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Well duh thats the entire point of a public inquiry. It gives some time to people to forget and you also write the rules so you dont get blamed to badly.
Well tbh no-one knew what was happening and Boris did his best 🙂
Boris did his best
I think you've spotted the problem 🙁
Well tbh no-one knew what was happening and Boris did his best
Except loads of people did have a better handle on it than Johnson - not including the classroom of 13 year olds (we’ll stick to the scientists, statisticians and other experts - not to cast aspersions on those highly capable 13 year olds)
I think he could manage 6 hours without saying a single thing of substance, or answering a single question, pretty easily… “wiffle waffle, stop looking back, be more positive, in extremis, tried my best, what the people really want us to focus on, waff wiff”.
He has done this all of his life. 6 Hours will be no problem.
And yet, because its Cummings, even though he’s confirming all the suspicions we’ve voiced about the governments handling of this, i can’t bring myself to believe him.
Exactly - you know there's probably a lot of substance behind what he says, but the impression that he's mostly smarter than then and they just wouldn't listen but he hung around anyway just doesn't make sense.
Apparently the last session promises to be the 'most damning' according to the guardian. Think I'll grab a beer. Although short of producing a video of Johnson and Hancock tag-teaming a dying covid victim I'm not sure what more he can say. 😳
50p says the papers lead with Cummings apology for trip to Durham, and not that Johnson didn't (and still doesn't ) want to close the borders, or that Hancock should be sacked for lying, or that pensioners were sent to care homes without a COVID test, or that there wasn't a plan...
I had to pop out and missed his Barnard Castle explanation. What did he say?
I had to pop out and missed his Barnard Castle explanation
he was getting death threats, so he moved his family to leave London (although he was ill) the drive to Bernard Castle did "seem like the right thing to do at the time" with hindsight he agrees that it did appear a bit stupid. He says in his defence that he could have made up something that didn't sound quite so stupid, but didn't, as it was the truth... says the lying mendacious shitehawk
he was getting death threats, so he moved his family to leave London (although he was ill)
and then moved them back a few days later :-s
Well, if he was getting death threats, then I am sure that there will be a record of these with the Met that could back up his story and I am sure that these would lend weight to his decision.
Still sounds like a sack of shit though.
binners
Full MemberSurely Hancock can’t survive this?
In the good timeline, he wouldn't have survived this far. He's the health secretary that couldn't even be bothered to follow his own advice about not sneezing on your hands ffs, and he's totally failed on both basic competence and by being caught with his hand in the till. Why will this be any different?
binners
Full Member“The government rhetoric was we put a shield around people in career homes – that was complete nonsense. Quite the opposite of putting a shield around them, we sent people with Covid back to care homes with Covid.”
And of course Johnston has constantly repeated that lie in attacks on the SNP in the commons. TBH the numbers have always disproved the "shield around people" thing but that hasn't mattered up til now. Will it matter now?
Genius!
Thanks 🙂
Listening to him today, he really is a lying little shitbag.
Listening to him today, he really is a lying little shitbag.
You mean the government is populated by lying shitbags?,
Still sounds like a sack of shit though.
I remember him saying as much in his Rose garden speech. (that he was getting death threats)
and to quote said shitbag "The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this".
Does that mean he will be handing back his vastly inflated salary for that period?
If he wasn't a rabid manipulating Brexiteering lying lockdown-breaking Tory manipulative bastard, I get the impression he's actually giving a very competent and honest testimony.
I still trust what he says much more than anything said by Boris
Where is Gove in all this, sitting in the shadows planning, plotting laughing his socks off.
he really is a lying little shitbag.
In a who would you believe between Cummings on one side and Boris/Hancock on the other question, I definitely wouldn't be choosing Boris and Hancock. Especially when all the evidence of events matches his description of what was happening behind closed doors. Without wanting to be hyperbolic, this is/should be the biggest scandal in government since Blair took us to war on the basis of fabricated intelligence.
Now, I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that he won't be getting a Christmas card from Matt Hancock this year
Just when you think it can't get any better he just drops gem after gem after gem.
What's that bloody bell that keeps going off?
Edit: Never mind 🙂
Without wanting to be hyperbolic, this is/should be the biggest scandal in government since Blair took us to war on the basis of fabricated intelligence.
It's clearly bigger than that. That was a, pretty much, single, albeit catastrophic, decision. This is, pretty much, a complete breakdown of government.
He asked for Hancock to be sacked most days, but Boris is keeping him in place for when the public inquiry comes along.
Well, who'd have thunk it?
Just when you think it can’t get any better he just drops gem after gem after gem.
