Despite Boris Johnson imploring us all to ‘Move On’ his controversial puppet master Dominic Cummings is in the spotlight again as the public demand that he must be held to account for breaking the lockdown rules we were all subjected to earlier in the year. This is especially important as he himself devised the rules! According to a recent Guardian Article, “Downing Street has been urged to provide proof that Dominic Cummings did not make a second trip to Durham during lockdown amid claims that police failed to properly investigate alleged sightings of the prime minister’s chief aide. Two of four people who claim to have seen Cummings on what would have been a second visit to the north-east of England have complained to the police watchdog, accusing the Durham force of not fully probing their claims.” They say, “Cummings has consistently denied returning to Durham on 19 April, days after he came back to London from a trip that was subsequently exposed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Daily Mirror.”
The Guardian report that, “The prime minister’s chief adviser has said that phone data and potentially CCTV would prove he was in London – and the Guardian has been told of one sighting of him on Hampstead Heath that afternoon. However, neither he nor Downing Street has gone public with the evidence they say they have – and which Boris Johnson says he has seen – and pressure is mounting again for full transparency to answer lingering questions about his movements.” We all totally trust the PM implicitly, because we can be absolutely certain he would never lie… Would he? They say, “Cummings’ initial trip to Durham caused widespread uproar and is cited as one of the chief reasons for the public losing faith in the government’s handling of the crisis.”
The witnesses are reportedly, “Clare Edwards, a nurse practitioner, and her husband, Dave, say they saw a man they believe to have been Cummings on 19 April just after 11am in Houghall woods on the edge of Durham. On 25 May they gave statements to police about the alleged sighting, just as Cummings was giving a press conference in Downing Street denying a claim by another witness that he was seen admiring bluebells with his wife in the same woods on 19 April, at about 8.30am. Since then, a fourth witness has alleged they saw the No 10 aide and a companion in between the woods and the home of Cummings’ parents that day, between 11.15am and 11.30am. A further witness told the Guardian that they saw Cummings back in north London, on Hampstead Heath, later the same afternoon.”
According to the Guardian, “Durham police found ‘insufficient evidence’ that Cummings was in Durham on 19 April.” Perhaps they used that familiar Government trick of not bothering to look? “Following that assessment, Clare and Dave Edwards, both 59, made a subject access request under the Data Protection Act, asking the force to show them all the personal information it had about them as a result of their complaint, which they hoped might reveal how it was followed up. Most of the police correspondence about their original complaints was redacted and labelled ‘official – sensitive’. All pre-dated the statements given to police, which Dave Edwards suggests means the police did nothing more with those statements. Edwards said he believed the results, returned last week, suggested that their testimony was not taken seriously.”
On Wednesday the couple complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. They said: “Given the high-profile nature of this issue, it is inconceivable that this matter has not been followed up thoroughly. We have no personal issue with Mr Cummings or his family, but we do feel that Durham police’s handling of our complaint is below the standard we would expect from our local constabulary.” The Guardian report that, “The Edwardses asked whether officers checked automatic number recognition cameras for the movements of Cummings’ car that weekend. This information would not typically be revealed under a subject access request, and the force did not answer.” The issue here is that it would not be difficult for Cummings to rule out this possibility if he was put under the normal requirements of being asked to provide an alibi, but he is obviously being treated as a special case. He helped draft the rules that the rest of us are constrained by so it is not as if his own transgressions are irrelevant.
In his revelations to the Guardian Dave Edwards, remains convinced that he saw Cummings among a group of five adults and a child. “He was the dead image of Dominic Cummings. He was standing over a small child on a bike. As I got through the clearing, I said to my wife: ‘Did you see Dominic Cummings there?” Edwards said “He was identical to the TV footage: dark beanie hat, dark-rimmed glasses. If it was mistaken identity, the police could have ruled that out. If Cummings had the evidence, it would be very easy for him to say: ‘Here I am in Costa coffee in London at 10am on 19 April,’ or whatever, ‘so I couldn’t have been in Houghall woods’. He noted that,“I’m not politically motivated, I have nothing against Cummings. But we think what we saw was important given the circumstances of the lockdown, and we feel that our complaint has been airbrushed.”
