Issues raised in YouTube Cummings song “I Don’t Beg Pardon, I’m Talking Bollocks from the Rose Garden”

ShortCummingsWatch

These are the  issues raised in YouTube song “I Don’t Beg Pardon, I’m Talking Bollocks from the Rose Garden”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCHaEgBfWb4&t=2s

A short summary is provided on two screens towards the end of the video on YouTube

Friday 27th March. Dominic Cummings’ wife Mary Wakefield phoned to say she is not well. Cummings is seen running out of Downing Street. he later returns to work at Downing Street.

Major Breach one. He should not have returned to work.

He may have infected members of the Government. The fact that his wife is ill and showing symptoms means there is a very distinct possibility that he may be infectious.

Later that evening, Cummings decides to drive to Durham.

This is not a private Citizen decision, determining what is best for the individual. It has obvious public policy implications, and therefore is not for the individual to decide. Cummings decides this himself. He does not consult the Prime Minister. He refers to the Prime Minister being ill. This is true but irrelevant. Either the PM is in office, or a deputy PM has taken over. In either case consultation is possible, and a text message takes half a minute. In this case, the PM is still fulfilling his duties. This lack of consultation demonstrates that Cummings considers himself to have executive authority, not simply the role of advisor.

Cummings has stressed that he did not stop on the drive north. He could not possibly have known that he would be able to make this journey without stopping

Major Breach two. Driving to different location

The journey is an obvious breach. He was travelling from a high infection area to a low infection area, and he knew that it would be likely that there would be contact with local people, as indeed there was with hospitalisation later of his son. Much nonsense has been talked of him following instincts being together with his family, none of which justifies breaking lockdown rules. The exception claimed is safeguarding the health of a child. But the child’s health was not at risk in London. The health of the child and of Cummings was at risk from being in a car with a suspected Covid case for four hours, and this risk has been acknowledged from the podium.

The situation (as at the time) of one parent being ill was not exceptional. I believe a survey established that one in four parents could be in a similar situation.

Not-credible claim that motivated by concern for family safety

Cummings also claimed that he was concerned for the safety of his wife and child in London. If this was actually the case, then they could have stayed in Durham when he returned to London. The fact that they did not demonstrates that this was not a material concern for him.

Driving to hospital and backMisleading statement “There were no taxis”

Hospital trip with a child. His wife and child needed to return to the spare cottage. I quote from the Rose Garden. “There were no taxis” hesitates, drinks water “There were no taxis”.. Obfuscation. There may indeed have been no taxis waiting at the hospital. Perhaps this is how he justifies his statement. The hospital has a free phone service to dial a taxi from hospital reception. I suspect Cummings did not want to risk his wife being recognised.
This is a breach of the rules - Dominic Cummings should not have left the cottage, and his wife should have called a taxi - but is a minor breach since he says that he did not get out of the car, so we have not headlined it as one of the major breaches. It sheds light on the reliability of Dominic Cummings as a witness.

Incidentally people in the area have indicated out that the Cummings family presence in Durham was an "open secret".

Claim to have been passed fit to return. Saturday, April 11. Cummings takes expert medical advice and is passed fit to return to work. In questioning in the Rose Garden, he says it’s unreasonable to suggest that he should not have  returned to work, because he had been passed medically fit to do so. It is ridiculous in this circumstance to propose that the professional medical examination undertaken on Saturday which passes him completely fit needs to be supplemented by an amatuer half-hour eye drive road test.

The pathetic excuse for Barnard Castle trip evaporates fully if his wife had driven

Why didn’t his wife drive? Journalists failed to press this home in the Rose Garden. Boris Johnson was asked later but said "You’ve had your go".

Major Breach three. Absurd excuse for drive to Barnard Castle.
Sunday, April 14. Wife’s birthday. Easter Sunday. Random half hour drive which just happens to take them to a local beauty spot. Get out of car only because feeling sick. Goes to river. Sits by river, supposedly, in contrast to people who have said he was walking by the river.

Son needed a pee on the way home. Car stopped, child pees. Somehow this is cited as justification for the family then going for a walk in the woods.

Wife lies about location .Mary Wakefield (Cummings’ wife) after their return wrote an article in the Spectator saying that they emerged from lockdown into London. Blatant lie. They emerged into Durham/Barnard Castle.

She also has a detailed  story about a construction with cardboard, acetate, toilet rolls, and a litre of PVA glue, in which she got so involved that she carried on after the child lost interest. I don’t really know why she’s telling us about this, but I suspect that it is intended to convey an impression of them being at home (hence all the materials available) without explicitly saying so, in case they subsequently got busted as indeed happened.

