Some thoughts on not moving on - Dominic Cummings

I'm adding my annoyance about Dominic Cummings' recent actions to the expanding pile of irritation.

Whether or not he may have broken the law feels secondary to the glib nonsense being emitted from him and the Government about journeys, eyesight tests, spurious contributions to The Spectator and the retconning of his blogpost about coronaviruses.

Ordinarily we might chalk this up to those in power seemingly being able to get away with stuff - under more cheering circumstances parts of this might even have been amusing.

Obeying laws and regulations don't generally come at much of a personal cost but following the Government's coronavirus guidelines has hurt people as well as protected them and people have had to make distressing sacrifices. It's meant people staying away from vulnerable loved ones, people dying alone in hospital or in care homes and sparse funerals being shared online.

Mr Cummings' reading of the guidelines has resulted in lengthy car drives to see his family, visits to scenic spots and tortured explanations after the fact. Agasint the backdrop of everyone else following the necessary guidelines his actions seem perverse.

Had Mr Cummings apologised for the breach and offered his resignation Mr Johnson could still have rejected it, taking the opportunity to clarify that the rules are in place for everyone and saying that no further action would be taken in this instance. I think that would have been imperfect but satisfactory and would have 'drawn a line under it'. The current response tells us, against the evidence of our own senses, that the rules were followed correctly and that reasonable people can make their own judgement on them (a recipe for disaster). What a confusing mess.

This has felt like a slap in the face. We don't like being laughed at and it's troubling that we seem to be being gaslit by official Government responses.

Of course other events will gradually overtake this and everyone will move on whether or not they want to. If people wonder if the UK Government is handling the coronavirus crisis well they might be tempted to view this saga in a different light. Let's hope the poor decision-making and crisis-handling of the Dominic Cummings' situation isn't a proxy marker for how the Government handles other crises.