Rayvin

I have wondered it yes, but i still have faith in Starmer at this point and in fairness the media are both doing his job here and catching the flak for it. I'm worried he isn't visible enough but then his involvement might cause everyone to form ranks on either side of the divide again.

For all people are going on about Iabour climbing back in polls, the Tories are still 6 points ahead. Brexit has made them unable to drop below 40 IMO.

I'm quite sure I never went that far in defence of the MSM Marina Hyde is indeed superb though, never going to argue otherwise there.

I thought @trophyshy comment was amusing tbh, I don't know why he deleted it. I'm not that delicate ffs

Meh, you see worse than that every day on Twitter. The guy hasn't contributed to the Guardian since 2018 so he's not exactly prominent. It's also not actually a threat. I don't think this quite squares up to people threatening to kill members of the clergy, from the other side of the aisle. Having said that, it's a fucking stupid thing to say and needlessly aggressive. That's rapidly the country that the Tories are turning us into, but we should all aim to be above it. If he still works for the Guardian in some capacity, they should close that relationship down.

Also surely they'll appeal it. If this falls through I think I'm done though. I can't go back to Ashley after getting so close to being the end of his reign.

FFS. Have the WTO just sped that through or have the PL been waiting for the outcome? Is the individual named in the criminality behind BeoutQ directly involved in the running and purchase of NUFC?

My (Tory) MP has replied to me saying that he thinks Cummings should have cleared things up a lot sooner than he did, and is continuing to let the PM know about the thoughts people are sending to him. Impressive stuff.

Fair point, maybe that's all it is. Fucking weird line in the sand to have though, unless it's effectively because they've all got so much shit on him that he's essentially held hostage at all times.

Aye but there's no way Cummings would torpedo that now, surely. He's not going to do anything that threatens Brexit and plays into the hands of those who are bringing him low, no matter what Johnson does.

I'm starting to find it very difficult to understand Johnson on this - like we've all said for months that Cummings runs the country, but the extent to which it's true is beyond what I appreciated at the very least. Johnson literally staking his own career over this is so 'un-Johnson' that I'm starting to think that Cummings must have threatened him.

Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves here At this point it's still not clear that Cummings is going to go, let alone Johnson.

Huge success then, that press conference.

Those defending him are obsessed with the notion that other people have acted as badly with less media fury. The thing is though, I can't recall any other prominent figure who travelled whilst infected. Self isolating is a whole loads of step more serious than social distancing.

Fucks sake, that fella wants to spend 4 years supporting Corbyn Fucking relentless media negativity. And aye, it's draining indeed. Buckle up though snowflake.

I'm not sure. The thing is, if we're really honest with ourselves, the people defending Cummings aren't totally wrong here. It is a witch hunt and the target is a man who the press hate. I'm not sure it's so much about holding the government to account (where are they on the more serious issues of unnecessary deaths and general failure and incompetence?) so much as it is about them having an opportunity to stick the boot into Cummings, a man they detest. It just so happens that they're aligned with our side at the moment, principally because Johnson has totally fucked this up. The BBC were pathetic on this even yesterday, interviewing Tory after Tory, with Kuennsberg asking the gentlest questions. ITV not much better. If this heralds a new era of hounding the government properly then I think you'll get a full 180 from me on this, and I will agree with what you've said. My current view is that the Daily Mail is the entity that is making this hurt though - I don't know why they've done it, I guess they actually do believe they have some kind of moral code to uphold, fractured and distorted as it is - but they're the ones who have made this stick. I'll enjoy the moment here of being on the same side as the press, but let's not kid ourselves. Long way to go yet, and some of the worst offenders have been dragged to this point kicking and screaming.

This is my feeling also. It was good sport and has probably done some damage to Cummings as a figure of some craft and skill, but ultimately I don't think there was a killer blow in there.

So, does he survive this?

That was a superb question tbf - "even if it was the media's fault, given where we are, why not resign to save lives and draw a line under how important adherence to guidelines is?"

Tbf, was worried earlier but I'm not now. It's been a car crash from reporter 3 onwards.

I still have a bad feeling he's going to get away with this tbh.

You have more faith in the average person than I do, clearly.

This is coming across as fairly reasonable to me tbh. At least insofar as your average person is concerned.

The longer this has gone on, the more I've started wondering that. Like a final petulant act. Who knows though, the man is a lunatic.