News
James Besanvalle
May 26, 2020
Dominic Cummings addressed the nation on Monday evening to suggest the reason he took a 40-mile trip to Barnard Castle – with his wife and four-year-old son in the car – was to test his eyesight and see if he was well enough to drive from Durham to London.
It all started when Cummings made the decision to drive his wife and son from their home in London to his parents’ home in Durham. This was because his wife was ill with coronavirus-like symptoms and he claimed he was concerned about potentially not being able to care for his child if both parents got seriously ill.
While in Durham, Cummings started to feel better and – at the alleged advice of a medical expert – was cleared to go back to work.
But he wasn’t sure if he was completely well enough to make the drive back to London, so he made the half an hour drive to popular tourist destination Barnard Castle... to test his eyesight… on his wife’s birthday… and with his son in the car.
Needless to say, a lot of people have had trouble believing this justification.
And others have suggested that, even if true, it's a very silly thing to do.
On Good Morning Britain, Dr Mark Porter slammed Cummings’ decision and said:
The last thing you should do if you've got dodgy vision is jump in a car with your family and go and test it on the road on a 40-60 mile round trip.
'The last thing you should do if you've got dodgy vision is jump in a car.' Dominic Cummings drove to Barnard Cast… https://t.co/I6GduYI4kR— Good Morning Britain (@Good Morning Britain) 1590476392
Former Tony Blair advisor, Alastair Campbell, went even further and called the Cummings press conference a “shambles” and an “act of utter hypocrisy”:
Police officer John Apter advised against testing your eyesight by going for a drive:
While surgeon Karim Brohi said:
Do not test your eyesight by going for a drive. You might fail the test. A public information message from your fr… https://t.co/nPa2cwCVWM— Karim Brohi (@Karim Brohi) 1590423271
Journalist Kay Burley took Michael Gove to task over the eyesight incident:
If you're struggling with #COVID19 and you've got a problem with your eyesight, what is the govt's advice?… https://t.co/FMf9NkicP7— Sky News (@Sky News) 1590478879
While Londoner editor at The Evening Standard, Ayesha Hazarika, said driving to a castle to test your eyesight “doesn’t make any sense”:
'I feel like they've treated us like idiots.' @ayeshahazarika says Dominic Cummings' explanation that he drove to… https://t.co/BEbmOpcLXY— Good Morning Britain (@Good Morning Britain) 1590474996
Green MP Caroline Lucas believed the move was “wrong”:
Cummings says he needed to test his eyesight The rest of us can see clearly that what he did was wrong— Caroline Lucas (@Caroline Lucas) 1590422156
And people on social media were equally scathing about the Barnard Castle trip:
The worst thing that Cummings did wasn’t driving to Durham. It wasn’t testing his eyesight by visiting Barnard Cast… https://t.co/pMbqLVXsJH— Guy Fawkes (@Guy Fawkes) 1590476880
Does Michael Gove seriously think the doctors advised Mr Cummings to do a sixty mile round trip to test his eyesight? Really?— Alan Gibbons (@Alan Gibbons) 1590478514
Please remember that Cummings is more powerful than the Chancellor (Sayid Javid resigned over this). The man you sa… https://t.co/YFn2OWAObl— Peter Jukes (@Peter Jukes) 1590436741
Is there a new 'stupidity test' as well as a new 'eyesight test'? Asking on behalf of the whole government. Dom ha… https://t.co/V5zPq9W5ic— John Crace (@John Crace) 1590479837
Take a moment to reflect on this ridiculousness: imagine being stopped by the police during lockdown & trying to ju… https://t.co/sQspF0LsFj— Garrie Coleman (@Garrie Coleman) 1590475201
Weakest reply so far from Mr Cummings: I was worried my eyesight had been hampered by Covid and not good enough to… https://t.co/zOjSdkLeX6— Andrew Neil (@Andrew Neil) 1590422121
Rather than just getting the Government to send a car to drive him back to London he takes a 30 mile drive to Barna… https://t.co/upBUAXeEn5— Jo Maugham (@Jo Maugham) 1590423487
Today Dominic Cummings asked you to believe that he travelled 30 miles and back, with his wife and kid, to a well k… https://t.co/UEAcD82AFL— Darren McCaffrey (@Darren McCaffrey) 1590429193
Then the hilarious memes started rolling in:
Great alibis: ‘I was in Woking, to eat at Pizza Express’ ‘I was in Barnard Castle, to test my eyesight’ https://t.co/hHrt4SHtkZ— Paul Johnson (@Paul Johnson) 1590437025
Cummings taking a drive with his family to "test his eyesight" #CumGate https://t.co/jTqSc7PcNk— Ewan 🏴 (@Ewan 🏴) 1590424187
Captain: "I felt the best way to test my eyesight was to sail into the iceberg field." https://t.co/nr4zihGB8o— Sunlit Uplands (@Sunlit Uplands) 1590478651
Morning folks, my eyesight doesn't feel too great today...will update you shortly https://t.co/KOBdZ8YJXh— Councillor K Chowdhury (@Councillor K Chowdhury) 1590479565
“I once took my wife and son on an hours drive to Barnard Castle to test my eyesight”... https://t.co/OIEFtbtdiw— Chris Birks (@Chris Birks) 1590426007
"I once took my wife and child on an hour's drive to test my eyesight" https://t.co/MlLyiERaku— Shane Bailey (@Shane Bailey) 1590423098
"We've got half a tank of gas to Barnard castle, a child with a small bladder and my eyesight is on the fritz." "… https://t.co/ZxyQdkRvFK— Anthony (@Anthony) 1590425890
Dominic Cummings: “Lets go for a drive I need to test my eye sight...” Dominic’s child: https://t.co/UlSJYQYAUB— Josh Hargreaves (@Josh Hargreaves) 1590427993
Cummings out for a drive to test the eyesight. https://t.co/XeEtklVSXP— Cian McG (@Cian McG) 1590425530
BREAKING: DURHAM POLICE HAVE RELEASED CCTV FOOTAGE OF DOMINIC CUMMINGS DRIVE TO CASTLE BARNARD TO "TEST EYESIGHT" https://t.co/5g7tGCRcVW— Alex Kerr (@Alex Kerr) 1590424520
@shckldg https://t.co/rMXOTSmJCa— Steven the MusicGeek (@Steven the MusicGeek) 1590424115
Dominic Cummings has faced increasing pressure to resign over the incident, with many calling his actions “against the spirit” of the lockdown rules.
But he believes he hasn’t broken any laws and declined to offer an apology.
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