Pablo- Registered: 21 Mar 2018
- Posts: 614
If they maintained social distancing when he ‘visited her at her constituency home’ then he must be a big boy indeed.
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Jan Higgins wrote:Not sure why he would, she has at least shown some integrity, even if she was pushed, unlike (I was not in the wrong) Cummings.
Jan it has been decreed by the police that he did not break the rules, yet has been hounded ceaselessly for over a week with demands he is sacked or resigns.
Rosie fessing up before the Sunday papers come out is not a sign of integrity, integrity would have been not getting involved with a married father of 3.
Arte et Marte
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,879
Maybe not legally broken but morally for all those who have not left home to test their eyesight by going on a long journey to a distant beauty spot.
Regarding Rosie's love life I have no idea why the marriage broke up, these things happen, so was not judging her on that aspect.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Jan Higgins wrote:Maybe not legally broken but morally for all those who have not left home to test their eyesight by going on a long journey to a distant beauty spot.
Rosie breaks the rules twice (both legally and morally) and receives congratulations for her integrity.
Surely they should receive comparable condemnation for the their behaviour or we are applying the same double standards to our own behaviour as Cummings is being accused of.
Personally i couldnt care less about either of them obeying the rules as long as they are good at the job they are payed to do , and both seem to be, so i would sooner see them being allowed to get on with it.
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Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,102
'However, friends of his wife, with whom he has three children, said she is ‘heartbroken’ by the break-up. The family home was a £400,000 property two miles from Ms Duffield’s constituency office. A friend of Mr Routh’s wife told the MoS: ‘His wife had no idea this was coming. She didn’t know anything and thought her husband was happy'.
What a total sh1t.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
I can see how the conversation went:
Senior Downing Street source: 'Put this on the front page will you'.
Mail on Sunday political editor: 'Right you are, Dom'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372911/Boris-puts-Dominic-Cummings-chance-one-witness-admits-sighting-aide.html
But really, this shows just how quickly the fanatics in government have managed to embed the practice of denunciation in everyday behaviour by creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. I could hear the Stalinist applause when Hancock announced that squealing was now a 'civic duty', one to be enforced with a financial penalty if we didn't 'behave'.
Expect a compulsory online 'Naming Names' beginners' course for dissenters, followed by 'Intermediate Informing', and maybe an 'Advanced Narking' option for those who've found their metier. And for the younger dobbers, there'll be 'Gruffalo Grasses up the Mouse', 'How to Train Your Snitch', and 'Harry Potter and the Perfect Peach'.
‘
What worries me at present is the uncertainty as to whether the ordinary people in countries like England grasp the difference between democracy and despotism well enough to want to defend their liberties. One can’t tell until they see themselves menaced in some quite unmistakeable manner.' Orwell
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Reggie - your man of integrity.
1. Dominic Cummings, one of the few men to have ever been found in contempt of Parliament, moved onto contempt for everything.
2. When the story broke, and he was accused of doing things that look bad, he said he didn't care how things looked.
3. Then ministers said press outrage meant nothing, only the opinion of the people mattered.
4. Then polls showed 52% of people wanted Cummings to resign.
5. So Cummings decided to show the public some respect, by turning up 30 minutes late to make his explanation.
6. He began by saying he wasn't speaking for the govt, which must be why he was in the Rose Garden of 10 Downing Street.
7. Then the self-styled "enemy of the Islington media elite" said his wife, who works in the media, had been ill in their house in Islington.
8. But she was only a bit ill, so he popped home, got himself nice and infected, then went back to Downing Street for meetings with lots of vitally important people in the middle of a national crisis.
9. But then he got ill too, so then it was suddenly important.
10. Sadly he couldn't get childcare in London, even though 3 immediate relatives live within 3 miles of his London home.
11. So because he was carrying a virus that can cross a 2 metre distance and kill, he immediately locked himself in a car with his wife and child for 5 hours.
12. He then drove 264 miles without stopping in a Land Rover that gets maybe 25 MPG.
13. Then the scourge of the metropolitan elites made himself extra-relatable by describing his family's sprawling country estate, multiple houses and idyllic woodlands.
