“THERE cannot be one law for the Prime Minister’s staff and another for everyone else”.
The words of Tory Brexit MP Steve Baker. He complained strongly that the Prime Minister’s senior advisor “keeps burning through Boris’s political capital at a rate we can ill afford in the midst of this crisis.”
Why on earth did Dominic Cummings travel 200 miles with coronavirus? One commentator queried: “Cummings did not have a single person in London who could drop food outside his door?” and asked if he is “the most friendless human being in the world?” More likely he is an extremely arrogant person who holds the rest of the country in total contempt. Normal rules and laws do not apply to him.
READ MORE: 'Breathtaking arrogance': Ian Blackford hits out at PM for supporting Cummings
His actions are the biggest problem yet for the government’s coronavirus strategy. A kick in the teeth to the millions who have struggled to cope with the limitations and mental issues of lockdown.
More important than the infected Cummings flouting the lockdown rules was the risk of them actually spreading the disease like some latter-day Typhoid Marys.
They put their own concerns above the health and well-being of ordinary law-abiding people who would not dream of ignoring the government guidelines, which Dominic Cummings himself had helped formulate to stop the spread of the virus!
Pete Milory
Trowbridge
SINCE lockdown was instigated grandparents have not seen grandchildren, people have died alone and funerals have been limited meaning that the departed could not be mourned properly.
This was rightly done to prevent an even greater outbreak than there could have been. People reluctantly accepted it having been told by the Tories we were all in this “together”.
READ MORE: PM says Dominic Cummings 'acted responsibly' in breaking lockdown
However it seems that Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings did not think the rules applied to him. When questioned by reporters about his decision to drive 260 miles to his parents’ home, he said he did not care how it looked as he had done nothing wrong. On cue, the Tory Cabinet and the BBC stenography crew all came out and defended Cummings. Using the same pious language. Even rewriting the rules to exculpate Cummings.
The self-important arrogance of the Tories is shocking but not surprising. After all, Cummings and his cronies think they are “better” than the masses. They believe in damaging the planet all so corporations can make more profits.
When Catherine Calderwood did something far less serious, the media and the Tories were screaming for her to go. Now not a peep. Cummings’s position is untenable. He won’t resign, however, and Boris Johnson won’t sack him as their fortunes are so intertwined.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
JUST listened to the Grant Shapps squirm-fest as he was savaged by Andrew Marr (imagine!), while hiding behind the four-year-old human shield provided by Dominic’s wee boy. It all boils down to this, I surmise: the blame, it’s plain, falls mainly on the wean.
Ian Duff
Inverness
READ MORE: FM hits out at Jackson Carlaw for refusing to condemn Boris Johnson
DID Dominic Cummings stop for petrol before he left London, or en route use any services and leave his virus along the way? Bad enough to break lockdown, but to do it while suffering Covid-19 is reprehensible. Surely some other arrangement could have been made for the child, or a parent could have come to them – or was he trying to promote his “herd” immunity theory? He should resign, but how come this has remained secret for so long? We’re in this together ha ha.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
CUMMINGS is the chief advisor of Boris Johnson. If the quality of his advice is as reliable as his behaviour, the decisions of his boss will reflect poor judgment and a disregard for the wellbeing of
all of the four nations, while demonstrating the Tory determination to be unguided by the needs of the “ordinary people”. Johnson retaining his services gives transparency to his party’s real, disguised attitude to those needs. Nothing changes!
John Hamilton
Bearsden
THANKS to Boris Johnson for illustrating so well in his excruciating press conference that he and his cronies are unfit to govern not only England but Scotland too.
In order to isolate you do not travel 250 miles. You do not get your wife to write suggesting you are still in London when you are nearly 300 miles away. Did he wear a respirator in the car, gloves? Did his car journey help infect him and others?
For the record, PM, Dr Calderwood did not have Covid-19, nor the rest of her family.
The silence from the cowardly Tories in Scotland is deafening. Do they agree with their leader? Who knows, for they will consider if their careers will be damaged should they speak out rather than put the health of the Scottish people first.
I sincerely hope they will be punished at the next election in Scotland.
Douglas Blair
via thenational.scot
I WOULD hope that the Tories in Scotland – Carlaw, Fraser etc – would be asked by the BBC if they condemn Cummings’s abuse of the lockdown rules. Will they call for his resignation? As I write, no response is forthcoming from Reporting Scotland or our government’s opposition. Where is Sarah Smith when we need her? I would guess that they will all keep their heads down until it all blows over. I challenge BBC Scotland to prove me wrong.
Keith Taylor
via email
DID Dominic Cummings advise Boris Johnson not to sack him?
Ann Leitch
via email
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