The politicians defending Cummings are the same ones who told you the NHS was getting another £350m a week. The same ones who told you if you voted to remain you’d have a Turkish family wanting to sleep on your sofa. The same guys who promised the easiest trade deal in history and that WTO rules would be fine and that, anyway, we’d be staying in the single market. The same crew that promised to protect food and welfare standards in a new UK agriculture bill before voting against the amendment to protect those standards just eleven days ago.
Meanwhile, this parcel of rogues is being nominally led – I say nominally, the de facto Prime Minister is actually Dominic Cummings – by a guy who lied to his partner, lied to the head of state over the reasons for proroguing parliament and got sacked as a journalist – twice – for making stuff up.
Blatant dishonesty has long been the new normal for this administration, and in that appalling context the Cummings scandal is just another piece of depressing mendacity from an amoral government that has long since lost its moral compass, if indeed it ever had one. In this bouroch of falsehoods and fake news, the Cummings story barely registers with them, which is why he’ll probably survive. You can’t lose credibility when you’d long since not owned any. There’s no point in even saying “lying Tories”. It’s a tautology. It’s what they do. Lying is their modus operandi.
They’ll no doubt pull some “dead cat” story out of a drawer tomorrow to distract us from Cummings. The dogs will bark and the caravan will move on. Scotland’s continuing presence in this sewer makes us complicit. It’s impossible for us to have influence whatsoever, and there’s a compelling argument that, when this is over, we should never, ever, return. Whether Cummings stays or goes in a sense changes nothing. Whether Scotland wishes to continue as part of this gruesome charade is a much more pressing and interesting question.
Stay safe everybody. I’ll meet you further on up the road.
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Spot on everywhere, Alec – not unusually! Scotland must break free and not just because of this government in Westminster. But I fear for England, where I was born and raised. It need not be like that. England must change because it need not be like that and deserves better. It has some great people, although they can sometimes be difficult to spot from up here.
I think this is the dead cat moment…. Cummings wants everybody out and about, return to school and back working. He is the promoter of the ” herd immunity ” strategy. DC doesnt care what people think of him, what better way is to piss the public off having watched this saga unroll over the english bank holiday weekend into saying that’s it I’m finished with staying in and not seeing family etc etc. They, the public, are doing what he wants them to do…. just read his early years stuff!
Interesting – Cummings is the deceased feline? You might be right.
Exactly what I said yesterday. They want lockdown broken and they want to be able to say it was our very own fault. Use your common sense……and now add in a little instinct and intuition into the mix and off we all go like little sheep chorusing, if he can do it then so can I. Cases are already on the increase after their VE day celebrations, then it will be his shambolic Sunday night speech increase and now we’ll have a DC increase. Well I’ll be sticking with ‘Stay Home’.
Great stuff Helen, thanks. Interesting piece from Lesley Riddoch in the Scotsman this morning – her take is that Cummings / Johnson figured that there’s a certain hard Brexiteer demographic to whom flagrant double standards, hypocrisy and law breaking actually appeals. Chimes with what I was saying – lying is so commonplace that this stuff barely registers. Extraordinary.
Excellent read
I’ve been following you for a few years now, formerly from Australia and now back in the UK. Thank goodness there are people like you who are not afraid of the truth. You give me heart that there might be one or two of us who see through this charade. Alec for Prime Minister!!!
Thanks Helen. And cheers for the job offer.
I must respectively decline. Call me again after we regain our independence…..keep safe and thanks for the support. Appreciate it.
Aye, cheers Andy. I’m always stressing that my criticisms are aimed at the English government – not its people. Up until recently, I’d travelled to many parts of England and met loads of wonderful folk. They’re living proof that you don’t necessarily get the government you deserve. No-one ever deserved Dominic Cummings. Stay safe.
That’s true up to a point, Alec. But beyond that point we have to accept that large numbers of people voted for this government – Cummings and all – and continue to think they are doing all the right things, and I don’t mean just the handling of the coronavirus. I just cannot imagine a place, both physically and metaphorically, where thousands of people (actually 28,360 on a 76% turnout) think that Jacob Rees-Mogg is the very best person to look after their interests.
You’re right Andy. I was probably making a big of an exaggeration to make a point. That’s a stunning stat on JRM, by the way. It’s true – you’ve identified the elephant in the room. England voted for him, he’s a massive majority and a 12 point lead in the polls and Starmer is essentially Corbyn with better suits. He’s been quiet, don’t you think? And even if he was the most enlightened and progressive Labour leader in history and they voted him in, history shows they’d soon vote him out again. Either way, Scotland is ignored. So that leaves one option.
Cummings spectacularly broke the rules and not only put members of his immediate family at risk but in in an area of England that appears to have a higher rate of coronavirus infection than other parts of the country.
According to figures published by Public Health England, more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the North East than in any other region with Sunderland having the highest infection rate out of any “upper tier” local authority in England.
Johnson’s dependence on his “special one” will undoubtedly prevail and he’ll retain his job but should a second wave of the virus surge in England’s north east Cummings should be considered to be criminally culpable.
Our FM now urgently needs to reappraise how to break free from this utterly deplorable regime and forget any road down the Section 30 route.
Keep up the good work Alec.
Cheers Iain, and I’d agree with every word. Interesting that so many Tory ministers immediately offered their support (he was just looking after his child etc). Given how much political capital they would have lost if Johnson handed DC his jotters, we must conclude that they’d agreed immediately not to sack him.
Good afternoon Alec
Do you remember, in ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, it gets to a time when Napoleon ( the head pig) doesn’t appear in public so much. His orders and instructions are, instead, relayed to the populace, by Squealer, or one of the other high-up pigs. While the workers, are told to get on with their work.
That man Orwell, had vision.
Meanwhile have a look at the front page of ‘The Orcadian’ – https://www.orcadian.co.uk/government-backs-nhso-chiefs-highland-commute/
Having read that, I was puttering at Mike, saying that…….. It won’t matter – these days – he can do that, and get away with it. There’s an article in the paper, there’ll be a bit of a flutter in some places, then it will all – drift away.
Then, I read your article, about much the same thing, on a larger canvas. It’s do as I say, not as I do.
Let’s get independence for Scotland, so that the ‘orders’ at least come from people who have some kind of connection with – the people.
But – it also looks like – nationally or locally – if you’re high up or rich or both, you can do what you like . We’ve gone back about 200 years.
What now?
Hi Bernie, hope you and Mike are well and thanks for the link which I’ll have a read of. Normally I’ve a few Orcadian papers in the office from my trips to the isles. This year? Not so much. You’ve identified few a central theme of this pandemic though – class, privilege, wealth. This crisis has shone a light on this. I dearly hope that our leaders (and all of us) in an independent Scotland choose to tackle these things properly rather than just seeing things through the same old prism. We cannae afford to go back to the old normal. There’s never been a better chance to build a Brave New World.
Spot on with the Orwell thing btw. Slainte.
Maybe….it’s something deeply ingrained in the English psyche – to obey the high-ups, and ‘know your place’. Remember this?
https://twitter.com/johncleese/status/1254130854462455813?lang=en
Whereas, maybe it’s equally something deeply ingrained in the Celtic psyche – to rebel. Wales is going it’s own way, too.
If I’ve done this right, it’s a petition to get Cummings sacked……..
http://chng.it/cSL4StXFD9
Ah winna look up tae any o’ they three because ma tartan flutters freely ower the lot!