Dominic Cummings - a new kind of (anti-)hero..

[jayne lee wilson]

Just to underline again (as this programme has so often done, heartbreakingly), the devastating truth about hospitals and Care Homes...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wkhc

[eighthobstruction]

Iain Duncan Smith, for example. Is it too late to hope that he can still seize the crown and lead us onto the trade deal-filled sunlit uplands?

....I'm afraid that any light in the distance is just a mirage shining/reflecting off of IDS's [the master of bathos] bald pate....

[LMcD]

I fear so.

Oh dear - never mind, eh? It seems a pity, as I gather that he recently suggested we should remove all remaining Covid restrictions, and emerge from lockdown, immediately. Surely that's what the country, i.e. the economy, needs? Perhaps he could recruit Laurence Fox to boost his chances of a comeback.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh dear - never mind, eh? It seems a pity, as I gather that he recently suggested we should remove all remaining Covid restrictions, and emerge from lockdown, immediately. Surely that's what the country, i.e. the economy, needs? Perhaps he could recruit Laurence Fox to boost his chances of a comeback.

I'm sure you're being ironic - really...

[french frank]

I'm sure you're being ironic - really...

I'm sure you're right. Laurence Fox?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm sure you're right. Laurence Fox?

It becomes increasingly difficult to be sure with people, these days. A long-term friend in Toronto emailed me yesterday to tell me she has been writing a large proportion of friends and associates out of her life - and I've always taken her to be a very good judge of character.

[oddoneout]

There was a time when many of this country's leaders has served in the armed forces, and therefore had probably learnt something of leadership and teamwork. Johnson and his cronies (including Cummings) are all too clearly ignorant in such matters. His idea that chaos all around him would cause people to rely on him as leader is beyond ludicrous. In fact it smacks of 'divide and rule'!

I think a more fundamental problem is the lack of experience of independent governance. Being part of the EU shared the load of so much of the business of enabling the country to function that now there is not that to fall back on they are completely clueless. Lack of integrity, discipline, putting the country before self and party, coupled with ignorance of the functioning of the EU, makes the inevitable mess a cesspit - with no Blaster Bates to help.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think a more fundamental problem is the lack of experience of independent governance. Being part of the EU shared the load of so much of the business of enabling the country to function that now there is not that to fall back on they are completely clueless. Lack of integrity, discipline, putting the country before self and party, coupled with ignorance of the functioning of the EU, makes the inevitable mess a cesspit - with no Blaster Bates to help.

Another thing - pardon me if I'm repeating myself - is that politicans of "both" mainstream positions had long held that globalisation had taken real government out of democratically accountable hands, and it was now Business what determined national politics, at the touch of a currency transfer button.

[LMcD]

I'm sure you're right. Laurence Fox?

Well, he did say that, were he to be elected Mayor of London, his first act would be to immediately rescind all Covid-related measures, so it looks as though he and IDS agree on at least one thing.

[Bert]

Cummings has done himself proud in taking BJ on like this.

Before, I didn't believe a word he said, especially all that Covid travel/eye testing stuff.

But now .....

Welcome aboard, Dom!

[Bryn]

Cummings has done himself proud in taking BJ on like this.

Before, I didn't believe a word he said, especially all that Covid travel/eye testing stuff.

But now .....

Welcome aboard, Dom!

Phew! Next, you will be telling us how right Piers Corbyn and David Icke have been right, all along. From what I have gathered from watching the Cumings 'interrogation', his word is no more to be trusted now than when he invented the stories around his potentially virus-spreading trips to Durham and Barnard Castle.

[french frank]

Phew! Next, you will be telling us how right Piers Corbyn and David Icke have been right, all along. From what I have gathered from watching the Cumings 'interrogation' is that his word is no more to be trusted now than when he invented the stories around his potentially virus-spreading trips to Durham and Barnard Castle.

Not necessarily, Bryn - just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias ??

I don't suppose it's more prevalent than ever before, but there seem recently to have been many important issues where it matters - Brexit, Johnson, Trump - where people cherrypick the bits they want to accept and reject/dismiss out of hand the bits they don't.

[Bert]

Phew! Next, you will be telling us how right Piers Corbyn and David Icke have been right, all along. From what I have gathered from watching the Cumings 'interrogation', his word is no more to be trusted now than when he invented the stories around his potentially virus-spreading trips to Durham and Barnard Castle.

I think I got caught up in the general 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' flow of the thread. Normal service resumed - I think he's nasty, again!

[Bryn]

I think I got caught up in the general 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' flow of the thread. Normal service resumed - I think he's nasty, again!

[oddoneout]

I think I got caught up in the general 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' flow of the thread. Normal service resumed - I think he's nasty, again!

Whether he's nasty or not isn't relevant, and is a poor indication of what a person is capable of, although it may have a bearing on how effective their influence is.
There are two issues for me regarding Cummings, firstly how useful/valuable was the "advice" he provided and secondly to what extent his version of events is correct. Given the level of influence he appears to have enjoyed I think both those things are important, but I also suspect that the truth will be difficult to establish, particularly given the extent to which the cabinet and PM will influence the "truth" in terms of who is hung out to dry - or more realistically not, since it is obvious that neither taking responsibility nor accepting consequences of that acceptance are on the agenda.
The fact that Cummings is not liked among the wider population is unfortunate since, regardless of the quality or otherwise of what he has to say, it just has the effect of providing yet more popular support for the PM as far as I can see - and that is not a good outcome.