Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

here in the shire it appears fire is the weapon of choice against the virus , as a few sunny days and ill considered bbqs are go

special no prize to the funts that tried to set fire to the beach as whilst sand takes some burnation the dry grass the stablises the dunes is another thing

Things I’ve never seen, directly, with my own eyes.

1. A pilot flying a plane.
2. A submarine actually pootling about under the waves.
3. One of those big old cranes being put together.
4. An elevator being installed.
5. A sewer being installed
6. Puppies being born. Or indeed, anything being born.

So......conclusion?

Briefing in 5, 4, 3, 2, ...

Watching it now. Is someone ing in the background or is that just me?

nfe wrote:

At the very least, government explicitly lied about his father's interaction with police, then called the cops liars for saying otherwise, then decided that wasn't the case and that they spoke about something else as well as his presence in Durham so it doesn't count, and that seems worthy of at least a hint of curiosity?

It's probably torpedoed tons of fines handed out for breaking lockdown, so I imagine you're glad it's hit the news hard for that reason, if nothing else?

Well, I don't think those fines should have been handed out, point blank. But, I don't think a situation like this should be used to overturn them, they should just be overturned.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Watching it now. Is someone ing in the background or is that just me?

I noticed that. Sounded more like a horn to me. Wouldn't surprise me with the ignoramuses who walk around in society these days.

Well, I'll call it plausible.

I wouldn't be naive enough to think this couldn't possibly be a post hoc justification of the actions he knows he got caught out on, he's definitely had plenty of time to work on that statement.

But, I have to say there's enough that I find credible that I think it was ill advised but well meaning.

His wife’s sister lives two streets away.

As we say, not as we do, plebs.

Well, as I expected, the questions are clearly going to just be the same thing over and over, trying to wring an apology out of him. Hope he sticks to his principles.

Soo its all the media fault......unbelievable

Is there any actual update on recovery rates? Only right now the UK still doesn't seem to be having any and far as I can tell the big aggregate stats sites are still showing NA for recovery.



What little I could find in the media shows a few random values floating around on earlier dates, though one reported that one reason we don't have it is that the hospitals weren't recording recovery rates and that government wasn't up to merging out-of-hospital rates into it either.

Still no recovery rates as far as I'm aware. They were supposed to start publishing them last week.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mr Morden wrote:
Soo its all the media fault......unbelievable

What's all their fault? Not sure what you're driving at, but they certainly haven't acted with much dignity or respect over the last few days.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Still no recovery rates as far as I'm aware. They were supposed to start publishing them last week.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mr Morden wrote:
Soo its all the media fault......unbelievable

What's all their fault? Not sure what you're driving at, but they certainly haven't acted with much dignity or respect over the last few days.

Mr Cummings has made it clear that he belives that the only reason that anyone is annoyed that they have suffered is that the media found it out.

IMO the arrogance of the man is astounding esepcially when he seeks to claim loopholes.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
His wife’s sister lives two streets away.

What does that have to do with anything?

His point is that he went there because they could stay away from people, and where there was access to very low risk carers if it became needed.

Presumably taking his children to his sister would involve exposing her and her family. Equally I live near family, but it doesn't mean my house has the space to accommodate a small child if they needed one looked after.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mr Morden wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Still no recovery rates as far as I'm aware. They were supposed to start publishing them last week.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mr Morden wrote:
Soo its all the media fault......unbelievable

What's all their fault? Not sure what you're driving at, but they certainly haven't acted with much dignity or respect over the last few days.

Mr Cummings has made it clear that he belives that the only reason that anyone is annoyed that they have suffered is that the media found it out.

IMO the arrogance of the man is astounding esepcially when he seeks to claim loopholes.

No, he's saying that he believes a lot of the anger has been propogated by the media misrepresenting the facts.

Which is hardly surprising, he doesn't play the media game and one could hear the knives being sharpened the moment this story was barely a rumour.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
His wife’s sister lives two streets away.

What does that have to do with anything?

His point is that he went there because they could stay away from people, and where there was access to very low risk carers if it became needed.

Presumably taking his children to his sister would involve exposing her and her family. Equally I live near family, but it doesn't mean my house has the space to accommodate a small child if they needed one looked after.

Driving 250 miles is always a risk and potentially if there had been an acident, a breakdown etc he would have put others at risk.

Driving that distance when absolutely everyone was told not to and later finding loopholes to squirm through does not IMO make it right.

