What is it with people wanting to dictate what other posters chew the fat over? First WalgarthJohn, now you KDZ.
What's the problem if things go round in circles?
As far as other "offenders" go, (though I can't confess to knowing all the details) they've all been under different circumstances. However, that's not the main point.
Disregarding the fact that he's an unelected bureaucrat, he's been a key driver behind the "Stay at Home" message and was seen by many to be Johnson's right hand man. Accordingly, he has to be seen to be whiter than white ......an exemplar of behaviour if you will. If he's not, then the message just gets diluted. (Note - this iss the opinion of SPI-B, advising SAGE, not me).
As for it being a Brexit issue........ aye, OK .... Times, Telegraph, Mail, Baker, Bone, Morgan, Hartley-Brewer etc....... its an excuse.
AS for the media, there are good parts and bad parts. Excellent journalists, and shitehawks. The irony is that the pres barons are the ones who employ, encourage and enable many of those shitehawks. .........for their own purposes.
The media wouldn't be doing what they're doing if "the government" didn't act like they do. How on earth does Cummings have the power to get Sajid Javid's aide sacked?
As for America, I'm far more concerned about our government - and especially our leader - ending up like their leader than I am about our media acting like theirs. ........presumably, you'd be OK though with Fox News, who are basically there as part of Trump's comms network.
EDIT - Just seen Northern's post. Ferguson, (less so Calderwood with it being Scotland) ....... now, the government's reaction in that instance compared to now ..... that's where the hypocrisy lies.
Elected or unelected doesn't really matter in this instance - we keep hearing 'one rule for one and another rule for the rest' and i agree - if are sacking everyone who broke lockdown my whole street is in trouble - we've had kitchen fitters, gardeners, builders, visitors, etc. Considering the amount of people on the beaches for weeks, the amount of journalists outside Cummings house i imagine the unemployment rate would go through the roof even more. But as far as i am aware the punishment for breaking lockdown is £60 and there hasn't been many fines handed out overall. But let's say we only look at politicans, the police said that Ali attending a funeral with 100 gathers and Kinnock visting his dad on his Birthday broke the rules but Cummings didn't due to the childcare and exceptional circumstances caveat - so if we want to talk about different circumstances if Cummings is guilty of lockdown breach and then they all go but Starmer didn't make those calls while he calls for Boris to make them. It's pure politics and hypocrisy to not treat them all in the same way - let's not pretend it isn't. Like i said i don't think any of them should've gone. I know folks want to get rid of Cummings as they don't like him - but we need consistency and we've not had that. The fact you know every detail about this one but the media barely mentioned the other 3 or 4 labour cases show that this is not a level playing field in terms of impartiality.
Sturgeon publically refused to sack Calderwood and tried to just say she wont attend some meetings or something minor like that the Scottish govenment even tried to deflect the situation intially saying 'she was just checking on her second home' before it turns out she was photographic proof of staying there twice emerged than the initial story and after caught dead to rights she resigned a day so later. The police said this was a clear breach if i remember correctly.
Ferguson resigned - although i cannot say if he was put under pressure or not to do so but he works for SAGE which is mean to be a indepednent QUANGO so i don't know if the Government had the power to force him out beyond asking. There could be some hypocrisy there if there are other details i'm not familiar with of them forcing him out but again his was a clear breach with no leg to stand on while Cummings wheather people agree or not does have a decent argument he didn't break the rules due to exceptional circumstances with childcare.
You misunderstand the Brexit reference - it's not to say every person who thinks Cummings should go is a Remainer - but a large portion of our media, civil service, political class (even within his own party), etc hate him for the part he played in that vote and the part he continues to play in stopping the transition extension - he has a lot of enemies. As for the Mail was taken over by a new editor ages ago who is very anti Brexit and hates Cummings so this isn't a great suprise from them. Times has always been against Brexit so makes sense for them to hate him, Piers Morgan has been on the war path for anything government since Boris wouldn't give an interview so again to be expected, Bone and Baker hate Cummings due to him and the ERG having issues since the referendum campaign so obviously they want him out of the way to get some influence back. The Telegraph as far as i've seen, along with the Sun and Express have been supported as you'd expect along the tribal lines. Hartley Brewer is a fair one as she hasn't got an axe to grind, there are a few others too who have broken party lines - but the majority of high profile names coming out for Cummings blood where people who hated him and wanted him gone before this. Cummings is a vital player in Brexit being delivered, no transition extension, civil service reform, Boris' past success - removing him is a massive bonus while removing Kinnock or Ali or the rest doesn't serve any political purpose so it's pretty clear there is motivation here beyond what he actually did.
The media were making out the rules weren't clear enough and no one could understand the simple slogan a few weeks ago - the slogans were never the rule book which has all of the details but now they are claiming the slogan was the only rule and it was clear. The goal posts move to suit the argument. They were all saying that Cummings said old people should die, that he was against lockdown, that he was pushing heard imunity, that he made a 2nd trip back to Durham and all of those stories failed to be validated or have been proven iffy but were reported as virtual fact rather than accusations. They've been throwing everything at him for months. They'll be after Frost our negotiator for Brexit in the next few weeks for sure.
I take it you don't watch much American News as CNN and MSNBC are even worse for left bias than Fox are for right bias these days, and Fox is very bias. None of that is what news should be - journalists should be impartially informing people of the facts to make up their minds and not activists trying to shape the narrative.
If you think the press has behaverd impartially or reasonably i dont think you've seen the coverage i've seen. I think there is a fair debate and questions to be asked in a reasonable fashion and if some folks say Cummings should go that's fair enough but this is like piranahs in a feeding frenzy for blood. If Cummings is so bviously guilty then they can just present the undeniable facts and let them damn him but they are going for the kill - that's not their job. They deliberetly ignored all the other cases that don't fit their agenda to oust Cummings when they are pretty much at least as bad. They are meant to report the news not try and manufacture it via whipping up mobs to make a position untenable.
The guy may or may not have broke lockdown in peoples opinion, of course they should cover it and talk about it and ask the tough questions but this reaction has been off the charts.
I have an 18 month old little girl, when the guidlines came out back on the middle of March me and my wife literally went on the government website there was a document with all of the rules explained. We saw that if you have a young child you can travel for childcare needs in exceptional circumstances so we were well aware of this rule that the press seem to be ignorant of months ago. The images of all the Italian and Spanish hospitals falling apart were fresh in the memory, no one knew for certain at that point how bad it would get, the incubation periods, etc. We don't have any neighbours or close friends we could leave our daughter with - the only option were my parents (who are below the high risk bracket) who fortunately live close by - so we didn't have to make any decision but if they lived at the other end of the country and there was an option to self isolate near them I would've done exactly what Cummings did and drove to them to ensure that if me and my wife became ill our little girl would be with family rather than risk her going into temporary care. Even if the guidlines didn't say so - i'd have done the same for her sake. So i sympathise with Cummings driving up given the circumstances and guidlines, if it was Shamus Milne for a Corbyn government i'd say the same - i don't like Milne at all, i think he's dreadful and while i'd love to have seen him go i'd not say it was fair in the same situation. The guidlines and situation i think make it jusfifiable. If someone else thinks a least that bit is wrong then we'll agree to disagree.