Thread by @StefSimanowitz

“You must obey lockdown rules or face a £10,000 fine & I’d call the police on my neighbour, no hesitation!” says @MattHancock who publicly gave full backing to #DominicCummings when he broke lockdown rules.

You don’t see much of this #Cummings interview.

Luckily I recorded it.

Asked why he didn’t tell the truth about his movements until it was exposed by @PippaCrerar & @DailyMirror, #DominicCummings
explains:

“I thought that If I start explaining things it will cause more confusion.”

Awkward thing, the truth, isn’t it Dom!

“I did not offer to resign. I did not think about resigning.” #DominicCummings

At the time, when I watched this live, I tweeted: “This question will end #Cummings’ political career”

It should have done

It is beyond comprehension how he was permitted to just carry on as normal.

#DominicCummings & his wife were worried that his vision was woozy & maybe not good enough to drive back to London so they put their son in the car for a 50-mile test drive to #BarnardCastle

Once there they walked in the woods & sat by the river #cummings #dominiccummngs @Peston

After #DominicCummings’ abject Rose Garden performance, we expected him to go

But instead @BorisJohnson & his entire Cabinet came out to tell the public - & the media - that it was time to move on

This was Hancock (with me in the background)! #cummings

“I’m going to interpose myself”

When @bbclaurak put a question about #DominicCummings to Chris Whitty & Patrick Vallance, @BorisJohnson stepped in to shield/gag them.

Journalists were clearly not ‘moving on’ as they had been encouraged to do by the govt.

The questions kept coming & more ministers were forced to defend the indefensible & look ridiculous on national TV

Here @michaelgove defends #DominicCummings decision to find out whether his eyesight was good enough to drive by driving to #BarnardCastle.

In perhaps the most desperate attempt to defend #DominicCummings, @michaelgove told @NickFerrariLBC that he’d also taken a drive with his wife “to test my...er....”.

He can't bring himself to try to finish the sentence.

Was it “eyesight” or “sobriety”?

After months of lockdown, the public mood shifted from fear & uncertainty to real anger at #DominicCummings & those justifying his actions

DCMO Jonathan van Tam refused to accept #Cummings’ excuses

We don’t see much of him anymore

And as for #HIGNFY...

“The country wants us to move on,” insisted @BorisJohnson

But it wasn’t true

The country wanted to see #DominicCummings sacked

Around 40 Tory MPs called for #Cummings to resign

The media - muffled for months by pandemic reporting guidelines - were also now finding their voice

For the first time the since the #COVID19 pandemic began, the PM & govt looked genuinely rattled

The tens of thousands of deaths resulting from their late lockdown didn’t seem to ruffle them, but the #Cummings crisis did

So the govt went on the offensive
https://t.co/xmuWCNsqI2

The govt’s turned their guns on the “the media mob”.

On @BBCNewsnight Andrew Bridgen, said he didn’t believe in “throwing #Cummings to the wolves” & said he was taught to “fight the monster”.

According to him, the “wolves” & “the monster” are the media.

Since the #Cummings saga, no govt minister has appeared on Newsnight, @GMB, @Channel4News or & anywhere they might get ‘a rough ride’.

@piersmorgan calls it “a dereliction of their duty as govt ministers” especially as we are at a time of national crisis.

Ex-civil servant, @carneross, said in 2015:

“Govt is an information machine. If journalists weren’t supportive we’d freeze them out."

Journos need to challenge this in the way they staged a mass walkout when colleagues were barred from a No.10 briefing.

“There were two clear drop points [in adherence to lockdown rules]. One was when news broke about #DominicCummings’ trip to Durham. Confidence never recovered”

Yet the govt blame the #2ndWave on the public, teachers, young people, scientists & the science

I don’t usually believe in "signs" but an icy shiver did run down my spine when meteorologists revealed that the #PinkRainbow that appeared while #Cummings facing the media, had one end in the Downing St's Rose Garden...& the other end in #BarnardCastle!