Well for a bumbling, non public speaker, he came out of that a lot better than most other public figures would have if faced with the same. Made it through their interrogation without being cowed into an apology. Respect.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
His wife’s sister lives two streets away.

What does that have to do with anything?

His point is that he went there because they could stay away from people, and where there was access to very low risk carers if it became needed.

Presumably taking his children to his sister would involve exposing her and her family. Equally I live near family, but it doesn't mean my house has the space to accommodate a small child if they needed one looked after.

Driving 250 miles is always a risk and potentially if there had been an acident, a breakdown etc he would have put others at risk.

Driving that distance when absolutely everyone was told not to and later finding loopholes to squirm through does not IMO make it right.

I've argued against unnecessary journeys ITT, for precisely that reason. The core of the issue is what one seems "necessary" or "unnecessary" is personal, and while I don't necessarily agree with his choices, I do believe he thought his actions necessary.

Plus I do believe there's an argument for getting his family away from his house given the way the press have behaved. The footage yesterday of the scrum doorstep ping him totally ignoring social distancing from him or each other were worse than anything he's been accused of, why wouldn't a husband and father want to get his family away from that?

In happier news, fewer than 100 deaths in the entirety of the UK yesterday, even allowing for the weekend dip, that's really positive.

Here's hoping this weeks peak can get under 500. The weekly deaths has been steadily lowering in general since around mid April.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
His wife’s sister lives two streets away.

What does that have to do with anything?

His point is that he went there because they could stay away from people, and where there was access to very low risk carers if it became needed.

Presumably taking his children to his sister would involve exposing her and her family. Equally I live near family, but it doesn't mean my house has the space to accommodate a small child if they needed one looked after.

Driving 250 miles is always a risk and potentially if there had been an acident, a breakdown etc he would have put others at risk.

Driving that distance when absolutely everyone was told not to and later finding loopholes to squirm through does not IMO make it right.

I've argued against unnecessary journeys ITT, for precisely that reason. The core of the issue is what one seems "necessary" or "unnecessary" is personal, and while I don't necessarily agree with his choices, I do believe he thought his actions necessary.

Plus I do believe there's an argument for getting his family away from his house given the way the press have behaved. The footage yesterday of the scrum doorstep ping him totally ignoring social distancing from him or each other were worse than anything he's been accused of, why wouldn't a husband and father want to get his family away from that?

In happier news, fewer than 100 deaths in the entirety of the UK yesterday, even allowing for the weekend dip, that's really positive.

I don't agre with anyone being mobbed by the press - however his claims seemed very dubious

I was not sure if I was fit to drive - so set off to a local beauty spot with my wife and kid in the car......
I was very ill so I drove 250 miles....
It was all the medias fault...
My second home was not a second home it was an empty building and not a very nice one.

Taking what he said today,

- he wasn't ill on either occasion when he drove 250 miles. He wasn't showing symptoms on the way up, he was recovering on the way back.
- he didn't blame the media exclusively, he did cite misreporting as a contribution to public reaction.
- it was his family home, he knew he could safely isolate with access to care in an emergency with low risk to the potential carers.

I agree that taking an apparent jolly to see how he held up to driving seems a little odd, but his apparent mental facepalm when a journo pointed out he could have just set out for home and turned back if necessary looked natural.

(oops, there was a in thread warning not to respond to this - sorry)

Generally, a very well written statement. Maybe just inside the degree of goading the tabloids that he might bot have begged them to make sure they end his career.

Three errors in his pitch, I think:

Took his wife and child on a 30mile drive to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight? Well, I'm convinced.

He's certainly furious with misrepresentation in the papers. Must be livid with his wife.

Repeated references, like the government line of the last two days, to 'many of the stories' which are false, but with only a single example (his return to Durham).

To push back on topic, However, if the core critique is that his behaviour encourages others to ignore lockdown, and therefore endangers people, then he's done nothing to alleviate it whatsoever.

I was thinking when Boris chaired the press conference last night that while he was backing him in public, I'd expect the administration of the mother of all atomic bollockings had taken place beforehand!

 Azreal13 wrote:
I was thinking when Boris chaired the press conference last night that while he was backing him in public, I'd expect the administration of the mother of all atomic bollockings had taken place beforehand!

If it did, Johnson was receiving, not administering.

I don’t know what to think. Dom has clearly gak the bed on this one, and it’s going to play havoc with public safety enforcement. Honest mistake maybe, but still a mistake...and a fething big one too.

