so it's do as I say, not as I do then?

Boris Johnson finally faced the country this evening.

He really had no choice.

A story broke today that while we were all staying away from our loved ones, even being told that we couldn't go to a funeral to pay last respects, the PM's chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, saw fit to travel 260 miles from London to his parents' home in Durham while his wife was suffering with coronavirus.

His journey was to ensure that should he also get ill that there would be adequate child care for his four year old son.

So, after calls for his resignation or for Boris to sack him, I sat down at five o'clock certain that Boris had at last actually grown a pair and was going to do the latter.  Even as I sat and watched him defend Cummings I was waiting for the "but".

But it never came.

What did come was a reminder that the rules apply to everyone, and that Cummings's circumstances were different.  So different that he had to take his whole family, including his sick wife, from the place where we were all instructed to stay - our homes.  

The child care issue has been raised as the difference, and the guidance we are told provides for an exception.  Though as I understood it, the exception only came into play where the child was in imminent danger and was put in place to safeguard vulnerable young people and not for the provision of "normal" child care.

Anyway, was no child care available in London?  Why didn't he contact his local authority for help like other parents have been advised to do?  Friends even?

Whatever, Johnson completely backed his aide, in one swipe undoing any trust the Government had built up with the population of the UK.  Worst was to come though as press questions were batted away or completely ignored even when things got tricky.  Journalists were summarily cut off mid question.

Why should we now listen to our "leaders" and stay home (or alert depending on where you live)?

time to dust this beauty off I think

Any politician worth his or her salt would have sacked Cummings.  Johnson's failure to do so raises yet more questions and this isn't simply going to go away.  Why is Johnson so dependent on his advisor? Is he really that important?  I mean, he's an unelected aide and not a politician.

If I were more cynical I'd have to wonder whether he has "something" damning on the corridors of power rendering him untouchable?  I mean, why was he able to sit on the Government's scientific advisory panel?  He's not a scientist.

Whatever, it absolutely stinks and if it results in a breakdown of the rules and the country experiencing a second wave of Covid 19 and even more deaths, Johnson should hang his head in shame.  And resign himself.