Opinions on how the Government have handled the coronavirus outbreak

[slinger]

The director of public prosecutions, Max Hill, is being threatened with legal action if he fails to investigate Dominic Cummings for alleged breaches of the lockdown rules.

A legal team, headed by the barrister Michael Mansfield, has twice written to Hill, expressing concern that no action has yet been taken against Cummings after a Guardian and Daily Mirror investigation revealed the prime minister’s chief adviser travelled with his family to Durham and Barnard Castle during the lockdown.

The letters were sent on 3 and 8 June on behalf of Martin Redston, a 70-year-old London engineer who is concerned that the lockdown laws should apply to everyone irrespective of their position in government.

Replying to Redston’s second letter, Hill’s office confirmed his complaint had been passed to a special crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and a full response would follow in “due course”. But it stopped short of saying the matter was being actively considered, as requested by Redston’s legal team, which also includes the firm Hackett & Dabbs.

The letter said the demand for urgency was “proportionate” given the “very serious loss of public confidence rule of law” at a time of a continued public health emergency that requires public compliance. It also warned any delay risked losing evidence such as CCTV footage and credit card records relating to Cummings’ movements in the north-east.

The letter also pointed out that in his Rose Garden statement, Cummings admitted returning to work in Downing Street on 27 March after tending to his wife who was displaying symptoms of coronavirus. He then admitted travelling to Durham with his wife to seek childcare for their four-year-old son, the letter pointed out.

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[slinger]

Starmer got his retaliation in first at PMQs, today...

"Stop flailing around while trying to blame everyone else"

[slinger]

12th March...

[slinger]

Rory Stewart is an odd bugger, but I sort of like him. I think of him as being a bit like a hippy in a suit. His "oddness" if I can call it that, sadly does him no favours, and I fear he's bound to wear the "weirdo" tag forever, and it will be brought out every time he says something sensible that conflicts with either government policy, or public perception.

Another shame is that he's had to give up his Mayoral campaign because he said he could not ask his volunteer campaigners to keep going for another 12 months. Another tick in the "Decent Bloke" column.

What a shame that he didn't win the Tory leadership contest. With Rory as PM, it would have been a Hell of a wild ride, but I think probably a much "nicer" ride than under the blonde serial shagger we've got now. He actually talks sense once in a while, and I think he would be working WITH Labour now and until we've seen out the pandemic. Trust me, there aren't many Conservatives I'd actually welcome as PM right now.

I think he's doomed to be the eternal outsider and a footnote in UK's political history, which is a shame. We need more British eccentricity in politics today.

[savvypaul]

Robert Jenrick: Housing secretary refuses to answer questions over unlawful help for Tory donor’s property scheme...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 60091.html

[Docfoster]

12th March...

He doesn't say much I disagree with.
Seems less beholden to nasty-party Tory ideology.
Odd that in the still for that video he looks like he's just been dragged out of a canal, but I won't hold that against him.

(Edit... probably my phone screen creating that effect!)

[Docfoster]

Robert Jenrick: Housing secretary refuses to answer questions over unlawful help for Tory donor’s property scheme...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 60091.html

Can't think of a better example of the sort of personalityless, charisma-vacuum, low-calibre, unscrupulous bastards that our current political world is fostering on us.
What a sad state of affairs.
Democracy though. We all need to take responsibility for this.

Edit. Seriously, I look at some of these people and think "you're doing about as good a job as I would do". Believe you me, that ain't good enough!

[CN211276]

Words cannot convey my contempt for Johnson and his muppets. The only thing they are capable of is putting a smoke screen over all the cock ups and lies. Not forgetting there is one rule for the one pulling the stringe and responsible for Brexshite and another for everyone else.

[slinger]

Rory Stewart is an odd bugger, but I sort of like him. I think of him as being a bit like a hippy in a suit. His "oddness" if I can call it that, sadly does him no favours, and I fear he's bound to wear the "weirdo" tag forever, and it will be brought out every time he says something sensible that conflicts with either government policy, or public perception.

Another shame is that he's had to give up his Mayoral campaign because he said he could not ask his volunteer campaigners to keep going for another 12 months. Another tick in the "Decent Bloke" column.

What a shame that he didn't win the Tory leadership contest. With Rory as PM, it would have been a Hell of a wild ride, but I think probably a much "nicer" ride than under the blonde serial shagger we've got now. He actually talks sense once in a while, and I think he would be working WITH Labour now and until we've seen out the pandemic. Trust me, there aren't many Conservatives I'd actually welcome as PM right now.

I think he's doomed to be the eternal outsider and a footnote in UK's political history, which is a shame. We need more British eccentricity in politics today.

[slinger]

Chief nurse dropped from Downing Street coronavirus briefing ‘after refusing to back Dominic Cummings’

England’s chief nurse was dropped from one of Downing Street‘s daily coronavirus briefings after refusing to publicly back Dominic Cummings, senior sources have told The Independent.

As Boris Johnson’s chief aide was engulfed in scandal over his trips to Durham and Barnard Castle during the lockdown, Ruth May had been due to appear alongside health secretary Matt Hancock in the press conference.

But, in practice questions hours before the briefing, she was asked about Mr Cummings and, after failing to give support to the prime minister’s chief adviser, she was immediately dropped from the press conference, according to senior NHS sources.

Instead, the health secretary had to present the slides on Covid-19 himself for the first time, alongside Professor John Newton from Public Health England. The incident, on 1 June, was two days after England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam sparked headlines by saying that lockdown rules “apply to all” when asked about Mr Cummings. He has not appeared at the press conferences since 30 May.

A senior NHS source said: “A No 10 spad [special adviser] asked her directly how she would answer the Dominic Cummings question and she refused to play along and told them she would answer the same way as Jonathan Van-Tam. She was dropped immediately from the press briefing.”

Another added: “JVT was the first to publicly push back on TV. Everyone is being asked to support the government positions prior to doing a press conference. If they don’t, they get dropped.

“First it was Dominic Cummings, then easing lockdown and now the R-rate and the two-metre rule.”

Separately, Whitehall officials are critical of what they see as No 10’s grip on the daily briefings and the way the science and health advice is being used.

No 10 has previously touted the briefings – with ministers alongside health and scientific advisers – as an opportunity for the public to get advice directly from the experts on coronavirus. When they began in March, Downing Street said they would focus on informing the public “on how to protect themselves”.

In April, when questions from members of the public were introduced alongside those from journalists, the prime minister’s official spokesman said it was “absolutely right that the public gets the chance to put their questions to the government and its experts”.

Mr Johnson repeatedly insisted that public adherence to lockdown would not be affected by the revelations involving Mr Cummings.

On 28 May, he blocked chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, from answering a media question about the affair, before both men insisted that as civil servants they did not want to be pulled into politics.

The chief nurse was also due to appear at the press conference on 5^th June but did not after being delayed by traffic.

Asked to comment, No 10 said it strongly denied the claims that Ms May had been dropped over her views on Mr Cummings and added that health and scientific advisers would continue to take questions in the briefings. NHS England was also approached for comment.

SOURCE

Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.

George Orwell: 1984

The Party member, like the proletarian, tolerates present-day conditions because he has no standards of comparison. He must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off than his ancestors and that the average level of material comfort is constantly rising.

George Orwell: 1984

Day and night the telescreens bruised your ears with statistics proving that people today had more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreations—that they lived longer, worked shorter hours, were bigger, healthier, stronger, happier, more intelligent, better educated, than the people of fifty years ago.

George Orwell: 1984