Remember Dominic Cummings? Neither.
Dominic Mckenzie Cummings, Chief Adviser to Boris Johnson and arguably one of the most hated men in Britain, for those of you who may have justifiably forgotten. They say ‘ignorance is bliss’ and having no knowledge of this guy must be heavenly.
At the beginning of this once in a lifetime crisis Dominic Cummings was the epitome of the Tory party – one rule for them and one rule for us. It will be rare that I will be quoting Peaky Blinders on this blog, but I can’t help remembering Oswald Moseley’s quote, “two men like us for whom forbidding is forbidden”. Moseley, an equally reprehensible character and leader of the British fascist movement in the 1920s and 1930s, would be proud if he could see the way Boris Johnson and Cummings have dodged what would be career-ending for any Labour politician.
For those who don’t know, a bit of background on Cummings. The ‘man’ was special adviser to Michael Gove *sigh* for 7 years, including his time as Secretary for Education where he, for some reason, got rid of AS-Levels and turned GCSE grades into numbers. (I don’t know why, I’ll work it out one day.)
He then left Gove. “Hooray!” you may be thinking. ‘Ding dong the Witch is Dead’ might even be slipped on and you could be forgiven. But no. Instead the timing was actually perfect for Cummings as he immediately took up the position of Director of ‘Vote Leave’ between 2015-2016. *Bigger sigh*.
After his 2016 Brexit victory there came a blissful silence from this ‘man’. Then some people elected Boris so that Brexit thing could happen. Boris created a new position, ‘Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister’, just so he accommodate his Cummings into one of the most senior roles in government, without being elected of course. Just a side-note for those of you who think I am being harsh on Cummings – Sajid Javid, THE CHANCELLOR OF THE UK, resigned after he refused Cumming’s demands that he dismiss one of his Chief Advisers. The Chancellor of the UK, effectively the third most powerful man in Cabinet, was forced to resign because Cummings said so. Cummings has never been elected by anyone; at least Javid has. Make no mistake about who’s in charge – and it certainly isn’t that blonde James Corden look-a-like.
Remember that famous slogan “£350 million pounds a week could be spent on the NHS” – you’ll never guess who worked that out. *I need to breathe in now
Cummings list of lies are absolutely incredible – in ANY other job he would be fired and probably face criminal proceedings. A quick reminder of just a few of his lies. Four days after the Prime Minister announced everyone “must stay at home” Mr Cummings was seen leaving his house because his wife believed their four year old to be very ill. He left, then returned to Downing Street 4 hours later. Despite the advice the clear advice that anyone who had symptoms or had come into contact with someone who may have COVID should remain at home for 14 days.
Cummings then drove to Durham because he feared that he and his wife would become seriously ill and need childcare. You may, at this point, have a touch of sympathy for the man. After all, the guidelines were vague when children were involved. ‘Essential travel’ was not fully explained.
Couldn’t he have found childcare closer to him? A friend, family member, care-worker? 240 miles is a long way to go for childcare isn’t it? He also drove to and back from a Hospital because there were ‘no taxis’, despite the advice at that time being – “people with symptoms that may be caused by coronavirus and who do not require hospital treatment are told they “must remain at home until they are well”. I could go on about his various lies since this incident but I’m sure you’re sick to death of reading them. But there are two really interesting aspects to this Cummings case which should be addressed.
The first was the journalism. Journalists these days have almost become identical to politicians: sensationalist, looking for click-bait, questionable sources and bare-faced lies (see Johnny Depp vs The Sun). But the journalism in this case was worthy of Woodward and Bernstein. Release one bit of information about seeing Cummings driving around – let Tory leaders panic, find an excuse, get it out there. Then just as they think they’re safe, add the ‘blog’ incident and the ‘long drive’ incident and watch the Tories scramble for someone to blame. Survival of the fittest has always been their way.
Gollum 2.0
Even more saddening than that is this. The guidelines and advice given at the beginning was most likely checked and double-checked by Cummings before Boris was allowed to announce it. He knew the rules. He knew what Boris was going to say. And he knew the loopholes to stop him being properly charged. That is corruption. He was also aware of the millions of people, you and I included most likely, who weren’t allowed to visit loved ones because we believed their advice. Hindsight is wonderful – but why did we do that? Why did we trust men like Johnson and Cummings? Some say the public reaction was harsh and an overreaction – these people are wrong. It cannot be one rule for them, one rule for us.
It is currently estimated that up to 6.5million jobs could be lost by the end of this lock-down – but I doubt Cummings is too worried.
Ignorantly Ignorant 