Cummings testimony

[Northern_Brewer]

Cummings giving his evidence to the Commons committees is extraordinary. Live coverage at :
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/d919fbc9-72ca-42de-9b44-c0bf53a7360b
Most of the political correspondents live-Tweeted it to some extent, Ian Dunt of Politico was perhaps the most comprehensive (albeit a bit sweary)



https://twitter.com/search?q=(from:paulwaugh) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:kateferguson4) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:benrileysmith) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:dansabbagh) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:Kevin_Maguire) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:peston) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&src=typed_query&f=livehttps://twitter.com/search?q=(from:BethRigby) until:2021-05-27 since:2021-05-26&f=live
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-57245479https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ic-cummings-boris-johnson-covid-evidence-pmqshttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...ic-cummings-news-covid-lockdown-variant-pmqs/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ummings-news-live-boris-johnson-b1853981.html

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Will there be any resignations or sackings or the PM and Hancock forced out ? Of course not, by their incompetence and Cummings they have been responsible for so many unnecessary extra deaths.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Covid: Thousands died who didn't need to die, says Dominic Cummings Covid: Thousands died who didn't need to die, says Dominic Cummings

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have moved these posts here from the Covid next stage thread so members can discuss what has been said today.

 

[Polcho]

I see Cummings admins to being incompetent and partly responsible for lots of deaths. So arrest the twit then!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Thousands of people died needlessly as a result of government mistakes in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Dominic Cummings has claimed.
The PM's former chief aide said Boris Johnson had initially dismissed Covid as a "scare story" and said the UK had been too slow to lock down.
And he claimed Health Secretary Matt Hancock had lied on multiple occasions and should have been fired.
"Tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die," said Mr Cummings.
In a marathon seven hour evidence session, Mr Cummings said: "The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this."

He added: "I would like to say to all the families of those who died unnecessarily how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes at that."
Mr Cummings - who was forced out of Number 10 at the end of last year after an internal power struggle - said those on the front line of the pandemic were like "lions" being "led by donkeys".
But he claimed Mr Johnson had told him he liked to be surrounded by "chaos" in Downing Street, because it meant everyone had to look to the PM "to see who is in charge".
Asked if he thought Mr Johnson was a "fit and proper person" to get the UK through the pandemic, Mr Cummings replied: "No."

 

[Chippy_Tea]

So he went to Durham becuase his family had been threatened i wonder why he didn't mention that at the time i smell BS here.



Dominic Cummings' controversial trip to County Durham during lockdown was due to security threats, not just childcare reasons, the ex-No 10 aide has said.
Speaking to MPs, Mr Cummings said he moved his family out of London after his wife received death threats from a gang of people outside his home.
He said not explaining this at the time was "a terrible, terrible mistake".
He described the episode as "a major disaster for the government" which had "undermined public confidence".


However, appearing before the Health and Science committee on Wednesday, Mr Cummings said he had first moved his family out of the home for six weeks in autumn 2019 following security threats.
He then said that on 25 February he received a call from his wife who told him "there was a gang outside the family home saying 'they're going to break into the house and kill everybody inside'."
He continued, saying that on 22 March a "fake quote" appeared in a news story "saying I was happy for everyone to die".
"After that weekend I then said to my wife...we've got to get out here by Friday - it had already been decided that I was going to move my family out of London regardless of Covid rules."
When, in May, the story emerged that Mr Cummings had left London, he said "the prime minister and I agreed that because of the security things, we would basically just stonewall the story and not say anything about it."

 

[Random Badger]

So he went to Durham becuase his family had been threatened i wonder why he didn't mention that at the time i smell BS here.



Dominic Cummings' controversial trip to County Durham during lockdown was due to security threats, not just childcare reasons, the ex-No 10 aide has said.
Speaking to MPs, Mr Cummings said he moved his family out of London after his wife received death threats from a gang of people outside his home.
He said not explaining this at the time was "a terrible, terrible mistake".
He described the episode as "a major disaster for the government" which had "undermined public confidence".


However, appearing before the Health and Science committee on Wednesday, Mr Cummings said he had first moved his family out of the home for six weeks in autumn 2019 following security threats.
He then said that on 25 February he received a call from his wife who told him "there was a gang outside the family home saying 'they're going to break into the house and kill everybody inside'."
He continued, saying that on 22 March a "fake quote" appeared in a news story "saying I was happy for everyone to die".
"After that weekend I then said to my wife...we've got to get out here by Friday - it had already been decided that I was going to move my family out of London regardless of Covid rules."
When, in May, the story emerged that Mr Cummings had left London, he said "the prime minister and I agreed that because of the security things, we would basically just stonewall the story and not say anything about it."