14. He explained that he'd warned about a coronavirus years ago in his blog.
15. Then it was revealed he actually secretly amended old blogs after he'd returned from Durham (I have a very interesting technical analysis as to how this ridiculous attempt to con the public was discovered).
16. And anyway, if he'd warned years ago, why was he so massively unprepared and slow to react?
17. Then he said he was too ill to move for a week.
18. But in the middle of that week, presumably with "wonky eyes", he drove his child to hospital.
19. Then he said that to test his "wonky eyes" he put his wife and child in a car and drove 30 miles on public roads.
20. Then it was revealed his wife drives, so there was no reason for the "eye test", because she could have driven them back to London.
21. Then it was revealed the "eye test" trip to a local tourist spot took place on his wife's birthday.
22. Then cameras filmed as he threw a cup onto the table, smirked and left.
23. And then it emerged his wife had written an article during the time in Durham, describing their experience of being in lockdown in London, which you'd definitely do if you weren't hiding anything.
24. A govt scientific advisor said "more people will die" as a result of what Cummings had done.
25. Boris Johnson said he "wouldn't mark Cummings " down for what he'd done.
26. The Attorney General said it was ok to break the law if you were acting on instinct.
27. The Health Minister said it was OK to endanger public health if you meant well.
28. Johnson said Cummings' "story rings true" because his own eyesight was fine before coronavirus, but now he needs glasses.
29. But in an interview with The Telegraph 5 years ago, Johnson said he needed glasses cos he was "blind as a bat"
30. Michael Gove went on TV and said it was "wise" to drive 30 miles on public roads with your family in the car to test your eyesight.
31. The DVLA tweeted that you should never, ever do this.
32. Then ministers started claiming Cummings had to go to Durham because he feared crowds attacking his home. The streets were empty because we were observing the lockdown.
33. And then a minister finally resigned.
34. Steve Baker, Richard Littlejohn, Isabel Oakeshott, Tim Montgomerie, Jan Moir, Ian Dale, Julia Hartley Brewer, 30 Tory MPs, half a dozen bishops and the actual Daily Mail said Cummings should go.
35. The govt suggested we can ignore them, because they're all left-wingers.
36. Then a vicar asked Matt Hancock if other people who had been fined for doing exactly what Cummings did would get their fine dropped. Matt Hancock said he'd suggest it to the govt.
37. The govt said no within an hour. Cummings' statement had lasted longer than that.
38. And if the guidelines were so clear, why were people being stopped and fined for driving to find childcare in the first place?
39. Then a new poll found people who wanted Cummings sacked had risen from 52% to 57%.
40. Cummings is considered the smartest man in the govt
41. And in the middle of all this, in case we take our eye off it: we reached 60,000 deaths. One of the highest per capita death rates worldwide.
Do you wonder that the press followed a story of rank hypocrisy? Do you wonder that we are the laughing stock of so many other countries?
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Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
When did I say he had any integrity?
Arte et Marte
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,102
1. UK banks warn up to half of the £18.5bn of “bounce back” coronavirus loans are unlikely to be repaid and are lobbying the chancellor to prepare for the collapse of hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
https://t.co/swbb0SKirx via @financialtimes
2. Yes, but Dominic Cummings ....
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
Yes, but they're both government performances. Johnson should have asked Wolfgang Bartschelly how to keep all his plates spinning.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Reginald Barrington wrote:When did I say he had any integrity?
Oh please. Are you seriously denying the implication in your previous post?
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Captain Haddock wrote:1. UK banks warn up to half of the £18.5bn of “bounce back” coronavirus loans are unlikely to be repaid and are lobbying the chancellor to prepare for the collapse of hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
https://t.co/swbb0SKirx via @financialtimes
2. Yes, but Dominic Cummings ....
1. Indeed. Many think that the FT's estimates might be on the cautious side. So was 'dishy' wrong in effectively nationalising the lion's share of the economy? And how will we negotiate our way out of it? Time for some grown-up government. Is 'laughing boy' capable of that?