They knew they had been seen. I imagine the Spectator article was part of a disinformation campaign to say that the Cummings family had been in London all the time, so that people who had seen them in Durham might think they had been mistaken. I don’t think the Cummings family realised how much they had been seen.

Cummings lies about his blog

It has been well-documented that Cummings lied about his blog, claiming that he had predicted coronavirus one year ago on the strength of an entry in his blog that was not edited in until after Easter Sunday 2020. This was almost gratuitous – it was provided as part of the bogus (see above) claim that he thought Durham was a safer location for his wife and child than London,

As always with lies it is worth understanding the motive, and specifically why the liar finds that the truth is unsatisfactory. In this case it is fairly clear that Cummings must have felt that his prediction track record was poor, and so he wanted artificially to make his record better. He clearly wishes that he had predicted coronavirus,  but he didn’t.

Only the known sightings were admitted

One may also observe that it’s only sightings where they know they have been seen that were admitted to. After the story broke, on 23rd of May at the 5 O’clock Follies, Grant Shapps said the Dominic Cummings has made a full statement and that he did not move around at all. Somebody was lying.

Is it unfair to imply that there may have been more movements? No, it is not unfair. the Government denied the Barnard Castle trip in the briefings on 23 Mau and 24 May despite “Mr Cummings has made a full Statement” (Grant Shapps, 23 May), so presumably was using the tactic of denying anything they think they can get away with.

There is a very good analysis of the Dominic Cummings statement in the Financial Times. Points out that this was undoubtedly prepared by a lawyer. And that it is very specific in some parts and very vague in others.

No Planning Permission or Council Tax for spare cottage

Subsequent investigation by Black Isle Journalism revealed the following:

·         Dominic Cummings is part owner of the property, and therefore the cottage is a second home (though that factor can be overridden if there are sufficient child safeguarding concerns)

·         The spare cottage has no Planning Permission.

·         The spare cottage has no registration for Council Tax, and no Council Tax has ever been paid on it.

·         The planning breaches have been assessed by Durham County Council, who have decided to take no enforcement action regarding the planning breaches given that it was built so long ago. The Council Tax question has been passed on to the Valuation Office.

Obviously as part-owner of the property Dominic Cummings is jointly liable for the Council Tax that should be paid.
We might also assume that he knows something about the legislation of Panning Permissions, since he wants to change much of it. 

I have been told that the cottage is not registered for business rates either (e.g. as a holiday let).

I was very keen on finding a holiday cottage, say in the Darlington Road area of Durham, and searched assiduously on several websites, but could not find any accommodation offered as a holiday let there at any time.

The Council Tax legislation has one or two exceptions. For example, if the conditions in planning consent made it impossible to let the house, and the spare house is actually vacant, then Council Tax may not be payable.

Difficult to argue this exception if you don’t have any Planning Consent at all. The Valuation Office guidelines are actually quite robust and hard-nosed. My rough summary of the Valuation Office position is that if you could make money from it, or use the accommodation, then Council Tax is due, even If you think you might be subject to some legal constraints; readers should however not rely on this summary and should consult Valuation Office documentation themselves for the definitive position (it’s complex).

My view is that it would be outrageous if the Cummings family were not made to pay the £20,000 or so of Council Tax which it appears that they have evaded.

THE INCOMPETENCE OF SHORTCUMMINGS

One thing this whole episode shows is the complete incompetence of Dominic Cummings to undertake a simple project, in this case to organise a lockdown in an empty cottage. Note that the key decisions before driving north were taken when he was fully fit. The key decisions,before the return south were taken when he was only a half hour eye-drive road-test and a retch by the river short of full fitness.

The objective appeared to be: hide away in the cottage, don’t be seen by anybody, Mary will afterwards write an article indicating that they were in London all the time, nobody will know.

The reality was adverse health implications for the family, massive bad publicity, public health message degraded, government standings trashed, Cabinet ministers humiliated defending the indefensible, and those who didn’t likely to be demoted in the Summer.

His task was to do nothing, and he failed.

This is interesting because we are sometimes left to infer the genius of Dominic Cummings by reference to the results, and his precise part in events may not be clear. In this case the Cummings family had total control of their actions, and the result was an absolute shambles.

Didn’t exactly go very well, did it, Mr Cummings?               

_____________

See Black Isle Journalism:
https://universalcreditsuffer.com/2020/06/11/cummings-lockdown-cottage-visited-by-council-for-council-tax-avoidance/