I know, day off work today, been glued to this all day. First time ever heard the words shit and ****er on daytime television.
It’s clearly bigger than that. That was a, pretty much, single, albeit catastrophic, decision. This is, pretty much, a complete breakdown of government.
I can hear the public now "Yeah but when can I go on holiday, I am not interested in politics."
This is, pretty much, a complete breakdown of government.
If you think back to the period we're talking about here, Boris completely disappeared for weeks at a time
There's really not much that anyone who was paying attention didn't already know. A few alleged conversations, which sound quite plausible, all with a Dum-friendly spin.
And bearing in mind that this is his own best version of how he can present his role, he's obviously a stupid venal dishonest piece of shit.
So the PM did say the bodies pile high thing, and then lied about in parliament when asked directly at the dispatch box? even if the great electorate that put him there aren't fazed by this, parliament should be. Isn't lying at the dispatch box, in parliamentary terms, a heinous crime?
God I hate these 2019 cohort Tory MPs, pathetic no marks, Chrstopher clarkson? and that Workington POS MP who was going on about alpacas at PMQs. The 'red wall' MPs really are terrible terrible voids of anything redeemable
anyway, back to Dom...
Johnson was popular partly because he was prepare to stick two fingers up to parliament (and truth as well, in my opinion).
It interesting to me that Cummings said he should have resigned in September when Johnson was doing his "mayor of Amity" impression. And putting so much of the pain we have suffered since then down to the decision Johnson was making then. As the opposition front bench have been pointing out for nine months now.
I do find it very ironic that Cummings is now calling on MPs (parliament) to force the government to do something (look to learn lessons from its response to the pandemic).
Gove's name finally coming into play now....
So the PM did say the bodies pile high thing
oh. Starmer, the ex DDP got him to deny it at the dispatch box a few weeks back. That's going to come back at Johnson.
Am i hearing this right, Did Dom basically say Boris was unfit to govern? He called him unfit for the job as PM due to a series of distractions. I just don't get how the tories come back from this... I mean well I do no one actually cares.
Looks like Lady Macbeth (Carrie) is getting a bit off a hammering too and the dog.
I'm not sure how Jeremy Hunt managed to sit and dispassionately chair that meeting today. I didn't rate him much as HS, but it is increasingly clear that had he been in post in January 2020, he would have avoided many of the mistakes that Hancock blundered into, and thereafter lied and bullshitted about non-stop.
The completely non-existent 'ring of steel' around care homes cost tens of thousands of lives. I wonder how many NHS and care staff died because PPE was scarce or missing entirely?
Did Dom basically say Boris was unfit to govern? He called him unfit for the job as PM due to a series of distractions. I just don’t get how the tories come back from this… I mean well I do no one actually cares.
Yes, you answered your own question. His 'unfit to govern' statement was some time ago, and had little impact.
I can hear the public now “Yeah but when can I go on holiday, I am not interested in politics.”
This.
Wait for a sudden announcement of new Green list countries tomorrow.
Wait for a sudden announcement of new Green list countries tomorrow.
Boris already trotted out the 'vaccine for all 30+ adults from today' announcement in PMQs. Desperate diversionary stuff.
This is damning frightening utterly awful stuff, I'm afraid that it could push the Tories into a 30point, or even higher poll lead...
I’m not sure how Jeremy Hunt managed to sit and dispassionately chair that meeting today. I didn’t rate him much as HS, but it is increasingly clear that had he been in post in January 2020, he would have avoided many of the mistakes that Hancock blundered into, and thereafter lied and bullshitted about non-stop.
Jeremy Hunt was almost universally loathed as Health Secretary too so it says a lot that he could be regarded as "good". But then that's been a hallmark of this Government right from the days of Cameron. Just when you think things couldn't possibly get any worse, they get worse. It's like Trump - just when you think he couldn't have said anything more stupid or cringeworthy, out comes another clanger, each and every one of which would have been a resigning / sacking matter in any other person / career area.
This.
Wait for a sudden announcement of new Green list countries tomorrow.
Most read story on BBC right now:
Holiday islands considered for green list
I’m afraid that it could push the Tories into a 30point, or even higher poll lead…
I'm not so sure. It depends on what Kier does. Time to grow a pair and start aggressively attacking them rather than agreeing with them. He'll never get a better opportunity, and if he doesn't sieze it then he's just as useless and culpable as Johnson & co.
oh. Starmer, the ex DDP got him to deny it at the dispatch box a few weeks back. That’s going to come back at Johnson.
