I haven’t been following everything being said, but i’m sure much of it was being said at the time by people on here and on social media more generally by journalists and specialists.
The thing is, you can find anything said by anyone when you look back. It’s how you determine at the time what should or shouldn’t be listened to. That’s a tough call given that there wasn’t consensus even among the experts and, of course, the situation is evolving rapidly.
TL;DR: the government is a utter shambles totally out of their depth.
Also, Cummings doesn’t exactly come across as a highly intelligent man. Tbf to him, he even said that himself and said he should have been nowhere near the position he was in.
I remember at the time one of the whispers coming out of Westminster was that Johnson wouldn’t close borders because that would have pretty much confirmed one of the central arguments of Brexit - that we don’t have control of our borders - was bullshit.
He sold brexit partly on there being no trade border, despite agreeing to one in the brexit deal. I think the border issue during early Covid was wrapped up in that.
This sounds like he is deliberately spinning another narrative. He is clearly someone who thinks of themselves as being very clever - I doubt that has changed.
So the main things I have taken from the Cummings evidence.
He’s a snivelling little weazel that will do anything if he thinks it will benefit him. Always suspected it, and this has just reenforced that belief.
Hancock is clueless - again something I suspected but this has added more weight to that thought.
BoJo is a clown who really doesn’t have a clue what he is doing. How he has managed to fool so many people to elect him as the leader of the Torry party is mindboggling.
If Labour can’t get elected at the next election then they are done as a genuine option as a political party. Sadly though, no other party really springs to mind as a better alternative, but this could be a right clusterfuck for the UK if these guys don’t get the arse next election
Ed Byrne said something on Mock the Week a few weeks back which was very astute as well as cutting.
He said, “I’m not sure what is more depressing. The fact that Labour can’t seem to come up with a better policy than simply, “we are not the Tories” or the fact that that isn’t a good enough policy”.
I’m wary to be talking about Labour on a day when it was revealed quite what an absolute clusterfuck the Conservative party are (answer, more than any of us dared believe), but a big part of the problem here is that most of the press are solidly behind the Tories, as they benefit the ownership of those rags, the BBC has been completely shorn of any balls it ever had, and the majority of people these days get their news from social media echo chambers.
I don’t know what Labour can do in these circumstances. The performance of my party has been really disappointing over the last year, but at the same time I don’t think there is a position they could take that would win them an election at this point. The rules of engagement have changed.
The biggest internal problem Labour have got is that they still delusionally think they can win this rigged game. Labour need to stop working on the objective of getting Labour into power, and start working on getting progressive policies in government. The route to do this has always been a progressive alliance. I’ve said that at so many Labour meetings, and it’s gone down like a cup of cold sick at every turn.
Do you think there is a vendetta by Cummings against Hancock? Or is he positioning to have Hancock removed now to isolate Boris before the public enquiry starts, who Boris, according to Cummings, wanted to keep around so that he had an on-demand fall-guy?
Fuck Boris is a greasy cunt. So is Cummings obviously.
Despite not trusting him, I think he was telling the truth (or as close as you will ever get from him) . Just compare yesterday to his woeful performance in the Rose garden (a year ago to explain Bernard Castle).
He was direct in answering the questions, his story remained consistent despite follow up questions several hours apart. Nothing he said was that new, he simply confirmed our fears. From incompetence and yes men, finger pointing, to bring the “unnamed source” that the BBC used so often.