The UK: Cummings reveals the goings on

The comings and goings

Much as one cannot place much on the credibility of Dominic Cummings, the erstwhile aide and special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his appearance before two committees in the House of Commons, earlier today was almost compelling viewing. [BBC News: Dominic Cummings: Thousands died needlessly after Covid mistakes]

Dominic Cummings had a front-row seat and presumably the ear of the Prime Minister, it was at the behest of the Prime Minister that the Cabinet expended all their goodwill and acquiescence to the first lockdown after Mr Cummings’ unfortunate lockdown-busting trip to Durham and eye testing gallivant to Barnard Castle, last May.

They let death run free

Yet, I was unconcerned about the minutiae of that incident and rather more interested in the workings of the government as the pandemic took hold, the scandals of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), the seeding of care homes with untested geriatrics released from hospital caring the plague to the most vulnerable, the test and trace debacle, and the hold off the second lockdown, altogether leading to a totally needless, preventable, and the unimaginably high death toll in the UK that still exceeds any other in Europe.

Time and again, Dominic Cummings revealed incompetence, ineptitude, lassitude, inertia, indecision, indifference, apathy, bloody-mindedness, and carelessness in the corridors of power as death, sorrow, loss, grief, tragedy, and unmitigated suffering swept through the land. A full public inquiry cannot come soon enough to question what happened, who was responsible and who should be held accountable.

We are ready for inquiry

Like I have said before, the success of the vaccination rollout cannot compensate for the failings of the past. We need to know what went wrong, what lessons can be learnt, and most pertinently, how never to let this ever happen again.

The analyses of the Dominic Cummings outing are many, I think there would be some really good questions demanding answers rather than rhetoric, obfuscation, and evasion, even so, from the mouth of Boris Johnson who should not be given the latitude to wriggle, bluff, and bluster his way through intense questioning. Let the bells toll, for they have begun to toll for those who history will not judge kindly.