But there’s a lot of jackals out there with chips on their shoulders just looking for any excuse to get him...yet he’s only got himself to blame. He’s given them the excuse they needed himself.

I don’t know...my gut says he should probably go...I don’t know.

nfe wrote:
Generally, a very well written statement. Maybe just inside the degree of goading the tabloids that he might bot have begged them to make sure they end his career.

Three errors in his pitch, I think:

Took his wife and child on a 30mile drive to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight? Well, I'm convinced.

He's certainly furious with misrepresentation in the papers. Must be livid with his wife.

Repeated references, like the government line of the last two days, to 'many of the stories' which are false, but with only a single example (his return to Durham).

To push back on topic, However, if the core critique is that his behaviour encourages others to ignore lockdown, and therefore endangers people, then he's done nothing to alleviate it whatsoever.

For me thats the biggest worry

He pretty much said the rules were to be interpreted as one needed them to be to fit your own circumstance using "common sense" - now people are going use that to justify anything - especially if they have kids - becuase he did and the Prime Minister said he was right

nfe wrote:
Three errors in his pitch, I think:
Took his wife and child on a 30mile drive to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight? Well, I'm convinced.

This is the point it becomes relatively unbelievable and hence makes the rest sound suspicious as well. In effect his first argument is he travelled 250 miles north to protect his family and have his niece child care if needed. However here he is saying he was worried about his eyesight and (by implication) worried about safety. So as such the next logical thing to do is take said child in the car for a 60 mile 'test drive' to make sure he was safe to drive. Albeit he could have simply left said child with the niece (having already been tested negative for COVID19) to ensure the child's safety just in case his eyesight did deteriorate and has an accident because of it. Then we have why go to a local scenic spot to test the eyesight. Perhaps more appropriate would have been a short 5 mile journey (around the block first) and then a journey to a motorway and run down to the next junction (which would have been much more appropriate to test his eyes for the return journey). Instead he randomly decides that this beauty spot was the most appropriate location for this journey. Basically this story smells as bad as rotting fish heads that have been left in the sun for three days and to an extent seems fairly contrived as he has confirmed that the papers were correct but the rationale will never really be able to be proved (except the 19th April being seen again - thought noting he specifically noted the date, and hence raises the question whether the report just got the date wrong).

Then we have to review the reason for leaving London. Although concerns for child care is reasonable. Having two parents seriously sick at the same time is very unlikely. If it was likely then there maybe some justification, however despite 100,000's of people catching the disease in the UK there has not been an influx of child refugees because both parents have been unable to manage them (in fact I haven't heard of any cases but there are probably a few). As such the concern is very exaggerated compared to reality. Ultimately he did the same thing that many people did a the half week before lock down came into force, ran for the hills/second home when the risk became 'real'.

 Whirlwind wrote:

Then we have to review the reason for leaving London. Although concerns for child care is reasonable. Having two parents seriously sick at the same time is very unlikely. If it was likely then there maybe some justification, however despite 100,000's of people catching the disease in the UK there has not been an influx of child refugees because both parents have been unable to manage them (in fact I haven't heard of any cases but there are probably a few). As such the concern is very exaggerated compared to reality. Ultimately he did the same thing that many people did a the half week before lock down came into force, ran for the hills/second home when the risk became 'real'.

Plus, you know, his wife's sister lives round the corner in London.

That doesn't really mean much.. my in laws (brother) wouldn't be my first choice of childcare either. They could have any number of situations as to why they weren't chosen.

He'll I wouldn't put my siblings as first choice either. Bless em

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
That doesn't really mean much.. my in laws (brother) wouldn't be my first choice of childcare either. They could have any number of situations as to why they weren't chosen.

He'll I wouldn't put my siblings as first choice either. Bless em

Sure, but they'd be a good choice to drive your family to whoever your first choice of childcare is, instead of doing so yourself while your ability to drive is compromised.

Masterful bit of spin coming from Dominic Cummings. Fortunate circumstances and timing on this as Lockdown begins to be eased. Thank god for a self administered eyesight check!

The 'media' is really as poor as our current crop of politicos atm. Scenting 'blood' and having a target like Cummings - who doesn't play their game'.

Media could have tied this back to Cummings to really pin down the government and its handling of the crisis so far. Alas they have plucked the shiny, gleaming, low hanging fruit. Cummings has made a public statement....And that is now case closed.

Boris is still doing what he does. The Government are still getting away with complete bollocks. Cummings still has a job.

Slow hand claps all round.