Editorial Comment
sir – How heartless this country has become when Dominic Cummings’s only “crime” was having to make a speedy decision under frightening circumstances. Shame on the hysterical media and the appalling mob hurling abuse at a parent desperate to keep safe a little boy. Diane Choyce
London W2
sir – After listening to Dominic Cummings explaining why he acted as he did, I think he behaved in a very reasonable way in the circumstances.
Some of the media have been out to get him and thought this time they had succeeded. He should carry on; he’s doing a great job.
Anne Robson
Midhurst, West Sussex
sir – If Dominic Cummings was a man of principle he’d admit his mistake and resign, and not place Boris Johnson in an impossible position.
There are far more important issues to resolve than wasting time on Mr Cummings.
Helen Penney
Longborough, Gloucestershire
sir – Boris Johnson’s decision to back Dominic Cummings will come back to haunt him, and may cost him the next election. He has certainly lost my vote.
How can the electorate henceforward trust a PM who indulges in such cronyism, while it is asked to continue to obey the lockdown rules strictly?
Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire
sir – Refusal to remove an unpopular favourite has been the downfall of a number of rulers in history. And this one isn’t even pretty.
Jean White
Wythall, Worcestershire sir – Do disgruntled Tory MPS really believe that Dominic Cummings is the target, when it’s so obviously the Prime Minister?
H David Hicks
Hythe, Kent
sir – The sanctimonious humbug towards Dominic Cummings has zero to do with health concerns, zero to do with his position in government and everything to do with revenge.
The Guardian and Mirror have long stoked hatred towards the mastermind of the successful Leave campaign and the supposedly “impossible” Tory clean sweep in Labour’s northern heartlands at the Christmas general election. They will never be happy until Cummings is burned as a witch.
The Covid-19 horror encapsulates
Britain’s love affair for mawkish sentimentalism and hypocrisy. Mr Cummings’s real crime is proving he’s human after all.
Mark Boyle
Johnstone, Renfrewshire
sir – The pack of journalists crowding round Dominic Cummings on Sunday did not appear to be following social distancing.
Is it one rule for members of the public and one rule for those journalists?
Jan Thompson
Winterborne St Martin, Dorset
sir – The BBC, introducing Dominic Cummings’s statement yesterday, reported that the Durham police were investigating whether he had
“breached the guidelines”. The press questions harped on the same point.
Perhaps they and others hounding Mr Cummings would actually care to read the law on restrictions on movement (as referred to by the Rev His Honour Peter Morrell, Letters, May 25) and understand that Mr Cummings had “reasonable excuse” for the journeys he made.
It is worth noting that part of that reasonable excuse involves the despicable pressure on him and his family in their own home from harassment outside.
Michael Staples
Seaford, East Sussex sir – Section 6 of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 prevents people from leaving home without a reasonable excuse.
It does not define what constitutes a reasonable excuse; it merely lists some reasons that would not be unreasonable.
Leaving your home to care for your family is clearly reasonable.
Patrick Nicholls
Hemyock, Devon
sir – Sir Keir Starmer has said that he would have sacked Dominic Cummings if he was prime minister. Why, then, did Sir Keir give Stephen Kinnock a shadow minister’s job shortly after he had been rebuked by South Wales Police for breaching lockdown rules?
Brian Armstrong
North Shields
sir – In our health and economic crisis, political point-scoring and the blame game are now beginning to undermine the effort to rid ourselves of this dreadful disease.
John Knowles
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire