OK. The idiot @CraigMurray is insinuating in his blog that Dominic Cummings was in Barnard Castle on April 12th to broker some dodgy deal with GSK, which has a premises in the town. I'm going to explain patiently why this idea is stupid.

I have no axe to grind here. I just don't like idiotic conspiracy theories and am writing this thread in the hope that people will learn to think for themselves rather than follow the illiterate ramblings of fuckwits, as so many people prefer.

so... A) Craig Murray can't even get the name of the town right. He calls it "Castle Barnard", even though as a child he lived in "nearby Peterlee" (or maybe LeePeter?) With a fundamental error like this, do we think it is probable that anything else he says is accurate?

B) GSK does indeed have a factory in Barnard Castle. Although it is one of the major employers (along with HMYOI Deerbolt) in the town, it isn't big for Glaxo. And Murray says it is the "research and manufacturing centre". It's not. it's a small factory...

...that makes dermatology creams and some sterile injectable products. But not vaccines. If you want GSK vaccine R&D/manufacture, you need to be talking to the Belgians. https://be.gsk.com/en/about-us/what-we-do/vaccines/

C) If you want to talk policy and strategy with the GSK Bigwigs, they are in London - Brentford and Berkeley Square, specifically. Do you think the senior team also broke lockdown to drive 260 miles to Durham when they could have popped over the Westway?

D) The GSK plant is in the north of the town, near the A688, which is the road from Durham. Cummings car was spotted at the south of the town, near the river. You would not park there either to visit GSK. The plant has a mahoosive car park...

E)... which would pretty much be empty on Easter Sunday, apart from the manufacturing staff, who were... manufacturing stuff, 24/7 or otherwise.

And F) DC was with wife and 4 year old. Who takes their kids to critical business meetings? On Easter Sunday? On his wife's birthday?

And G) - and this is the critical piece. What would a government SpAd be doing, discussing Covid vaccine deals with GSK anyway? Do you think global pharma companies need to have it pointed out to them that there's a pandemic on?

Do you think that unless Beanie Rasputin had suggested it to them, they would never have thought of meeting a grave unmet health need and making some money in the process? IT'S WHAT THEY DO. Every day, every year, world wide. It is literally their business.

And H) A deal of this magnitude would have been discussed for weeks, and had nothing to do with clandestine interference from UK government. Companies take global approaches, and do not do the bidding of government.

So a good thing happened and not because of Dominic Cummings.

Here's the Occam's razor alternative: DC and family were in Durham. They were bored, It was his wife's birthday and they drove 40 min from Durham for a walk/picnic by the river. He shouldn't have done it, but it wasn't because of an Easter Sunday imaginary meeting with GSK. OK?