Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Boris acting like boss of rogue state
IF you want to know why the Dominic Cummings scandal matters, look at the actions of Boris Johnson yesterday.
When journalists asked him direct questions about his aide, he refused to answer.
He then blocked reporters from questioning the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer.
This is the same Prime Minister who has refused to launch an inquiry into his chief adviser’s behaviour even though the police say he might have breached lockdown rules.
This is the behaviour you expect in a rogue state, not a mature democracy.
It is in other countries that you see leaders muffle the media and politicians abuse power to protect their cronies.
We thought we were better in Britain. We thought that if someone in public life broke the rules they had helped write, they would regard that as a resignation issue.
We thought that Prime Ministers would act if their government were disgraced.
What Cummings did was not about Leave or Remain or
Left and Right.
It was about right and wrong. His actions undermined the Government’s message and, as a result, put lives at risk.
In doing so he insulted all those who had been prevented from comforting loved ones, seeing their grandchildren or attending funerals.
If we care about honesty and accountability then Cummings should be booted out of No10.
Instead we had the shameful spectacle of a Prime Minister trying to silence critics who dared to point out that he was defending the indefensible.