What questions would you ask about the Cummings affair?
Fellow Green Party members and activists,
It has been very clear that most Welsh people have heeded the corona virus advice, first from the Prime Minister and then the Welsh Assembly Government.
On the 30th March the Prime Minister stated in his letter to all households, “I give you one simple instruction - You MUST Stay at Home”, and ended “These rules must be observed”.
However when Mr Cummings drove a stagecoach through that policy we have been left with a breakdown of trust in the Johnson government. It is my contention that the UK media, particularly in TV interviews I have heard, have let the UK public down in not challenging our leadership on the crisis. Noam Chomsky refers to this as manufacturing consent, and it is also the case that public debate (TV media e.g. BBC News, Question Time etc) is directed and tolerated in a narrow window of consent.
In regard to the emerging Cummings story many questions, in my opinion, are both obvious and necessary to ask. To date I have not heard these questions or points being asked. I have listed below questions I believe need answering, for your consideration?
Gareth Brenton
Swansea and Gower Green Party
1. Week 1 of Lockdown. We were told, you must - STAY AT HOME - no ifs, ands or buts. The population was frightened in week 1 and strictly adhered to stay at home and if ill rest and stay at home regardless of symptoms. Cummings decided to drive to Durham. Perhaps to shield his boss, by not being in Westminster to answer questions. (A tale from the Sopranos).
2. How not to spread a virus! Why visit your parents home, who are in the at risk category? Why expose your own child to illness in the confined space of a car for over 4 hours.
3. A teenage relative was available to care for your child, thereby exposing her to the virus and potentially the teenager’s family. Whilst a teenager made that offer why would you think that is a reliable and safe choice, in the sight of a lethal illness?
3. Driving 260+ miles, without a stop? Does a young child with adults treating themselves for flu/CV need a comfort break, when the advice is surely to drink lots of fluid and rest?
4. Common practice and courtesy. Tell your boss where you are, especially if you are sick or going to be out of town, and provide details of how to contact you! Especially when you consider your role is so important. Answer - Shield your boss by inferring, ’He was unaware, and knew nothing’.
5. Team Working. He leads a team or many teams, whom did he inform in his team(s) and rule out he’s not in danger? What is the 10 Downing St protocol (Civil Service protocol) in this circumstance? Did he ignore or disregard those protocols.
6. Special Phone? Govt officials have special private messaging systems and phone systems. Cummings would have at least privately messaged his team and therefore, by association, his boss. His PMs office phone would have been given to him whilst receiving security services scrutiny that it was in compliance as a safe device. The Civil Service has strict rules on this matter on personal phones.
7. Personal Security. As the most important SPAD what are the terms of reference for his ‘minders’, especially as he says his home was under threat. Yesterday’s BBC footage seemed to show a minder on his doorstep. Where were his minders? Were they in London and Durham; does HMG security leave its most important clients to wander off for a couple of weeks, not knowing where?
8. ’Exceptional circumstances’. I don’t see the word ‘exceptional’ in the guidance - Stay at home: guidance for households with possible coronavirus (COVID-19) infection [1].
9. Gender choice. Throughout Cummings sees the females as having to supply the caring roles, and his insistence as having to return back to work, as the man, as the bread winner was more important than maintaining the family’s safety. He also justified what he did, was what any dad would do. What about what mothers would do?
10. Only 22 days more, to achieve Herd Immunity (Save the Economy)? The Sunday Times article, ‘22 days of dither and delay’ reveals the number of cases evolving when the policy is ‘free expansion of a virus’ i.e. attaining Herd Immunity. Perhaps Cummings was 22 days short of attaining Herd Immunity (Save the Economy)? Cummings, Vallance and Johnson all proclaimed the power of the Herd Immunity solution! Video evidence tells that story. The free expansion of the virus allows it to double every three days, at the lockdown. It’s estimated there were 1.5 million infections then, even with a self-limiting restriction coming into play due to a reduction in the numbers of unaffected people available. In three more weeks the UK might have had three quarters of the population infected. 46 million infected. The penny had dropped. 46 million times x% is genocide.
Is this the real story behind the UK disaster! A miscalculation that Herd Immunity (Save the Economy) was the way forward. Any thoughts?
11. So what if a few old people die? It is alleged he said this in a private meeting earlier on when discussions concerning herd immunity were taking place.
12. Driving 60 miles to test eyesight, with your 4 year-old child and wife in the car?
13. The Cummings story is a distraction from the real story.
On the 30th March the Prime Minister stated in his letter to all households, “I give you one simple instruction - You MUST Stay at Home” and ending “These rules must be observed”.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection ‘If you are living with children - Keep following this advice to the best of your ability, however, we are aware that not all these measures will be possible. What we have seen so far is that children with coronavirus (COVID-19) appear to be less severely affected. It is nevertheless important to do your best to follow this guidance.’