Here’s why people are wrong to compare Dominic Cummings and Caroline Flack

The news that Boris Johnson’s senior advisor had broken lockdown rules (that he helped write) not once, but twice, and while infected with Covid-19, has prompted a stream of varying reactions among the British public.

Many, naturally, were angry, posting on social media, emailing their MPs and even turning up outside Cummings’ door.

However, this outpouring of fury has prompted some sections of the internet to draw comparisons between Cummings and late television presenter Caroline Flack.

On the fact of it the pair do not seem like natural bedfellows, nor do their experiences seem comparable.

Yet that is exactly an argument that has emerged in the wake of the revelations about Cummings, with people complaining that the advisor is receiving the same treatment that allegedly contributed to Flack’s untimely death in February.

Posting a video of media gathered outside Cummings’ London townhouse, one Twitter user wrote:

They've seemingly learnt nothing from the tragedies of Princess Diana, Caroline flack etc. 

The hatred witchhunts created by the media for "stories" is sickening.

Another Cummings supporter posted a similar message, saying the media were “doing the same thing to Dominic they did to Caroline Flack”.

Well, here’s the thing: they’re absolutely not.

There are major key differences between the two, which social media users were quick to point out.

For a start, Caroline Flack was a media personality who was dogged by tabloid coverage of her personal life.

Dominic Cummings is a government advisor who repeatedly broke lockdown rules he was one of the architects of, while infected with a contagious virus.

Asking for accountability and answers from Cummings is not the same as round-the-clock reporting of Flack’s personal life, which was unrelated to her job.

Author and mental health activist Matt Haig said people drawing parallels between the two were misguided.

One Liberal Democrat councillor called the comparisons ‘shameful”.

Others laid out the clear dividing lines between Flack and Cummings’ situations.

Apparently asking for accountability from the most senior political officials is bullying now.

It was also pointed out that doorstepping politicians, is given a pass depending on which party they belong to.

Do people really believe that Caroline Flack and Dominic Cummings are figures alike in their experience?

Or is there another explanation as to why anyone would want to redirect the focus of the conversation away from the details of Cummings' wrongdoing?

We can only speculate…