United Kingdom V: Son of a beach

[teddymeow]

So then, the day my eldest goes back to "school" I can go and buy a new car but still can't go and have a cup of tea at my parent's house?

****ing clownshoes.

[prinnysquad]

If I’d contracted a crippling virus, and raced 260 miles to get emergency care for my child because I was so concerned about his welfare, the FIRST thing I’d do when I recovered, would be to check my dodgy eyesight by slinging him in the back of the motor and bombing off on a 50-odd mile round trip. That definitely proves that I’m concerned about him. Just as well he wasn’t all Stevie Wonder, after all.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g190814-d2048791-Reviews-Barnard_Castle-Barnard_Castle_County_Durham_England.html

[Cassius_Smoke]

People are dying out there. Actually dying, and those in power are carrying on like it's a game.

[Neon Ignition]

The car showrooms is an odd one. Those near us have been open for a fortnight already, it's almost like... the lockdown... has stopped... working?

[Super Grover]

DC gives zero f*cks about what you or I think.

He’s not far off getting Brexit done, and he’s closing in on ARPA (https://dominiccummings.com/2018/09/...onal-strategy/

Such trivialities as lockdown are for the peasants to adhere to.

This whole thing is mutating into something quite surreal, and if someone was to say to me “Hey SG, you’re just on a powerful acid trip’ I might actually believe them.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/26/uk-coronavirus-live-dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-latest-updates

The UK death toll has now passed 47,000 whilst MP Douglas Ross has resigned in protest of Dominic Cummings disregard for calls against his own position.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/26/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-uupdates-who-drops-hydroxychloroquine-trial-as-mexico-death-toll-questioned

Global cases of Coronavirus have now passed 5.5m

The President of the Philippines has announced that schools won't reopen there until a vaccine is found

The World Health Organisation has issued a warning for areas where COVID-19 is in decline that an immediate a sudden second wave is more likely the fast MP's accelerate lockdown ceasing.

[Golgo]

47,000? Wow! In a press conference a few weeks ago they said 20,000 would be a 'good' result. They're knocking it out of the park!

[Hirst]

I'm surprised somebody who claims to read the public mood as well as Cummings handled it in the way he did, if I was in the same boat I'd have been more manipulative. I reckon I'd have stuck with the story about the childcare, but admitted driving pointlessly to the castle by framing it as "well the car had been stood for weeks and I didn't want to take it straight on the motorway before going back to London, so I went for a drive to clean the brakes up and make sure the battery wasn't going flat... one thing led to another and I just ended up in that direction, my son wanted to look at the castle, I just..." and then I'd burst into tears and apologise for being weak and keep saying "I didn't mean to hurt anyone, I'm so sorry".

That would definitely have got him some ridicule, but it'd probably change the conversation to "Cummings has bit of a breakdown" and people would start confessing their own mild lockdown sins and it would make decent people feel like they couldn't be quite as hard on him (because it'd feel like kicking someone when they're down), then he could just disappear from the public view for a bit while continuing to act exactly as he normally does.

I'm not supporting him at all, I think he's a horrible little goblin, I'm just surprised that he didn't take the "lay it on thick" option and instead went for a more pointlessly confrontational style that will see him continue to be (rightly) hounded.

[Neon Ignition]

I'd imagine this is one of those situations that's proving hard to navigate because of the iceberg sized obstacle of his inflated ego.

[prinnysquad]

This is it. He’s too arrogant to admit any wrongdoing or regrets.

As an aside, I heard that his family ‘seat’ was close to an area on the outskirts of the city that’s still known by the name of a pub that used to stand there - The Cock of the North.

Apt.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/outside-socialising-may-be-relaxed-in-england-in-coming-weeks

You honestly can't make it up - unless you're Dominic Cummings. According to one cabinet minister, in several weeks the lockdown may be eased enough to allow social gatherings in larger groups... but you still won't be allowed to visit friends or family indoors.

All of it simply reeks of trying to find the wording that technically leaves social distancing in place but allows enough freedom to try and get as many people into shopping areas and tourist spots as possible for the summer holidays.

[MartyG]

I'm surprised somebody who claims to read the public mood as well as Cummings handled it in the way he did, if I was in the same boat I'd have been more manipulative. .

He didn't have to be manipulative at all - if he'd had been honest from the start, held his hands up and said, in a panic I drove to Durham with my family, it was the wrong thing to do and I profusely apoligise to the public for breaking their trust in a time when I'm asking for theirs, people might have been a bit for forgiving and accepting.

As it is he denied denied denied and when that didn't work came out with some brainstormed cock and bull story about testing his eyesight along with some foresight about pandemics that he'd written in his blog post last year that he'd actually edited when he got back from his nice trip.

The guy is a weasel and a snake who's shown nothing but contempt to everyone and those MPs defending him are even more pathetic.

And the public aren't, on the whole, buying any of it: https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/26/boris...saga-12758046/

[Hirst]

The strangest thing about Cummings (and there's a lot of strange things) is just how many MPs are prepared to get behind him when they know full well the public aren't on their side and want him gone. It's always been a bit of a running joke that he must have some real dirt on people to keep his job over the years, but as it goes on it seems less of a conspiracy theory and more of a plausible conclusion.

[MartyG]

I think it's far simpler than that: Johnson can't cope as PM without him and he is pressuring his cabinet to support him lest they might not have those positions following a reshuffle.

[Cassius_Smoke]

You have to remember that people in high positions are usually psychopaths. Him and most of the front bench will have reduced empathy. He doesn't give a **** because he literally can't give a ****.