Justification for road trip by Cummings nothing more than logic of the Mafia

I note that many Conservative MPS, while not supporting Dominic Cummings’ selfish act of bringing the plague 260 miles closer to Scotland, are urging us to “move on”. Move on to where? For too many, the example they saw has encouraged them either to ignore continuing restrictions or to become disillusioned with being told what to do by people not following their own guidelines. There were reports from police officers, just days after the breaking of the story, that lockdown-breakers were citing the excuse of “using their instinct” and referencing Cummings to justify their behaviour. If there are no consequences for a rule-breaker, why stick to the rules? Why listen to what they now begin to see as a hypocritical authority? Why is the UK government willing to squander all the public goodwill and compliance which they had gathered even from people who would never, ever, vote for them?

“Motivated out of his desire to do what he thought was necessary in protecting his family” is a mantra much used by the Mafia. I’m surprised to hear this being trotted out by UK Conservative ministers. By using a clause in the regulations designed to protect victims of domestic abuse and allow them to escape their tormentor, Cummings sounds like a barrack-room lawyer, a man who has found a loophole at odds with the spirit and intention of the rules, but technically legal. In a time of a pandemic, are we happy to let someone off on a technicality? Thousands of people across the land were also impelled by a desire to protect their families, but the overwhelming majority resisted the urge to act outside the regulations, to act in their own self-interest regardless of what the consequences might be. I’m afraid Cummings’ motivation does not wash for me. It’s what you do, not what you think that defines your character – “by their deeds shall you know them”, as a rather revered figure once said.

If we “move on” without any comeback for Cummings’s bad behaviour and arrogant refusal even to apologise or show a smidgeon of remorse, then we shall be moving on to a scenario of eroded public trust. If we have a second spike of the virus, do we think compliance will be as comprehensive as the first time round?

As I write this letter from an ongoing Covid-19 quarantine, I am at least gratified that a couple of Scottish Conservative MPS have stood up, criticised Cummings, and called for his sacking. Others have voiced no support for Cummings, but neither have they outright condemned the man’s actions and his tawdry, self-serving defence of entitlement. Time to speak out, or else by your silence find yourself cast as enablers of a grubby powerfreak.

(DR) DAVID WHITE

Leebrae House Lee Brae, Galashiels