As Starmer predicted at the time!
and the dog
At last. Someone I can feel a bit of sympathy for in this whole shambolic shitshow.
oh. Starmer, the ex DDP got him to deny it at the dispatch box a few weeks back. That’s going to come back at Johnson.
Will it? All Johnson has to do is deny it. Doubt anyone else is going to back Cummings up on it despite the likelihood that it's true.
Nothing sticks to Johnson - he is Mr Teflon.
All Johnson has to do is deny it. Doubt anyone else is going to back Cummings up on it despite the likelihood that it’s true.
BBC I think said it had 3 people who would back it on oath. Time to put my license fee paying money where their mouth is.
I so wish this is all going to bring Johnson's shambolic, lying shitshow down around his ears - but it won't. The bottom line is this:
Most people who like Johnson know he is a lying shit.
But he is a lying shit who also takes the piss out of women in burkas - bank robbers, letterboxes - take your pick.
In this sense he is 'their' man (actually 'their' lying shit, but they don't care). He's more racist than Starmer and that's what matters.
Just joining into this now.
There's no way Cummings is doing this without an ulterior motive. I wonder what it is?
Theres a fair dose of wishful thinking going on here
I think I'll join them, just for the day
Meanwhile in the alternative world the Daily Express inhabits -
Dominic Cummings has been ripped to shreds today...
https://twitter.com/uk_domain_names/status/1397503427811368964
I genuinely believe the Express should face serious and terminal legal consequences for the shite they spew out
Horrible nasty manipulative abusive scum
I so wish this is all going to bring Johnson’s shambolic, lying shitshow down around his ears – but it won’t. The bottom line is this:
Most people who like Johnson know he is a lying shit.
But he is a lying shit who also takes the piss out of women in burkas – bank robbers, letterboxes – take your pick.
In this sense he is ‘their’ man (actually ‘their’ lying shit, but they don’t care). He’s more racist than Starmer and that’s what matters.
Yawn, EVERYTHING is about racism isn't it? Racists, racists everywhere. Behind every corner and under every bed. Every thing I don't like, every person I don't agree with: Racist.
I’m not sure how Jeremy Hunt managed to sit and dispassionately chair that meeting today. I didn’t rate him much as HS, but it is increasingly clear that had he been in post in January 2020, he would have avoided many of the mistakes that Hancock blundered into
Agree. And we don't even need "hindsight" to appreciate that. Unlike Cummings, Hunt could publicly state what should happen, when it should happen, as the pandemic unfolded, rather than after (what is hopefully) the worst of it is over. And he has been doing so (very carefully and calmly). He has been consistently calling it correctly for over a year now.
Yawn,
Dicks.....dicks everywhere.......
EVERYTHING is about racism isn’t it?
Nope.
But, sadly, it's hard to explain Johnson's ongoing popularity without reference to his cynical swap to using racist ideas in his writing and speeches (only after he was no longer London Mayor of course), and his (also cynical) swap to support for Brexit with particular focus on immigration (something else he'd never have done as London Mayor).
I still maintain he's smarter than many give him credit for. He transformed himself politically from the darling of liberal London, to the cheerleader for the rest of England, and he understood the language and causes that would help him to do that. Smart operator.
Hunt could publicly state what should happen, when it should happen, as the pandemic unfolded, rather than after (what is hopefully) the worst of it is over. And he has been doing so (very carefully and calmly). He has been consistently calling it correctly for over a year now.
He'd not have done that as health sec though, as the mop-headed **** (and Cummings) woudn't have let him - and so he'd have looked almost as stupid as Hancock has
(Edit: unless he actually had the balls/principles/opportunism to resign)
Probably true. They ejected a chancellor who wouldn't play lap dog, they'd have done the same with any minister. But it might have played out differently, Johnson might have been made to see sense with one more clear voice in his group of advisors and ministers. Who knows...?
The thing is, Hunt as health minister would have probably been competent but horrible- he'd have been better in terms of getting the job done but he'd also have spent half his time thinking "how can I use this to push forwards my agenda", just like he did everything else.
Whereas Hancock mostly thought ohshitohshitohshit. He only spared a little bit of time for lining his own pockets, quite restrained really, and spent the rest of the time getting on with having no idea what to do.
I think I’ll join them, just for the day
Ha likewise - whoever said it up there is right, it's like picking the side of lying snake in a room full of lying snakes.
The lawyer and spin doctors will be up all night and this will all be discredited by 11am tomorrow as the rantings of a mad ex-employee with a chip on his shoulder.
I see there's plenty of cheap mysoginy from Cummings directed at Symonds.