I've not been watching it live, but when I heard about that claim I thought the same. However, if he can't prove it's true then that seems incredibly risky e.g. if there is CCTV or police/protection service surveillance evidence to the contrary.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If it is true why didn't he say this when it happened it would have saved him a lot aggro.

 

[Hanglow]

Further confirmation of the utter ineptitude of a conservative government whose obvious failures, at the time pointed out too, caused more civilian deaths in the UK than WW2.

No doubt they will pull further ahead of labour in the polls now, such is the English electorate

 

[Chippy_Tea]

No doubt they will pull further ahead of labour in the polls now, such is the English electorate

If I voted Tory I wouldn't switch to labour because mistakes were made when a never seen before pandemic hit the world, we will never know if labour would have handled it differently so why switch?

what do labour now offer the working class?

 

[Hanglow]

Replace labour with any other party then.....point still stands.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Replace labour with any other party then.....point still stands.

If they were to pull ahead of labour as you suggest they would automatically pull ahead of every other party so i am not really sure what point you are making.

 

[Hanglow]

Yeah thanks for demonstrating part of the problem.

 

[Random Badger]

If I voted Tory I wouldn't switch to labour because mistakes were made when a never seen before pandemic hit the world, we will never know if labour would have handled it differently so why switch?

There's a lot that could be said in specific response to that regarding why Labour would arguably have been less likely to make the same mistakes as the Tories in the pandemic, but in general terms isn't the whole point of our adversarial political system that you punish failure and vote out a corrupt/inept/failing government and give someone else a go? One of the big reasons for Brexit was supposed to be that our leaders should be accountable to British voters so we can kick them out if they mess up.

 

[moto748]

What's that quote, "Sir, there is no settling the point of precedence between a louse and a flea".

Pretty much how I feel about Johnson and Cummings. Johnson must have known that Cummings would rat on him if it suited; yet he went and backed him to the hilt over Barnard Castle. Which says everything about the PM's judgement.

 

[Pavalijo]

I’m going to wait for the results of the independent public enquiry before jumping to any conclusions - other than:
1) Cummings is a first rate tw*t and I don’t trust him;
2) Johnson is a clown;
3) Hancock seems like a good guy, hard worker, and will be given the benefit of my doubt unless and until proven otherwise;
4) No other gaggle of politicians would have done any better to a material extent without totally trashing the economy and putting us back to the dark ages.

 

[moto748]

One of the big reasons for Brexit was supposed to be that our leaders should be accountable to British voters so we can kick them out if they mess up.

That's not a reason, it's an excuse. British politicians are no more (or less) accountable to the GBP because of Brexit than they were when we were in the EU.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

There's a lot that could be said in specific response to that regarding why Labour would arguably have been less likely to make the same mistakes as the Tories in the pandemic, but in general terms isn't the whole point of our adversarial political system that you punish failure and vote out a corrupt/inept/failing government and give someone else a go? One of the big reasons for Brexit was supposed to be that our leaders should be accountable to British voters so we can kick them out if they mess up.

Well if the voting public decide the government mishandled their part in a global pandemic then mishandled the lock down and the vaccination program they have the means to vote for change.

If there was an election next month i wouldn't vote Labour and as i will never vote conservative (my Dad and Grandad would be spinning in their graves) i guess i wouldn't vote, Labour need to get their act together and fast.

 

[Pavros]

Why should people believe this self-serving individual now?

His trip to Durham was the main factor in everyone losing confidence in the government's lockdown message.

He thought he was the ultimate svengali who pulled all the strings but now says no one listened to him.

Johnson was useful to him to 'get Brexit done' but is only now an incompetent imbecile. Cummings likes Raab and Sunak but not Hancock - I wonder which one is not the Brexiteer?

It was obvious to most people from the start that Hancock was going to be the sacrificial lamb and was going to be sacked once he had served his purpose.

I don't know what is new about Cummings' statements other than he is trying to distance himself from everything and is trying to be the good guy. It won't work.

Things might have been different had Johnson sacked him within 24 hours of Barnard Castle but then the government would have been rudderless as everything had to be run past Cummings.

It almost makes Sajid Javid look like a good guy for standing up to Cummings and resigning as chancellor (except I'm not sure he would have coped as well as Sunak). Javid also called for the islamophobia review during the leadership contest, mainly as a dig at Johnson and his letterboxes comment.