Cummings & Goings

Well, Dominick Cummings has blown the gaff on our utterly incompetent and shambolic government - not that it came as any surprise to those whose consciousness extends beyond the ends of their noses. 

Can we believe him, given his Baynard's Castle escapade? I think so, as very little of what he said was new - it merely added some heretofore unknown detail. If you've read Failures of State, then you'll understand this. We also have the evidence of our own eyes via one of the worst death tolls in the world (even India is still well below us in deaths per million), Boris' 5 missed COBRA meetings, late lockdowns, borders not being closed, pensioners who allegedly had a protective ring around them being released back into care homes without testing and causing 40,000 deaths, Hancock using posted Covid tests as completed tests so he could say he'd met his target, the failed Test and Trace system - which are all incontrovertible facts that were reported at the time. 

Also, it wasn't about him saving his own bacon and auditioning for his next job; it was a revenge attack for Johnson turning on him and briefing his friends in the press that Cummings was the source of the Dyson leaks. It's a self-inflicted injury on the part of Johnson - you don't piss off the person who was your key SPAD, was at the heart of every decision and knows the location of every skeleton; however, Johnson appears to be too egotistical to realise this.

Cummings has rightly apologised for his not pressing the panic button earlier, but who would listen anyway when the guy at the top was worse than him. Cummings arrived at the Select Committee meeting armed with texts, emails and photos proving what was said - he has the receipts. 

Anyone who continues to defend this buffoon Johnson, when his proven complacency is directly responsible for tens of thousands of needless deaths, should hang their heads in shame, loosen the blue scarves that are preventing their blood reaching their brains and face someone who has lost a relative and tell them that Boris did a good job. I know they are lying to themselves, they know they are lying to themselves and they know that I know they are lying to themselves. Saying no-one else could have done better is plain ignorance when the leaders of most countries did indeed do better.

At PMQ's, when questioned by Keir Starmer, Johnson accused Starmer of continually looking in the rear view mirror when 'what the people are really interested in' (words that are a sure cue for a diversionary ramble about what the majority of people are not interested in, especially the relatives of the 127,000  dead) looking forward. To what though; finding imaginary enemies, protecting statues of people they've never heard of, worshipping flags, blaming the EU for a treaty Boris signed and Frost received a peerage for, inventing fake history of National Trust properties and a Culture War on wokeness? He's certainly not talking for me, nor any decent human being who puts a higher value on people than symbols.

For Boris to maintain he did everything possible to save lives is manifestly a lie that the evidence, freely available at the time, proves is a lie.

Boris doesn't want to look in the rear view mirror, as the view is littered with thousands of bodies that he is directly responsible for through his prevarication and ineptitude. What an insensitive thing to say to those who do look back and see their dead relatives.

If any lessons are to be learned, then now is the time to launch an official inquiry, not when the results won't come to fruition till those responsible have left office and found nice, well paid sinecures in commerce, which seems to be the aim of entering politics for many. Events are still fresh in people's minds, we're at the tail end of the pandemic and an interim report would facilitate the creation of a coherent plan to combat the next pandemic (a plan which already existed, thanks to Gordon Brown and Operation Winter Willow, and was successfully used as a template by Singapore, but ignored by the British government), which could feasibly strike as soon as next year (especially if it's proven China is dabbling with bio-weapons). But no, Boris will not be scrutinised and will continue to lie through his teeth to the British public with many idiotic Britons continuing to cheer him on and loving him for it.

30 years ago, this would have resulted in resignations. Not today though - he will brazen it out, supported by a fawning press. When Boris is lambasted as being unfit for office by two, highly respected Conservative journalists - Max Hastings and Peter Oborne - you know the Conservative Party is in trouble.

One statement from Cummings stands out - what state has this country's political system come to when the options before the electorate were Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn? The country is fatally broken and the barbarians are not only at the gate, but in the heart of Rome, wreaking havoc and plundering the treasury. 

The irony is that Cummings helped create an environment where truth no longer matters.