Whatever about the press conference, the setting for the ‘grilling’ of Dominic Cummings was idyllic: sunshine, vegetation, birds singing, a comfortable chair and table. Normally when we’re angry with someone, we tend to get up close and shout in their face a bit. None of that yesterday. Due to Covid-19 rules, all journalists were a full two metres away. Which somehow softened their questions even further. Which somehow softened their questions even further.
Cummings kept the media waiting something like ninety minutes, and dismissed the gap with a quiet “Sorry I’m late” as he sat down. This is a classic ploy, Having interviewed dozens of people in my time, I know the sure sign that an interviewee has contempt for me is when they keep me waiting half an hour or more after the time they themselves agreed to.
After the ‘grilling’, one newsreader referred to it as “an hour-long
press conference.” Even including the
long pauses when Dominic literally said nothing, I’m not sure it was that long. More a lazy,
hazy half-hour or so of restrained questioning.
Besides wearing a half-respectable shirt, Cummings did two things in the course of the ‘grilling’. He provided detail of his movements to the point where confusion was possible and tedium inevitable. What part did his wife wishing an elderly gentleman “Happy Easter” play in whether he’d broken the British government’s own rules (which he himself had helped design)? When your brain is weighed down with a lorryload of minutiae, it’s harder to remember the vital big picture.
The second thing Cummings did was send out the core message “When it comes to self-isolating and travel, you should use your judgement.” I think that part of the message got through. Tens of thousands if not millions of people will have received that message, and will be using their judgement to say they need to go see Auntie Aggie in Aberdeen or to join a dozen mates and drink some lager in the nearest park. It’s all a matter of judgement. Well done, Dominic.
But even though his shirt was two sizes too large, Cummings did keep the garment on. Unlike An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was spotted yesterday sans upper-body clothing in the Phoenix Park.. This strikes me as gratuitous cruelty and contempt for the Irish people, and of course a favourite ploy of that other superior being, Vladimir Putin. Granted, Leo didn’t mount a horse and go charging around the Phoenix Park. But even just standing there presenting the people with his bared torso was sufficient to strike fear into the stoutest heart. Please, Leo, have pity. The Irish people have suffered enough.
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