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This is going to be another one of my rare serious threads, so feel free to ignore if you’re just here for the cat pictures (more of those soon)
Senior government ministers leaping to defend Dominic Cummings for breaking the government’s lockdown regulations is VERY dangerous
Senior government ministers leaping to defend Dominic Cummings for breaking the government’s lockdown regulations is VERY dangerous
It’s immediately clear what orchestrated line the government have chosen to adopt: Cummings was doing what any parent would in that situation so his actions were justified:
And that’s where it becomes dangerous. Very dangerous. We’re nowhere near the end of this situation. We still need people to follow the rules or else more people will die. And the rules were absolutely clear:
By defending Cummings and accusing those of criticising his rule-breaking of “politicising” the incident, these senior members of the government are knowingly undermining the rules that they have put in place.
They could have been clear that what Cummings did was against the regulations and that he shouldn’t have done it. They could have said that despite that poor decision it was still appropriate for him to keep his job.
Instead they opted to undermine the regulations they put in place - to claim that this was permissible and the natural course of action for a worried father. And that is the truly dangerous part.
These senior members of the government have signalled that this is what any parent would and should have done in these circumstances. They have made parents that followed the rules feel that they did the wrong thing; that they didn’t care enough for their child to break the rules
And so what happens if the government needs to tighten restrictions again, if there is a second peak? The message is now clear - the rules might appear unambiguous but they are not. There is flexibility. You can ignore them if you think that’s best.
By adopting this strategy to defend their colleague they have opened a loophole so large that a 250 mile journey to Durham can fit through it. That’s a bad thing for all of us.
The inevitable post script - confirmation that they don’t care about the repercussions: https://twitter.com/alliehbnews/status/1264161392061493250
Further post script: this example encapsulates the danger perfectly. The HEALTH Secretary stating that those “getting ill” are “entirely right” to leave their homes in circumstances they judge to be similar.
The problem being that, according to the account he’s now provided, Cummings was able to look after his child throughout the entire period.
