Tories - Lockdown Is For Little People

As the hours tick by, the excuses advanced in defence of chief Downing Street polecat Dominic Cummings, and his family trip of more than 260 miles from London to somewhere near Durham while he and his wife were infected with Coronavirus, wear ever more thin, yet the Tories continue to circle the wagons and defend him.

Polecat Dom...

... and the slogans he was too important to follow

Cummings has declared that he does not care how bad his behaviour looked, because his flagrant breach of the lockdown to which the little people had to adhere was “the right thing” to do. He and the politicians he has by the short hairs have not yet been seen rushing to defend even one other lockdown breaker. But on they went with their spin.

The story changed, as James O’Brien observed. “From grandparents to sister in about twelve hours. Why? Simple. BBC political editor spins for Cummings. Story falls apart. BBC political editor unapologetically spins the new version. This is genuinely shocking conduct by [Laura Kuenssberg]”. Ms K was there to willingly spin with the Tories.

Then the cops were accused of lying, as Adam Bienkov of Business Insider noted. “Downing Street say ‘at no point’ was Dominic Cummings or his family spoken to by the police”. Durham Police say they made contact. And then they rallied round.

After Jim Pickard of the FT warned “Number 10 is apparently using WhatsApp to order MPs to circle the wagons and put out supportive statements to try to hold the line”, out they came. Like Suella “Cultural Marxism” Braverman with ”Protecting one’s family is what any good parent does. The [10 Downing Street] statement clarifies the situation and it is wholly inappropriate to politicise it”. How DARE anyone criticise poor Dom?

There was more of the same from Rishi Sunak (“Taking care of your wife and young child is justifiable and reasonable, trying to score political points over it isn’t.”), to which one Tweeter responded “A reminder that Rishi wouldn't even be Chancellor of the Exchequer if he hadn't bent over and accepted Cummings' choice of SPADS”. And more.

Michael “Oiky” Gove was on the same page, with “Caring for your wife and child is not a crime”. Tom Peck was unimpressed. “Actual former Justice Secretary there, saying it's fine to commit crime if you're caring for your wife and child while doing it. So if you're short on cash and fancy holding up a petrol station, go right ahead. It's not a crime”.

None of these less than totally august cabinet members seemed to understand that this was a blatant breach of their own rules, and that one can care for one’s family without taking a 260-plus mile drive and putting countless others at risk by doing so. Claire Phipps of the Guardian was not swayed. “Cabinet ministers could at least put some effort into making these seem like their original thoughts and not a dictated line”. Well, quite.

Meanwhile, Pippa Crerar of the Mirror, one of the two papers that had broken the story, had more: “SNP writes to Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill calling for investigation into Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules - after calling for him to stand down. Poses these questions”. When did Bozo know? Did anyone in Government OK Dom’s jaunt? Had the Polecat not been asked to go? Had Bozo taken part in a cover-up?

The response from those looking in at the unfolding shit-show was a combination of déjà vu, and attempts to make the Government understand that this was not an optimal response. Especially using the BBC’s political editor as a conduit, as John O’Connell pointed out. “It is, in fact, posts such as these that ensures the continuation of the current trend: That no-one believes Cummings; No-one believes ‘sources'; and no-one believes Laura Kuenssberg any more". And Scott Wortley had more general bad news.

“Every line of defence this morning from UK government ministers is destroying their messaging on behaviour regarding the virus, the community buy in to it, and risking wider breach now and under any future second lockdown”. Exactly. What it tells us is that lockdown is only for little people. Those like Polecat Dom can excuse busting such trivial rules by claiming that this is because they care. They are special.

But those little people, who have been locked down for two months, are not going to take kindly to being told they have to remain locked down, while those making the rules can flout them, say they don’t care what it looks like, and get the Tory Party’s collective cannon fodder to cover their backsides for them. That is why Cummings’ position is untenable.

More seriously, if the Tories can’t get that through their heads, the whole country is screwed. Still, what’s a few more tens of thousands of dead bodies between friends, eh?

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