Dominic Cummings, remember him?

I was not originally inclined to write this, but the more it bombarded every media outlet I turned to, it became increasingly hard to ignore. However, what piqued my interest was the intensity of the hatred and scrutiny directed towards Dominic Cummings, so I wanted to explore why. Now that it is no longer the headline issue of the day, it felt right to reflect upon things with a slightly more sober perspective. However, the 'die-in' protest held outside Cumming's home just today, shows that whilst the headlines may have moved on, the people have not.

It’s rare that a government advisor is so well known and intensely scrutinised in the public sphere, but when you’re cited as the mastermind puppeteer behind the Prime Minister, with Brexit and the largest Conservative election victory in a generation on your CV, you’re no ordinary adviser.

I believe the attitude towards Cummings actually lies in these events. We associate him with Brexit, with Boris Johnson, not what we know about him personally. In truth, the personality is not one the public actually knows a great deal about. This much was evident when the surprising image of a scruffy individual in a baggy shirt was granted the garden of Number 10, normally reserved for world leaders, to explain his actions from a fold-up table. This did nothing to justify the bloodthirst of the public, they wanted to see a man punished to the fullest degree: definitely sacked, possibly prosecuted.

By now we are familiar with the timeline of Cummings actions: the coming and going at work in the context of his wife’s potential illness and the journeys to Durham and Barnard Castle in the context of his own ailments, justified by concern for the wellbeing of his son. The number of actions that contravenes the guidelines of the lockdown is obvious. He did not immediately self-isolate upon the sign of his wife’s symptoms, travelled when no one was supposed to be travelling, and the 30-mile journey to Barnard on the basis of testing one’s ability to drive immediately undermines the first thing you are told before you even touch a pedal when learning: do not drive if you feel unwell.

To some extent, the anger was not about what he did, because it was already done, it was over the lack of remorse. There is an argument to be made that, given his stated circumstances, Cummings decision to travel to Durham was justified in a difficult instance concerned for his child’s health. An apologetic man claiming he merely tried to act in his family’s interests can at least be sympathised with, but a man who refuses to acknowledge his misjudgements backed by a government response that supports that position is undermining of everything people trusted.

This is the keyword: trust. This saga portrayed a perception that a national stay at home message was interpretable or didn’t apply to some and did to others. Contrasting the disregard of this act and the sacrificial acts of others is what angers people. It’s an anger that has already begun to subside, but an already fragile public trust in the government is shattered, for the sake of one adviser. I hope, for the government’s sake, their loyalty is worth it because Dominic Cummings is not the man the government need to depend on in order to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, the people are.