In travelling to find the right kind of childcare

Boris Johnson says everything Dominic Cummings did was fine and according to the rules and what anyone would do. This is bewildering to most observers because of all the rules Cummings broke.

Facing intense pressure to explain why Cummings appeared to have flouted lockdown rules by driving more than 260 miles to his parents’ estate in Durham with his wife and young son after his wife became ill, the prime minister said Cummings had simply been trying to keep his family safe.

“I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus – and when he had no alternative – I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent,” Johnson said. “And I do not mark him down for that.”

So then all families with children can drive hundreds of miles to move in with older relatives when one parents is infected? That’s just fine is it?

Calling some of the allegations against Cummings “palpably false” – but not saying which – Johnson continued: “I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity, and with the overriding aim to stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives.”

That makes no sense.

The prime minister insisted that Cummings’s trip was in line with restrictions on movement in place at the time, and that people could use their own discretion in similar circumstances.

If they’re friends with Boris Johnson, that is.

“Looking at the very severe childcare difficulties that presented themselves to Dominic Cummings and his family, I think that what they did was totally understandable,” he said

But they’re the same childcare difficulties that present themselves to any family with children. There’s nothing unique about them. All parents of young children are terrified about what will happen if one or both of them get the virus. Is Boris Johnson so privilege-blinded that he doesn’t grasp that? Or just lying.

3 Responses to “In travelling to find the right kind of childcare”