2. A friend emailed me with the question why is the government so keen to reduce lockdown in the face of so much science based doubt as to its wisdom. 'I don't know', I replied. This was his answer.
a. To deflect from Dominic Cummings
b. To deflect from Dominic Cummings
c. To deflect from Dominic Cummings
d. To deflect from fatal errors on testing, PPE, care homes and having the highest excess mortality rate over historical average in the world
e. To deflect from Dominic Cummings
Many a true thing said in jest, eh? The serious point is, of course, that the Cummings debacle has damaged the government's reputation in a way that some consider irredemable. It was interesting that a few cabinet members had the perspicacity to keep their own counsel on the matter. You would expect lifelong lickspittles like Gove and Williamson to rally to his 'defence', however inane their plaintive musings were. But Sunak? Of course, our Natalie continues to toe the party line like an established sycophant.
The problem for so many is that a myth has been shattered. Quite apart from supposedly being the cleverest man in government, Cummings behaviour has been so hapless that many are beginning to wonder if he possesses anything resembling a brain at all. The master at reading and manipulating public opinion is looking rather foolish. What fun!
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,879
I would like to know who advised, back when this pandemic was in the very early stages, that we allow potentially virus carrying people into the country from abroad instead of isolating them.
So many lives could have been saved but I suppose nobody really understood how bad things would get and when they did it was far too late.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,706
To be brutally honest it has progressively become clear that this has been an overblown crisis to say the least
The current uk numbers are:
Case rate (i.e. reported and confirmed infections) per million - 4049 (i.e. 0.4% of the population)
Death rate per million - 567 (i.e. 0.06% - this is on not even close to what we would expect to see with seasonal flu)
Testing rate per million - 63158 (6.3%)
The average across the whole world (recognising the quality of reporting and/or data from some countries is of dubious quality)
Case Rate per million - 807 (0.08%)
Death Rate per million - 48 (0.005%)
To date with most Far Eastern countries showing little or no new infections or deaths and Western Europe looking like it is past peak infection one has to ask what next and start to think about reviewing if the cost of the restrictions was really worth it?
Sweden who chose a slightly different path is still marginally better than the UK (cases 0.37% deaths 0.046% - so one could argue that restrictions made little or no difference, yet Norway, Germany, Iceland etc who imposed much tougher restrictions are also better than us.
In the UK we have seen 22,000 more deaths (after excluding CoVid 19 reported deaths) than we woul normally have expected was this a price worth paying?
8.4m people are having their wages paid by the state with the consequent impact on state debt.
Many SME's and larger businesses have been propped up by loans and grants from government; a fair few with little hope of survival post the return to some semblance of normality thus leaving the state to pick up the debt as well as JSA/UC for those who lose their jobs (current BoE estimate 1.5-2m workers)
Was this a price worth spending the next 60+ years paying?
I dont know the answers but we need to start a sensible conversation and inquiry into what happened, why etc.
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"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,102
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
ray hutstone wrote:Cummings behaviour has been so hapless that many are beginning to wonder if he possesses anything resembling a brain at all. The master at reading and manipulating public opinion is looking rather foolish. What fun!
The thing is, ask the wrong question and you get the wrong answer. Try putting Cummings alongside Christine Calderwood, Neil Ferguson, Rosie Duffield, Chris Cuomo, Prince Joachim et al, and the answer is, like Poe's purloined letter, hidden in plain sight. (Clue: it's not haplessness.)
Re #713:
'
14. He explained that he'd warned about a coronavirus years ago in his blog.
15. Then it was revealed he actually secretly amended old blogs after he'd returned from Durham.'
Yes, if only, as with the Ministry of Truth, you could amend and reprint, and pop the original in the memory hole for incineration.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,102
And back to Cummings! Dunno about Islington, I think he inhabits your head!
Do you dream of him? Has he got his clothes on or not? Is this the love that dare not speak its name?
Get over it. Move on. There's serious sh1t going on.
(Btw, now Thursday's freed up from clapping for our wonderful NHS can we all go down on one knee for Floyd? I really enjoyed his fish cookery)
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,071
Captain Haddock wrote:There's serious sh1t going on.
By George, he's got it!
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
This should get you huffing and puffing!
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
ray hutstone wrote:Oh please. Are you seriously denying the implication in your previous post?
This implies he has integrity? What planet are you on this time?
"Surely they should receive comparable condemnation for the their behaviour or we are applying the same double standards to our own behaviour as Cummings is being accused of."
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Arte et Marte