Posted in: Comics | Tagged: dominic cummings

Comics Folk React to… That Dominic Cummings Press Statement

Until this month, for most people Dominic Cummings, if they knew the name, was the Brexit bloke who was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in that Channel 4/HBO show. Of late, as the right-hand man to Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his notoriety has increased. Whether it was sitting on a committee meant to be made up of scientists advising the government about the pandemic, and questioned about his own advice given to government, this weekend saw it revealed that while his family were beginning to suffer symptoms of the coronavirus, he drove them all 250 miles from London to Durham to self-isolate on his aged parents' property, taking a trip to a beauty spot while there, and later driving back. On Sunday, Boris Johnson publicly defended Boris, but the explanation didn't take. My cartoon for Guido Fawkes this morning (below) appears to have gone rather viral.

Today, for the first time, Dominic Cummings made a statement defending his actions and taking questions from the press. It's not going that well. Here's what a few comic book and comics-adjacent folk are saying right now.

• Mike Collins He still has not apologised
• Mark Gatiss Like that Spectator article said – "Always do quickly what you know you must do eventually". He has to go.
• Frankie Boyle Often the best way to get the public onside is a quick description of your parents' sprawling estate
• Abigail Brady "I think my crime should have been covered up because if everyone else knows they can get away with it it would lead to a general breakdown of society."
• Gary Frank I'm going to go against the responses of pretty much everyone I respect on here but, listening to him explain why he would not want to leave his family in the London flat- if true- I have some sympathy.
• James Moran "The anger was based on media reports" – funny, now I've heard your bullsh-t story, I'm EVEN MORE ANGRY, YOU F-CKING GOBLIN
• Gareth Roberts  Better than any actual politician at talking to journalists.
• Alasdair Stuart Yep. Rocks up late, confirms everything people said he didn't do, he did in fact do. Doesn't apologise. F-cks off back to his massively important job tearing the country apart as the beaches flood with people because of what he doesn't regret doing.
• Fraser Campbell He's now denying he's introduced the notion of discretion to the rules. Which of course he has. Up is down, Black is white. This is utterly unacceptable.
• Jamie Delano Jesus, even the Daily Numbers will be almost believable after this sh-t.
• Andy Khouri Sorry for starting this show so late into the season. So wait, this Cummings guy is meant to be a political genius?
• Charlie Brooker Think my eyesight is blurry. Should I put my family in the car and drive around for a bit to see if it clears up?
• Joe Glass F-ck me, they're honestly just trying to goad the public into a coup at this f-cking rate
• Lee 'Budgie' Barnett If the purpose of this press conference was to puncture the by now obvious absurd view that Dominic Cummings is a SMarT mAN, a mAstER of Teh DArK arTs WhO KnoWS WhAt hE's dOIng, well, job done.
• Laurie Penny 'The legal rules inevitably do not cover all circumstances, including those that I found myself in.' Ladies and gentlemen, the British government.
• Bryan Hitch Prince Andrew thought it would all go away with an interview. He had no regrets either.
• Tony Lee Can someone PLEASE ask #DominicCummings why the lockdown experience he states here isn't anything like the one that his wife described in the @spectator?
• Andy Diggle Cummings claims he drove his wife and child 30 miles to Barnard Castle ON HER BIRTHDAY to "test his eyesight." Riiiight.
• Frankie Boyle Hard to say that driving to a beauty spot to check whether your eyes work is outside the spirit of the guidelines
• Gareth Roberts What a terrifying evil genius monster mastermind
• Fraser Campbell Not going to resign, not going to consider it. If you can't see now what they think of you, you never will. You get what you pay for when you vote for these utter chancers.
• Andy Khouri You lost the Americans at "Barnard Castle" because we think it's hilarious to hear someone with that accent say they're driving to a castle, like that's just a thing British people do, and we're still giggling stupidly about it.
• James Goss My wife didn't mention that I had gone to Durham to avoid having press turn up on my parents' doorstop. Press have now turned up on my parents' doorstep.
• Ramon Villalobos  ur guy dominic is out of control.
• Matt Garvey That's right, Cummings you drink that water…we can't swallow this bullsh-t either
• Si Spurrier: Guys, give him a break. He did say he *respectfully* disagrees that law/morals/grownup-responsibilities/the-basic-f-cking-tenets-of-common-f-cking-sense apply to him.
• Alan Cumming #CummingsMustGo
• James Serafinowicz Wife: "Sure you want me and our son in the car for this eye test drive?" Dominic Cummings:"Yeah, f-ck it"
• Charlie Brooker To be fair, I can see why it's essential for someone this clever to keep their job at such a critical moment in our nation's history.
• Bryan Hitch Cummings clearly isn't going and I don't think he's done enough to satisfy what has now become a public outrage. Will it just all go away or will it continue to escalate?
• Marc Laming He's now claiming fake news!!! Get out of town!
• Sarah O'Connell I just went for a test drive. There just happened to be a castle there. #cumgate
• Si Spurrier Calling it now: this whole thing is a gloriously convoluted SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPECSAVERS advert to boost the economy and whichever agency came up with it is gonna win all the prizes.

We'll keep on keeping on… you can watch for yourself and make your own statement as well if you want.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!