LETTER: Cummings actions have undermined the key message

The people of this country have endured two months deprivation of their liberty: not able to be with dying relatives, not attending their funerals, not seeing friends and family, not undertaking the activities that we would normally do; this has caused immense suffering and difficulties in many households.

Why have we had to do this?! Answer: for the common good of our fellow citizens, to try to limit the spread of a deadly disease. The vast majority of the population have complied, not just with the letter, but also the spirit, of the regulations and guidance. Had it been up to individuals to use the own sense of what was right for themselves and their families, it begs the question “why was it necessary to impose such unprecedented prohibitive rules to limit our freedoms?”. The whole point about the Government taking emergency powers is to mandate the citizens of this country to comply with the rules for the overall, common good, whether we like it or not.

The Prime Minister “instructed” us all to stay at home! We are to self-isolate if a household member has symptoms of Covid-19. We were not told or encouraged to travel across the country. In all communities across the country, people have signed up to volunteer to help those self-isolating to get food and other necessities, where there are no family or friends to assist. There was absolutely no valid reason for Mr Cummings to travel with his sick wife to the north of England. The whole reason for the rules was to stop that sort of behaviour.

The fact that Mr Cummings did so not only erodes trust in the Government, but, more importantly at a time of national crisis, where the clarity of the Government’s message is vital to defeating the virus, it undermines that message.

The only moral and political expedient thing to do is for Mr Cummings to resign, but if he fails to do so, he should be sacked by the PM.

Juliet Blackie, Shray Hill