Dominic Cummings visited parents during lockdown measures

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mick

BREAKING: Durham Police. Cummings may have broke rules in a minor way, but no further action is required.

As it’s a significant development in the story. Thread opened to discussion.

https://news.sky.com/story/dominic-c...rules-11996238

come Monday, it will be but a footnote in this saga, although whatsherface on BBC Breakfast brought it up....again... to Matt Hancock this morning. They can't let it go.....well they'll have to.

Irrespective of the man or the issue or the party, I am quite glad that for once that somebody was not sacrificed on the alter of the mainstream media just because they wanted it so. Long may it continue.

[jfman]

I look forward to you robustly defending a Labour politician or adviser on the same basis.

[Mr K]

He broke the rules he wrote. No excuses. He thought he was above them as he's one of the 'elite'.

The police may take no action, but BJ should, otherwise it's anything goes for the rest of us.

[mrmistoffelees]

Described as a 'minor' breaking of the rules as no social distancing was broken.

So therefore by Durham Police logic then it was fine to drive all along so long as you didn't breach social distancing.

Even so, this is still at odds with what DC said himself which was he had obeyed the laws at all time.

So whilst the majority of people will still continue to obey the lockdown regulations. I would expect to see an increased number flouting the rules because rightly or wrongly they think they can get away with it now.

[peanut]

Bottom line is instead of owning up and saying he took his wife out for her birthday, he lied and said he risked his wife and child's life to test his eye sight but the police and everyone has to take it as face value and accept it??. As excuses go, it's about as believable using 'Pizza Express'.

Originally Posted by peanut

So no action because of who he is? Whilst everyone gets fined. So if he did break the rules then he should at least apologise.

Everyone gets fined ?

Police spoke to people out and about who should not have been and advised them to Stay at home. Not everyone was handed out fines.

Those who blatantly flouted the rules did. Cummings didn't blatantly flout the rules. His drive to Durham was not an offence and cannot be treated as such.

[TheDaddy]

Notice another lockfown abuser, Robert Jenrick has slipped under the radar because of this kerfuffle. His latesr corrupt action being unlawfully approving a housing development for a party donor so tens of millions in tax could be "avoided".

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Pierre

come Monday, it will be but a footnote in this saga, although whatsherface on BBC Breakfast brought it up....again... to Matt Hancock this morning. They can't let it go.....well they'll have to.

Irrespective of the man or the issue or the party, I am quite glad that for once that somebody was not sacrificed on the alter of the mainstream media just because they wanted it so. Long may it continue.

Did Cummings' press briefing in the Number Ten Rose Garden convince you to change your mind?
Prior to that, you said his position was untenable due to precedence.

[papa smurf]

Such a minor incident the police can't be bothered to pursue it, all this fuss and faux outrage for something that's not even worth a mention.

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Such a minor incident the police can't be bothered to pursue it, all this fuss and faux outrage for something that's not even worth a mention.

In line with normal procedure - if they had caught him at the time, they would have "had a chat" and sent him back to Durham.

Had a Durham constabulary police officer stopped Mr Cummings driving to or from Barnard Castle, the officer would have spoken to him, and, having established the facts, likely advised Mr Cummings to return to the address in Durham, providing advice on the dangers of travelling during the pandemic crisis. Had this advice been accepted by Mr Cummings, no enforcement action would have been taken. In line with Durham constabulary’s general approach throughout the pandemic, there is no intention to take retrospective action in respect of the Barnard Castle incident since this would amount to treating Mr Cummings differently from other members of the public.

First off was ‘he didn’t do it", now it’s "oh, it wasn’t that serious"....

Originally Posted by papa smurf

So the facts are he did nothing illegal and broke no rules,Thanks for clearing that up Den

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Did Cummings' press briefing in the Number Ten Rose Garden convince you to change your mind?
Prior to that, you said his position was untenable due to precedence.

No, I stand by what I said at the time given what I knew at the time, which was he travelled to Durham, I didn’t know the full circumstances and if he had gone to Durham on a jolly, like the other previous two people had then yes.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Such a minor incident the police can't be bothered to pursue it, all this fuss and faux outrage for something that's not even worth a mention.

The law is designed to make prosecutions and fines the exception, not the rule. Had he been spoken to at the time he'd be told to go home, the fact it's now six weeks later makes it disproportionate for the police to pursue it now.

It's really not a matter of whether he broke the law to the extent we can haul him in front of the courts. There's no reason to do that - however some, perhaps a majority, will legitimately believe that he acted unreasonably.

And that's the point of lockdown. Government passed laws that met a minimum threshold to avoid legal challenge. It issued guidance that went further, Minister after Minister made statements that tried to define 'reasonable', and it asked the population to act in good faith during a public health emergency.

The political problem now for the Government isn't that he made minor infractions of a weakly written law that was open to interpretation. It's that "I read the what the regulations stated and deemed this to be reasonable, it's not my fault you aren't as clever as me" is exactly the kind of thing that irks anti-establishment, anti-elites.

Had he upon reflection held his hands up and said, yep I can see people's point and apologised, the police said they'd spoke to him case closed, we would genuinely have moved forward.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Hugh

In line with normal procedure - if they had caught him at the time, they would have "had a chat" and sent him back to Durham.



First off was ‘he didn’t do it", now it’s "oh, it wasn’t that serious"....

You seem to be letting this none story get to you,there's nothing to see ,nothing to be done,and no point dwelling on it.

[jfman]

Our super elite better than the rest of the world scientists denied an opinion on Cummings 'reasonableness'.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

You seem to be letting this none story get to you,there's nothing to see ,nothing to be done,and no point dwelling on it.

If there is nothing to it then why has the PM just stopped Whitty and Valance giving their comments on Cummings.