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| The PM's Chief Advisor running the gauntlet of hate Source: internewscast |
Regardless of which side of the fence you find yourself in the 'Cummings must go' campaign, the treatment he and his family have had to endure as glimpsed in this tweet is not British. It is a disgrace.
Following the example of snowflake no-platformers, get Cummings campaigners have been acting as judge and jury. A witch hunt designed to ensure the departure of the Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister, thus settling old scores after Remainers lost the vote to remain in the EU.
Allegedly unbiased TV presenters who are paid vast amounts of money by the cash strapped BBC decided that Dominic Cummings' actions when he and his wife were required to self-isolate were reprehensible. The man was guilty regardless of circumstances, timing or his use in the fight against the common enemy, Covid-19
Possibly emboldened by the fact that BBC Breakfast's presenter Naga Munchetty was let off after she 'breached BBC rules', presenter Emily Maitlis launched into her Newsnight introduction with: "Good evening. Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that and it is shocked the Government cannot. The longer Ministers and Prime Minister tell us he worked within them the more angry the response to the scandal is likely to be.... He made those who struggled to keep the rules feel like fools and has allowed many more to feel that they can flout them".
Crackpot Acting LibDem Leader Sir Ed Davey described the breach as "brilliant journalism". The BBC has since said that "an introduction about Dominic Cummings on Tuesday's Newsnight did not meet the required standards of due impartiality".
'Journalists' and MPs following the pack have been lining up to demand the PM's Chief Advisor should either resign or be sacked regardless of his value in combating the Coronavirus. The Church of England's duplicitous bishops have also weighed into the Prime Minister with "lied to, patronised and treated as mugs" although one has to acknowledge their considerable expertise in that area.
This week we have been celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk. The coverage of the BBC today is in marked contrast with the desire for victory regardless of the cost in 1940.
The get Cummings campaign has completely lost sight of the need to beat the real enemy, Covid-19.
Sir Keir Starmer has tweeted: "Boris Johnson's unwillingness or inability to do the right thing has left the Government looking untrustworthy and unprincipled. Worst of all he's undermined the public health advice that keeps us all safe, just to keep one aide in his job. Our nation’s health must come first."
Sir Keir is correct. Our nation's health must come first. For that reason MPs, the media and Anglican bishops should stop doing what they accuse Dominic Cummings of having done, putting the country at risk.
The issue has been flogged to death.
It is the vendetta that is more likely to undermine the Government's fight against Covid-19 with mischievous suggestions that people should perhaps make their own judgements rather than follow government guidelines.
Postscript [01.06.2020]
"Controversy is ridiculously overblown, says George Carey
Hysterical, coarsened and divisive nature of debate is creating a dangerous culture war that could harm civic life, he says."
The woke rant about 'micro agressions' and demand safe spaces and not to have to read anything they might disagree with for their worthless and useless degrees but they then rant and threaten in the public street. Amoral scum
ReplyDeleteAB have you read the very different views of Karol Sikora, Lord Sumption, John Humfreys, Peter Hitchens and even David Starkey on the corona virus? The Government and scientists, you must agree, have generated a climate of fear in our country, and their 'cure' is worse than tbe disease.
ReplyDeleteRob
'It is the vendetta that is more likely to undermine the Government's fight against Covid-19 with mischievous suggestions that people should perhaps make their own judgements rather than follow government guidelines.'
ReplyDeleteIt's precisely Mr Cummings's decision to make his own judgements rather than follow government guidelines which set off this controversy in the first place.
Pause for thought. Read Giles Fraser's article on Bullying Bishops here: https://unherd.com/2020/05/theres-nothing-brave-about-the-bullying-bishops/?=frlh&fbclid=IwAR3VVxPxy7pTULR58HYjVRJohjoHC-m5dx0AWV6W55Fro4Ys6tjqXoiL1qY
ReplyDeleteThank you for that link, Matthew; I certainly wouldn't have come upon it without your prompt. As is not infrequently the case with him, Dr Fraser teases out a subtle point which hadn't occurred to me, and in all likelihood wouldn't have without the prompt of his article.
DeleteFrazer's opinion piece leaves me with the uncomfortable thought that the boundary between being 'bravely prophetic' and being - as Pete might put it? - fashionably 'woke' is more ambiguous than I'd have thought a mere half an hour ago.
When he was bishop of Bath & Wells I recall Bishop Carey informing Anglicans opposed to the Anglican church unilaterally ordaining women to the priesthood something to the effect that if they persisted in their opposition they could expect no real place in the future Church of England.
ReplyDeleteWhile he was without doubt correct in that prediction, I'm unforgiving enough to view each and any of his subsequent utterances with a reflex sourness! favourably.
I agree about Carey. Unfortunately Welby is even worse. As an aside, AB called out a contributor to this blog for his abusive tone. I recently called out an ordinand for her inability to utter a sentence without the f word, to no avail. Next year she will become curate in my local church. Bullying of Cummings is probably part of the same coarsening of society and the Church.
DeleteLyn
I've no time for Cummings, because his strategy of manipulation of our politics strikes me as dire as anything which I've witnessed in my lifetime.
DeleteBut an ordinand incapable of mustering a case without resort to vacuous profaniity ought not to be an ordinand. In that respect I agree with you entirely.
Wake up and smell the coffee Lyn. This whole blog is consumed by bitter people. What I find sad and slightly bizarre about the blog is the backward looking, we’re all right, we don’t need to change or be changed by those coming in. We define ourselves by our liturgy or our sense of superiority rather than by our serving all the people of Wales. They couldn't give a monkeys. And as the mastermind, AB deserves everything he gets.
ReplyDeleteThe last contribution was submitted by Waldo.
ReplyDeletePP Surely any ordinand who uses fowl language, need to be removed from the formation formation. What has happened to selectors discernment? So many good solid candidates rejected for what, loud, abrasive, limited in theological understand and no matter the sex. St Padarn's is certainly not a success, At Michael's had its problems, but by goodness it certainly wasn't suffering false witnesses. It would be interesting to know how many ordinands are trained outside of Wales.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Poor Waldo. And he keeps coming back !
ReplyDeleteI would assume nothing MO.
DeleteWaldo might be mid transition, be neither Arthur nor Martha and you will be 'no platformed' due to not being 'woke'.
The quality of many of the clergy must be very worrying for the CinW. The necessary sense of vocation and of being called to ministry has been replaced by a different set of criteria based around equality, rights and 'fairness', i.e. whatever suits the ordinand.
ReplyDeleteLW
My dear L W, the trash commonly used by a certain former Welsh Archbishop, (prone to regular fits of anger, 'Church in Wales Publication 2020'. )as a means to legitimise discrimination which"suits" them is of course their claim of"Divine Permission" or "Canonical Obedience". A mindset which find its roots in paganism or imperialistic ideology not New Testament Christianity.
DeleteEnforcer