Retsdon

Which is more than Greta can do...

I'm looking for help. Does anyone know anyone who could set up a proxy server with a UK based IP address for me? I know about the commercial ones, and I use one myself normally but it's not working for what I need it for which is to access online learning materials for the kids. Any help would be very much appreciated.

🤣😁😁

Why not? But don't be too disappointed if their answers don't make the newspapers. 😀

I really do like that picture. It's a long time since I had a view like it of a young dog and it brings back happy memories. Can he keep hold if you swing him around?

The rose garden at No 10 is has always traditionally been used for diplomatic or state affairs. That Cummings made free with it to brief the press corps on his personal doings speaks volumes about who is really in charge of this government. I suppose there's no reason why the country shouldn't have an unelected and unaccountable individual with an undefined role directing the affairs of state. It may be some new form of democratic parliamentary democracy. But not parliamentary democracy as we know it, Jim. .

I never realized that Cummings was giving that presser from the Rose Garden at Number 10. Never mind what he said, where he said it the real story. It explains why it was never on the cards that either Johnson would sack him or that Cummings would resign, no matter what he might have done.

I didn't watch the whole thing - too many irritants in it. But someone over on the Daily Mail just made the comment that they though his story sounded very much like a script to cover the known events. And that's probably as good a summation as you'll find. Whether not it's true doesn't matter. It can't be disproved so end of story.

So if you thought your eyesight might have gone a bit wonky, you'd test it by putting your wife and child in the car and taking them for a drive to a local castle? Perfectly normal. The more I listened to him, the more convinced I became that the whole thing was as likely as not one big made-up story. But it's par for the course these days that credibility is no longer an issue in politics. If you can't actually prove they're lying, they're right and you're wrong. Oh well. Brexit next....

I was thinking the same thing actually... But at the end of the day it's all irrelevant. We've only his word that all this isn't just a pack of lies and in reality he went on a holiday to Durham for his father's birthday. The fact is that he broke the lockdown and then had his wife write a deceitful piece in the paper intimating that they'd been in London the whole time. Those are the facts.

The longer this goes on the more sympathy I'm having for him actually. The whiney questioners are starting to get on my nerves.

The one thing that I wonder about is how does anyone know if a word of the story is true? Of course it is - that's the whole point of why I mentioned it in the first place. If he'd been driving on the normal road there'd be no questions. He wasn't. He practically freewheeled his car 15 yards down an empty village road at 11 at night and turned left into his driveway. In REAL terms, he was no danger to anyone. But he broke the law.

How would have managed to do that? I actually think he's doing very well, far better than I expected.

Had a shave too. Remarkable...

He's put on a clean shirt anyway.

The editor of the Telegraph too? Once the bunker mentality sets in, you know it's the beginning of the end. 🙂

I'm not moaning. I think it's all great fun. When Johnson stood in front of the world and said with a straight face that Cummings, in driving 270 miles across the country while he and his wife were infected had acted with 'the overwhelming intent of stopping the virus and saving lives', it was comedy gold. Funny as anything!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/05/24/boris-johnson-threatens-undermine-entire-covid-strategy-backing/ When the Telegraph, the Mail, and the Church of England are all agreed that a Tory prime minister is wrong then he's got an uphill battle on his hands. And much as some might want it to, this story isn't going away because it's now no longer about whether Cummings did or didn't break some law or other. It's now about Johnson's judgement and authority. And that story is forever and endlessly under scrutiny for any prime minister of any party. It runs and runs. To be honest, Johnson's in a no win situation. If he sacks Cummings, he'll be accused of giving way to the mob. If he doesn't sack him, he'll be accused of being in thrall to a political Rasputin. His only get- out card is for Cummings himself to resign and perhaps that's what he'll do when he speaks later today which apparently he's scheduled to do. In any case, it all makes for excellent theatre!

I know. Not even in Novia Scotia! 🤣🤣 https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/world/what-planet-are-they-on-no-respite-for-johnson-and-cummings-453451/

Great picture!

Many of us would. But it's not really the issue. To illustrate, I remember, quite a few years ago now, there was a bloke who lived in the village I grew up in in Wales. His house was about 4 or 5 doors down from the pub, and outside the pub, between it and his house, they'd put in a traffic-calming hump like an anti-tank berm. One Friday, Clive was coming home from work and saw a mate's car in the pub car park and stopped in to say hello. One thing led to another and he didn't go home until closing time. Of course, normally he'd have walked home and left the car but over the previous few weeks a number of cars that had been left outside either that pub or the one across the village had been broken into, and I think two had actually been stolen. So Clive, foolishly, decided to take his car out of the car park, drive it over the traffic hump, and then 15 yards down the road and into his driveway. He hadn't seen the police car. The upshot was that he lost his license for 18 months, and consequently his job. Morally, in my view, he did nothing wrong. He probably never got out of second gear and was never ever a danger to anyone. And he only did it to protect his property. But the law was the law and that was the end of it. Cummings situation is not dissimilar. Would most of us have driven to Durham in contravention of the lockdown rules in his circumstances? Very probably. It's not relevant though.

So Gordon was wrong then? Great! Happy that you're not defending Cummings actions.

I don't know, l never looked. I was quoting Gordon who was citing yourself as posting that according to the published rules Cummings did nothing wrong. If Gordon has misunderstood what you said, that's between you two.

It seems the police are divided. On the one side there is Gingercat saying that Cummings didn't break the rules, on the other side you have the former Chief Constable of Durham saying he did. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/former-durham-police-chief-mike-18304258 Take your pick...

An omnishambles that's making the country a laughing stock. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/05/24/civil-service-tweet-goes-viral-arrogant-and-offensive-can-you-imagine-having-to-work-with-these-truth-twisters/#98bea9a31544 It just gets worse and worse.