Brexit at this point is far-fetched to say the least. I know people had a lot invested in it, and were very much enjoying that celebratory feeling of having achieved it, but those potatoes are now so small that you'd need a microscope to find them. I honestly can't believe he sat there, in June 2020, and with a deadpan straight face repeatedly used the word "remoaners"... honestly. I almost envy it. Imagine living in a world where that stuff is currently at the forefront of your mind.

And he was also saying "Cummings Derangement Syndrome", and I forgot that people accusing others of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" was even a thing What a strange little world that bloke must live in, and people say it's "the left" who live in echo chambers.

[Liam-]

The cottage he ‘stayed in’ was also built without any planning permission and he doesn’t pay any council tax for it either, he’s an all round crook

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Liam-

The cottage he ‘stayed in’ was also built without any planning permission and he doesn’t pay any council tax for it either, he’s an all round crook

A farm getting farming subsidies is fine, as long as it's a functioning farm.

Building a cottage without planning permission and not paying council tax? Sheesh, how long can BoJo leave him unpunished?

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Liam-

The cottage he ‘stayed in’ was also built without any planning permission and he doesn’t pay any council tax for it either, he’s an all round crook

They'll have some excuse or other for this, they'll claim it's an outbuilding (like converting your garage into an office, I suppose... or having a large mobile home in your garden) and thus covered by different regulations / not subject to council tax. It won't have an "address" of its own, it will be linked to the electricity / gas supplies of the larger property it's in the grounds of, etc.

All of course just dodgy ways of getting around it clearly being a full purpose-built holiday home.