And Hancock going on the news this morning to say Cummings was a liar was not his smartest play
Boris completely disappeared for weeks at a time
This is key. Add to it the impression Cummings gives that the cabinet were sidelined, Johnson centralising power and control in his own hands, him encouraging chaos because it forces people to come to him to weld that power and control… it ultimately comes down to the personality of this PM being central to any telling of the reasons for the deaths, extended restrictions on freedoms, and economic loss we have suffered. A part time PM who is getting to play “king of the world” every now and then, and leaving the UK ungoverned at the worst possible time for the rest of us, and not caring about it because the chaos and damage only increase his enjoyment of his role as people focus on him more and more as the chaos piles up.
> and breath <
^ this
I have been following this today, and it goes beyond incompetence. The defence of the Johnson fans that it was a hard job and no-one could have done better; the fact that he welcomed and even created the chaos so that people had to come to him where his incompetence then was totally laid bare and as a result people died in their thousands is beyond mere 'it was a tough job and he did his best'
That's bordering criminal negligence. (It's not, it is) If I did the same on a risk assessment at work - refused to use the qualified assessors in particular aspects just so everyone saw me as the important one, I'd expect the HSE would throw the book in the event of an accident.
The lawyer and spin doctors will be up all night and this will all be discredited by 11am tomorrow as the rantings of a mad ex-employee with a chip on his shoulder.
Relatively easy to do - this is the guy who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Rose Garden to tell a load of bollocks about his trip to Barnard Castle; the guy who refused to appear in front of a Select Committee 3 years ago investigating Fake News and Vote Leave.
He's just as entitled as the people he's disparaging. He's decided to do this at this time in order to further his own agenda, nothing more.
If I did the same on a risk assessment at work – refused to use the qualified assessors in particular aspects just so everyone saw me as the important one, I’d expect the HSE would throw the book in the event of an accident.
If most of what was happening in Government happened in "normal life", it'd be a resigning / firing matter via a very short one-sided conversation with HR and very probably a call to the police.
He’s decided to do this at this time in order to further his own agenda, nothing more.
What agenda is that? What we are seeing is the result of someone with no real loyalty to the Conservative Party having no good reason to keep quiet now. Someone with a personal axe to grind, and full of self importance. Is that enough to ignore what he is revealing (especially as none of it is a surprise to anyone following what the scientists have been saying during the pandemic)?
Hancock’s response so far… “get your vaccine”… I predict we’ll hear little else from him for a while, as it is all that’s gone well. Labour have tabled an urgent question for him… get ready for “hard choices”, “getting things done”, “vaccines”.
Well my views on Dom have not changed but i dont doubt much of what he says.
We have plenty of evidence in the public domain that supports most of what he says...
Problem is most people wont recognise the behaviour patterns of Boris and many of his ministers that will be replicated in the rest of their approach to government.
Said it before the current Tory cabinet is focused on power retention not governing and the "government" bit is a poor second. Theor polices are designed to retain power this is not Thatcher, it more like Blair.
Whilst Cummings has said much that many of us already believed about the lies, shambles and pure incompetence of this so-called government he does detract from today's statements by continuing to insult our intelligence by giving us further bullsh*t about Barnard Castle etc.
Well, the police were checking out the security of his ‘concrete outbuilding’ for some reason. Might have been routine, might have indicated a plausible recent threat. Who knows. Probably bullshit, should be ways to corroborate it if it isn’t.
The thing is, when Cummings says the government was a disaster, you can't really fight that by discrediting Cummings because he was part of that disastrous government. So either it's true, and they were a disaster, or it's not true and Cummings can't be trusted and yet he was still right at the heart of the decision making and the PM's right hand man
Am i hearing this right, Did Dom basically say Boris was unfit to govern? He called him unfit for the job as PM due to a series of distractions.
Well whoever orchestrated the series of events that lead to Boris being PM must be feeling very silly right now.
Well whoever orchestrated the series of events that lead to Boris being PM must be feeling very silly right now.
Karma's a bitch.
There’s no way Cummings is doing this without an ulterior motive. I wonder what it is?
If he's not announced as part of the line up for the next season of Celebrity Big Brother I'll eat my hat.
He's obviously been activated by his handlers now they have fubar'd the country, go out taking as many with you as you can.
His bosses must be very pleased the way this is playing out.
Whilst I'm joking I can't help but think there may be a grain of truth in this, and I hate conspiracy theories 🙂
He’s got a bet on with someone to see how many times he can slip in fundamentally.
You can can't say 'fundamentally' without saying 'fun'.
or 'mental'.
or 'fundament'
Or “tally”. But we won’t count that one.
If he’s not announced as part of the line up for the next season of Celebrity Big Brother I’ll eat my hat.
*applause*