Clare Edwards had said: “I’m certainly sure that it was Dominic Cummings.” “In her statement to officers, she said she saw a man she thought to be Cummings just after 11.01am on 19 April. She said she was able to be precise after finding a timestamped geolocated photograph she took of the woods moments before seeing the man. The couple remember the date because they had a Zoom party and quiz for their son’s birthday the day before as they were not allowed to meet due to the lockdown restrictions. Clare Edwards also called on Cummings to release evidence proving he was in London at the time.” The Guardian say that, “A fourth witness, who does not want to be named, is convinced that they saw Cummings and a companion between 11.15am and 11.30am that day, between Houghall woods and Cummings’ father’s property. They made a digital note of the sighting, including location data, which was shared with friends at the time.” They say, “That note has been seen by the Guardian and Daily Mirror.”
The witness said: “I do follow politics, so I know what people look like.” Asked whether they were sure it was Cummings, they said: “We know his parents do live locally, so we have recognised them before in the local area. I would recognise him again. At first I could not quite believe that I had seen him. I thought: ‘Why would he be up here?’ But I posted about it on the day. I was sure about it at the time.” People who live in the area would have been more familiar with recognizing Cummings from past visits to Durham so should perhaps be considered more credible.
There was the usual ‘Move On’ language from No 10 where a spokesman said: “Durham constabulary have made clear they are not taking any further action against Mr Cummings and that by locating himself at his father’s premises he did not breach the regulations.” They then backed up their insistence with a word or two from our scrupulously honest and reliable Prime Minister who, “has said he believes Mr Cummings behaved reasonably and he considers the matter closed.” However, the public do not agree! The Guardian report that, “No 10 did not comment on specific allegations that Cummings was in Durham on 19 April. Cummings has defended driving to his parents’ farm from London on 27 March after fearing that he and his wife were falling ill with coronavirus, to seek potential childcare for their four-year-old son. They made a 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle on 12 April – Cummings said to test his eyesight – and drove back to London the following day.” No one in the UK actually believes this fanciful line of total hogwash.
It should not require the efforts of concerned citizens going out of their way to demand that the police do their job and treat us all in an equal manner. We are really sick of special exceptions for the ruling elite. Cummings was treated like an exceptionally important person and allocated a press conference in the Downing Street rose garden in May really infuriated the public. No prior unelected ‘adviser’ has demanded such privilege before, but this proves Cummings is the power behind the PM. He denied the allegation he had returned to Durham on the 19th. In his statement he had said: “There is a particular report that I returned there on the 19 April. Photos and data on my phone prove this to be false and local CCTV, if it exists, would also prove that I’m telling the truth that I was in London on that day. I was not in Durham.” However although he has claimed that the witnesses were mistaken, he has still not provided that crucial evidence and Johnson must be growing increasingly concerned that the public will not let this matter drop.
The Guardian reported that, “At the end of May, the prime minister was challenged by the Commons liaison committee about whether he had seen the evidence. After dodging the question three times, he said he had, but refused MPs’ requests to publish the evidence or pass it to the cabinet secretary for independent scrutiny. The Guardian asked Downing Street to provide the data to rule out a case of mistaken identity on 19 April, but it declined.” A Durham police spokesman said: “As outlined in our statement of 28 May, Durham constabulary carried out an investigation into this matter led by a senior detective and found insufficient evidence to support the allegation.”
In a welcome move that will undoubtedly win public approval it appears at least some sections of our hapless UK Media are piling on the pressure to demand proper scrutiny and accountability from those dishing out the dictates constraining every aspect of our lives. In another Guardian Article entitled, “Cummings trips damaged UK lockdown unity, study suggests” they claim that the, “Scandal over adviser’s journey to Durham broke trust in lockdown measures and politicians.” They say that, “The scandal over Dominic Cummings’ trips to and around Durham during lockdown damaged trust and was a key factor in the breakdown of a sense of national unity amid the coronavirus pandemic” according to research that suggests, “Revelations that Cummings and his family travelled to his parents’ farm despite ministers repeatedly imploring the public to stay at home, as exposed by the Guardian and the Daily Mirror in May, also crystallised distrust in politicians over the crisis, according to a report from the thinktank British Future.”
