General discussion on current situation

[Flemming]

Whilst Dominic Cummings gave his version of events on 25th May his wife - Spectator Commissioning Editor Mary Wakefield - gave her account on BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day on 25th April and also published a written account in The Spectator at about the same time.  Obviously I can't reproduce the article. It is available online but curiously the BBC (I am told) has deleted the R4 programme.  However here is a brief synopsis of events according to Ms Wakefield annotated with dates  by me in bold type. 

[Dominic] said "I feel weird" and collapsed. I felt breathless, sometimes achy, but Dom couldn't get out of bed. [28 March]

'Day in day out for ten days he had a high fever, with spasms that made the muscles lump and twitch in his legs:[28 March - 6 April]
28 March - high fever & twitching legs. Only limited shallow breathing.
29 March - Ditto
30th March - Ditto
31st March - Ditto.
1st April - ditto
2nd April - "After a week we reached peak corona uncertainty,  day six is a turning point I was told, when you either get better or head for ICU. Was Dom fighting off the bug or was he heading for a ventilator, who knew?"
3rd April -  'I sat on his bed staring at his chest trying to count his breaths per minute. The little oxygen reader we'd bought on Amazon indicated he should be in hospital, but his lips weren't blue and he could talk in full sentences” 

No mention whatsoever of leaving London.  Now according to Cummings' account things were somewhat different because it was his wife who became ill and on 30th March after she had started vomiting he put her and the child in the car and drove 260 miles to Durham.  According to her published account on 25th April he was more or less at death's door on 30th March and they hadn't travelled anywhere because he was too ill to leave his bed.  Curiouser and curiouser.

Has anyone else worked this out - media for instance? Hasn't either him or his wife got to be wrong about the dates?

The Spectator allows free access to two articles as a guest, but it isn't allowing access to the one by Mary Wakefield. It has a more recent article by Nick Cohen dated 25.5.20 that asks why she didn't say in her piece that they'd fled London.

[Gadget]

This person is probably the most important person in Government. He's not like the rest of us.  You can't tell me that he couldn't have got  childcare for his son or a Govt pool car with police escort to take him to Durham and bring him back when they were all declared fit*. I'm sure Matt Hancock or someone in the DHSC could have arranged for all the health care/investigations necessary.

* he could have probably worked from Durham when he was better.

[heywood]

Much of the broadcast is quoted in the Daily Mail (direct quotes it seems) of April 25th.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8256551/Fury-Dominic-Cummings-wife-using-BBC-Radio-4s-Thought-Day.html

[Gadget]

Just a little light relief

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8354163/Benedict-Cumberbatch-isolating-family-luxury-1-700-night-New-Zealand-lodge.html

[mazi]

Just a little light relief

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8354163/Benedict-Cumberbatch-isolating-family-luxury-1-700-night-New-Zealand-lodge.html

And scrolling down further I m delighted to see I don’t need to wear my bra, no mention of the fishnet tights though.   


Mike

[heywood]

And Matt Damon and his family have been in Dublin for two months. He was filming when the lockdown was enforced.

[Greensleeves]

Has anyone else worked this out - media for instance? Hasn't either him or his wife got to be wrong about the dates?

The Spectator allows free access to two articles as a guest, but it isn't allowing access to the one by Mary Wakefield. It has a more recent article by Nick Cohen dated 25.5.20 that asks why she didn't say in her piece that they'd fled London.

Oh yes, plenty of other people - journalists included - have worked this out.  That's how I came across it.  I read an article about anomalies in the stories of Cummings and Wakefield so I started googling.  Like a lot of us, I have too much time on my hands currently so was only too happy to disappear down that particular rabbit hole.

I was also interested to read that Cummings re-wrote one of his blogs of 2019 when he got back from Durham to make it appear as though he had foretold the coronavirus pandemic.  The article can be seen in the internet archives in its original form, and it shows that it was altered mid April 2020. 

I must say the journalists are doing sterling work on this.  I don't think there is hardly a family in the country who has not been impacted in a major way by the lockdown, and to defend Cummings' behaviour is beyond reprehensible. 

Incidentally you can find an article about Wakefield's article in - of all places - the Daily Mail, and various journalists have quoted extracts.  I have a screenshot but that's on my other machine so can't post it immediately I'm afraid.

[groom]

Much of the broadcast is quoted in the Daily Mail (direct quotes it seems) of April 25th.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8256551/Fury-Dominic-Cummings-wife-using-BBC-Radio-4s-Thought-Day.html

That's interesting as she forgot to mention that in the time between her feeling ill and her husband feeling  ill they had driven from London to Durham! Must affect your memory as well.

[Greensleeves]

But Durham to Barnard Castle is about 25 miles and 40+ minutes, so hardly a 'short drive'.

The Barnard Castle trip was about 60 miles in all and totally illegal if he was having concerns about his eyesight and ability to drive.  Not sure what the current level of fine is for being in charge of a vehicle whilst unfit through medical reasons since it's some years since I've sat on the bench. But I can assure you that any such charge would be taken very seriously, and even more so if the defendant had knowingly and recklessly endangered a child because of their behaviour.