Actually, balls to it

You want my 'scientific' take on the #Cummings thing?

It wasn't a clever ploy to ease lockdown early, it wasn't all political misdirection. He and Johnson genuinely don't give a damn about any of us

Because there was no apology

To explain...

/1 https://twitter.com/garwboy/status/1266089393099468800

If #Cummings has apologised for his actions, said something like "I panicked, I was worried about my kid, I did what I shouldn't have done. I'm sorry", that could/would have pulled the rug out from under much of this story. It would have been so easy

/2

Don't get me wrong, an apology would have been hugely cynical and self-serving. He wouldn't have *actually* been sorry, and people like myself would have been just as angry. Maybe more so? But in terms of how the story played out, it would have defanged it a fair bit

/3

Would have put it to be earlier, would have given cover by allowing Johnson and co. to say "He has apologised". He'd have kept his job, and no doubt many in the UK have violated lockdown in some way or other when they thought it necessary, so could 'relate', perhaps

/4

Point is, an apology from #Cummings would have spared him and Johnson a lot of hassle. And you'd think someone who's a genius at manipulating public opinion, as Cummings supposedly is, would recognise that very quickly

But no, no apology

/5

Wouldn't even have to be a genuine one. It's not like #Cummings and Johnson haven't openly lied to the public for their own ends multiple times already. And when lives are on the line, as well as political capital, you'd think it'd be easier

But no, they didn't. Or couldn't

/6

If this was an elaborate master plan to end the lockdown surreptitiously, then a phoney apology that saved political capital would have been an obvious element of it. But no, there wasn't one. Personally, I think that's telling.

/7

[exactly how the #Cummings scandal is a ruse to make people break lockdown without the govt being blamed when it involved focusing the entire country's rage on the man running the govt is a whole other question, one that I can't help you with as it's not my conspiracy]

/8

Point is, if this whole thing was a cynically calculated thing to manipulate us all, a fake apology would have been an obvious element of it. But it wasn't.

/9

The more obvious explanations, for me, are that Johnson and #Cummings either don't see what they have to apologise for, or do, but can't bring themselves to do it

Either they severely lack empathy with people worse off (i.e everyone), or can't contemplate admitting fault

/10

Neither is good for anyone, but particularly not for people running a country of 70 million people during a global health crisis

If they can't grasp that #Cummings did something wrong, they clearly cannot relate to the needs/wants of those they're in charge of

/11

If they do grasp why #Cummings should apologise but cannot do so, even though it would cost very little and benefit them greatly, then they clearly value their own image and ego above all else, including the lives of the population in this case.

/12

Either explanation is, I would argue, something that means they aren't safe to be in charge of anything more elaborate than a Lego Pirate Ship, let alone a first world nation

/13

Basically, if the #Cummings thing were an elaborate genius plan, he and/or Johnson would have apologised

But they didn't. The more logical conclusion is that they're both amoral cesspits of humans who couldn't care less if we (or our relatives) die

Science, that is

/end