According to the Guardian, “The findings emerged in a series of surveys, diaries and interviews carried out over the first months of the pandemic as the public got to grips with profound changes to their habits, relationships and lifestyles. It found that while the start of lockdown forged a new community spirit and softened divisions caused by Brexit, this dissipated as the Cummings scandal emerged, lockdown rules were eased and social tensions resurfaced, especially over how far people observed social distancing rules. While the pandemic has made the UK overall less divided – and revealed an appetite to hang on to perceived gains in community spirit created under lockdown – it warns that tensions could re-emerge in the coming recession over issues such as growing perceptions of a gap between rich and poor.” The privileged few and the exploited peasantry of rising British inequality.
They quote Jill Rutter, the author of the report, saying: “There’s a risk that past divides are re-emerging as society starts to reopen. The shared experience of lockdown made many people feel more connected to their neighbours and local community. Now that sense of togetherness is starting to fray. The good news is that people would rather we kept hold of it.” They say that the study notes: “The perception that the prime minister’s adviser, Dominic Cummings, had broken lockdown rules was a highly salient issue that appeared to damage trust in politicians.” I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one outraged as they relay that, “Participants in the research grew ‘noticeably angrier’ about politicians after the revelations, although it also served to create fresh consensus. It was not, however, as divisive an incident as might be thought. Most people, irrespective of their political views, appeared to disapprove of Cummings’ action.”
The Guardian report that, “The study was carried out for the /Together coalition, a campaign set up in the wake of Brexit to bridge social divides and build a kinder society. It comprises two surveys of more than 2,000 people carried out in early March and late May and June, and material from online discussion groups and 36 WhatsApp diarists. The start of lockdown heralded a new community spirit, characterised by neighbourly generosity, volunteering, enhanced social connectedness, and ‘acts of kindness from strangers,’ all promoting strong feelings of national unity, the study found. This sense of togetherness and generosity, typified by the weekly clap for carers in support of the NHS and other frontline workers, made people feel ‘part of something that was positive and larger than just their street’ and helped heal deep social divisions over Brexit.” Yep, Boris and his toffs got us to turn of the Brexit tap: that particular strand of political propaganda is no longer needed as a cover for the Covert 2019 Rigged Election.
Delving further into the report the Guardian say that, “by mid-May, this unity had started to dissipate, researchers found, with the perception that ‘some groups of people were not observing social distancing rules’ becoming a major source of division, especially as lockdown rules were eased. In addition to the Cummings revelations, the sense of unity broke down further as differences in lockdown policy emerged between the Westminster and devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There were also differences in attitudes to, and experiences of, the pandemic between young and old, and home workers and key workers. A major public concern was the division between rich and poor. ‘It was felt that those in power needed to address wealth divides, but also recognise that more work was needed to bring people together in urban areas with a more transient population’.”
It will be a cause of growing concern for Boris Johnson to learn that, “There was widespread support for the Black Lives Matter campaign – including broad support from people of all ethnic groups and ages for action to tackle inequality and racial prejudice in the UK – although there was concern about violence on some of the protests. The study urges the government to invest in the positive bonds created under lockdown, such as in volunteering programmes.” They report that, “Our leaders, whatever their political views, need to make healing social divides a priority, and to commit a practical agenda to make it happen.” The Guardian article included a few telling quotes in response to questions in the report.
One person summed up the overall sentiment of respondents to the question, “Are we more divided or more united as a country?” He said, “More divided, two reasons. The first is the Dominic Cummings saga. The vast majority of people see it as one rule for those in charge and one rule for everyone else and this is now causing issues as many people are flaunting lockdown rules, whilst others are at the opposite end of the scale and worried about government advice and whether to trust them.” So I would say if Boris Johnson thinks we have ‘moved on’ from the Cummings debacle he is deluded. I that the witnesses who have taken a defiant stand, but we hasn’t Starmer or any other MP taken note of this public anger and resentment to demand scrutiny and accountability from this corrupt Tory Government. Cummings holds the key to unlocking the Covert 2019 Rigged Election that would justify a full Investigation and Johnson is afraid that his Government would fall. Cummings is the Grenade, oust him and you pull the pin! DO NOT MOVE ON!