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1/ In the first two weeks of lockdown my two small children, wife and I self-isolated because my wife had a temperature, and that’s one of the symptoms of Covid. We live in a not-very-big flat in London without a garden. I was working from home at the time (since furloughed).
2/ Together we were chaotically trying to home-school our children and I was feeling intense anxiety about getting my work done. When they retired my parents moved to a big old house in the country with extensive gardens and six bedrooms, as well as an outhouse.
3/ Had we thought at any time - particularly after our two weeks of isolation, when it was clear we were all clean and symptom-free - that we could have decamped to the country to see out lockdown there, we’d have been sorely tempted and would have weighed up the risks.
4/ I’m sure others lucky enough to have parents living in those circs would have too. We didn’t, of course, because the rules said we couldn’t. We also didn’t want to unwittingly infect my elderly parents, given we couldn’t rule out we didn’t have or wouldn’t pick up the germs.
5/ What’s more, we also knew another argument for not doing this is it potentially puts a strain on local health services, which are delicately calibrated to support the needs of residents, not temporary incomers. We’re not saints. We just followed the guidance and common sense.
6/ I don’t understand how Tory MPs can live with themselves in their rush to defend the indefensible. The other tweets I’ve tweeted myself or retweeted provide many reasons why. And this ISN’T a party-political matter. It’s a matter of trust.
7/ If Cummings goes, that doesn’t bring the government down. It just cleans it up a bit. Has my antipathy to him, his politics and his methods fuelled my outrage? Probably a bit, if I’m honest. But only because it confirms my suspicions about his character.
8/ His faux-anti-elitism. His “following the science” crap. His two fingers to everyone he thought too thick to follow private rules he set for himself. His spin. His arseholery. Anyone defending him is being used or a bastard. Johnson, Hancock, Sunak, Gove: shame on you. /Ends
