I wish Dominic didn’t find ‘sorry’ to be the hardest word

Let’s face it, whatever Dominic Cummings said at his extraordinary press conference, it would not have satisfied his critics. The Prime Minister’s special adviser – three parts Wearside nightclub bouncer to two parts warrior wonk – is a lightning rod for the resentment and fury of a Remainer, lib/left-dominated media.

He reminds them of their failure. He stopped them stopping Brexit. Then he only went and won the general election with a mortifying majority. They hate him. He despises them. That’s all you need to know, although, awkwardly, it’s not just the Cummings’ haters who are troubled by his conduct during lockdown.

It’s because I admire him and fervently want him to stay at the heart of government that I wish Dominic didn’t find “Sorry” to be the hardest word.

Douglas Ross, a junior minister who resigned yesterday, spoke for many loyal Conservatives when he pointed out that Mr Cummings’s interpretation of the official advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who “had done as the Government asked”.

Ross cited constituents who felt unable to visit sick or dying relatives: “I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the Government was right.”

That’s the problem. Did the man who built his reputation by cocking a snook at the “Westminster bubble” behave like just another out-of-touch member of the ruling elite?

According to Boris Johnson, his brilliant friend Dom acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” and “followed the instincts of any father”. Well, for my sins, I have watched almost all of the No10 daily briefings and not for one moment did I get the impression that I was entitled to follow my instincts.

On the contrary. Lockdown was about suppressing our deepest and dearest impulses to serve the greater good. How many millions have longed to rush to be with someone they love, how many sick parents have stayed locked in their homes with demanding small children, how many have yearned to hug grandchildren or boyfriends or sisters or fathers, and how many have squashed their impulses down because they believed, by so doing, they were saving lives?

Despite the media’s quasi-erotic obsession with him, the name Dominic Cummings means very little to normal people. Observing the feeding frenzy that surrounds that curious scruffy fellow – including the threatening behaviour outside his Islington home – the public is inclined to shrug and think “those journalists are mental”.

However, the perception that someone who had a key role in imposing a draconian lockdown managed to find some wiggle room for himself and his family is damaging. People really resent unfairness.

To spare his boss any embarrassment, Cummings had to be whiter than white. Why on earth didn’t he stop and think what Leftwing foes would do if they found out he had moved his family from London to Durham at a time when the entire population was cowering indoors?

Ironically, Cummings’s press conference in the Rose Garden took place on a day when Covid-19 deaths in England plunged to 59, and scientists were struggling to find cases in the community on which to carry out vaccine trials.

The imminent demise of the virus, not the contagious rumours about the special adviser, should have been the story. Yet the country’s leading journalists insisted on quizzing Cummings on such vital national matters as whether his family took a lavatory break on the drive up North?

And had he informed the Prime Minister of his travel plans? You know, the Prime Minister who was a bit tied up at the time trying not to die…?

Mr Cummings, who had changed out of his terrible T-shirt for the occasion, looked notably cool, calm and collected in a pale shirt, greeting his frothing inquisitors with a pleasant manner which belied his unhinged reputation.

Instead of Ra-ra-rasputin sinking his gold incisor into Beth Rigby’s ankle, we got the Man from Del Monte, all peachy persuasion in the Rose Garden, quietly defending his decision to drive his wife and child 260 miles to isolate in a cottage on his parents’ farm. Pity. I’d pay good money to see Dom the Dastardly give Robert Peston a Geordie Kiss in the middle of one of his 17-clause questions.

Cummings offered a highly sympathetic account of his dilemma. His wife Mary had been taken unwell and, fearing that he too might have coronavirus, and that there would be no one to look after their child, Cummings decided to take his family to the North East, where his two nieces had volunteered to mind the little boy if the worst came to the worst. He made it sound like a reasonable thing to do.

It was a subsequent anecdote – involving a 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle, so that Cummings could “test his eyesight” for a longer drive to London – that had you shaking your head in disbelief.

Eh? Could his wife not drive? “Should have gone to Specsavers” was the jeering response on social media.

I’m sorry, but it’s simply not good enough to claim that this is all some revenge plot cooked up by bitter Remainers against the presiding genius of Vote Leave. Several staunch Brexiteers have said they think Cummings should resign or be sacked.

What is sorely lacking in this episode is any sign of contrition. An early apology from Cummings, explaining that he was deeply worried about his little boy so he panicked, would have gone down well with the public. Far better than pointing to subsection 97b of guidelines no one has ever seen and claiming that he was acting properly.

This whole episode has taken its toll. The Prime Minister’s personal approval ratings have dropped from 19 per cent four days ago to minus one yesterday. Boris has squandered his moral authority defending Dominic Cummings because he clearly felt that both he and the nation needed him. Well, the nation needs Boris so Cummings must stay.

What matters now, the only thing that really matters, is getting out of this appalling situation as fast as possible. And if the special adviser could incorporate a small word into his vocabulary it wouldn’t go amiss.

The word is “Sorry”.

What is sorely lacking in this episode is any sign of contrition