Lack of response from our MPs

I’m writing to express my surprise that neither Jeremy Quin nor Andrew Griffith mention the topic which has must have dominated their inboxes in the opinion columns they submitted to the County Times last week (May 28).

The closest either appears to come is Andrew Griffith’s acknowledgement ‘This is (somewhat ironically) English Tourism Week.’

Is that a Freudian slip or a cryptic glance at the elephant in the room? I’m talking, of course -as who isn’t?- about Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle, allegedly to test his eyesight, in breach of the government’s own guidelines.

Much has been made of the gulf this affair reveals between the attitudes and values of the ‘rule makers’ and the ‘rule taking’ rest of us.

Two obvious dangers stand out: firstly, we stand to lose the

precious sense of unity and collective purpose which has been so striking and welcome a feature of our national life over the last 12 weeks.

Secondly, people’s understandable disillusionment will lead to much more flouting of the scientific advice as we come out of lockdown, leading, in turn, to a second spike and even more avoidable fatalities.

It’s all very well for Mr Quin to write “what we all know is that our economic future is based on our safe return to work, avoiding a ‘second wave’”.

What ‘we all know’ is that you can’t urge people to ‘do the right thing’ when your boss and senior colleagues are tying themselves in knots to defend ‘the wrong thing.’ The only way to regain any moral authority on this subject is to join those many Conservative MPs who have rightly called for Mr Cummings’ resignation.

PAULCLARKE

Queensway Horsham