Testing questions on the drive to Barnard Castle
Watching Dominic Cummings eat humble (pork?) pie in the rose garden of No 10 (Dominic Cummings refuses to resign or apologise for lockdown breach, 25 May), I was struck by the following questions:
1. Did he and his wife, Mary Wakefield, have no family or friends in London who could have looked after their son had they both been laid low by Covid-19?
2. If this elaborate yarn were true, why did it not feature in Ms Wakefield’s Spectator article about the family’s ordeal?
3. After his recovery Mr Cummings says that he was afflicted by an unusual visual disturbance and that this prompted the “test” drive to Barnard Castle on 12 April, which happened to be Ms Wakefield’s 45th birthday. If this visual disturbance had persisted, could she not have driven the family back to London? Did Mr Cummings mention this symptom to the doctor who is said to have approved the return car journey? Will Sage now revise the list of Covid-19 symptoms to include short-term visual disturbance?
Jonathan Watt-Pringle QC
London
• So Dominic Cummings was well enough to drive 250 miles, well enough to walk in woods, well enough to drive to Barnard Castle and well enough to drive back, but not well enough to stay in London where, presumably, he would have cared for his wife and child in much the same way he did in Durham. At a time when his mother and mother-in-law (living in a castle nearby) were coincidentally celebrating birthdays. I smell fish.
Sandra Semple
Exeter
• Enough is enough – it’s time to move on. I am not a fan of Dominic Cummings or Brexit, and I am a Guardian reader, but I think to hound one man as the media are doing is not dignified or justified. Let’s show some humanity. This is just displacement activity. There are far greater issues for us to give our attention to when the world is in such a crisis and Britain’s record of how we dealt with the virus is so questionable.
Jennifer Stephens
Edinburgh
• Poor Dominic and his “testing my eyesight” reason for his trip to Barnard Castle. If only he could have said that he went to Pizza Express in Woking, we’d have all believed him.
Roger Cairns
Swannington, Leicestershire
• Dominic Cummings followed the instincts of every father and every parent. Jacob Rees-Mogg would have used his common sense. Where does that leave the rest of us?
Joan Foster
Hunston, West Sussex
• My satnav estimates the journey time from Dominic Cummings’ parents’ home in Durham to Barnard Castle at 45-50 minutes. He says the 30-mile drive, none of it on major roads, took about half an hour – an average speed of about 60mph. Does his tendency to follow instinct rather than rule apply to speed limits too?
John Bevis
London
• Had the dog unfortunately eaten Mary Wakefield’s driving licence?
Vivien Scorer
Southwell, Nottinghamshire
• My wife and I were on a lockdown walk on the Northumberland/Durham border when in the distance we caught sight of a white pheasant (Letters, 25 May) crossing our path. We could not believe our eyes! We were seriously tempted to nip down to Barnard Castle to check they were OK. But then wiser counsel prevailed.
Rev Canon Robert McLean
Wylam, Northumberland
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