At Barnard Castle there has been angry condemnation about the police decision not to take action against Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s most senior aide, after his 52-mile round trip to the beauty spot on 12 April, apparently to test his eyesight. Dan Goldsmith, 43, said: “To come here from Durham isn’t a short journey and it wasn’t an essential journey by any means. It’s clear to everyone that what he did was wrong – it was a breach – and if the police accept that they should be taking actions against him. “It seems to me to be – again – one rule for ordinary people and another for influential people. It’s a sham. The man is an arse and he should have been prosecuted and treated the same way as anyone else would have been in those circumstances.”
Hyleen Wood, 58, and Stuart Wood, 55, from Chester-le-Street near Durham, said the whole episode made a mockery of the lockdown. “We have seen the police statement and it seems there are two sets of rules – one for him [Cummings] and another for us. It is annoying that whilst we all made sacrifices, he was driving up to his parents house with symptoms of coronavirus,” said Hyleen Wood. “It is very frustrating and his reasons make very little sense – it was quite clear what we were asked to do. We have all obeyed the rules and he has flouted it in front of us, making a mockery of what we are doing,” she said.
Her husband, Stuart, on his first day out since lockdown began after being furloughed from his job at a recycling plant, said Cummings needs to apologise and tell the truth. “I was furloughed on 21 March and I haven’t left my local area since then, apart from to take the dog for a walk. “Cummings should have apologised and Boris Johnson is desperately trying to brush this under the carpet. We were all expected to do our bit, yet he doesn’t appear to have done that and then that whole story about his eyesight – he totally tripped himself up there,” he said. Emily Davies, 26, is 18 weeks’ pregnant and this week had her latest scan, which her partner, Luke Stebbens, 26, was unable to attend.
Davies said: “This is our first baby and it’s an important time for us, it’s a time when I’d like him to be present for everything, especially to see the scan, but under the restrictions he can’t be. “And at the same time Dominic Cummings can drive here apparently to test his eyesight. Who drives a car to see whether they can see well enough to drive a car? “If he committed an offence, he should have been prosecuted. If it had been an ordinary member of the public, they’d have been done for it, he should have been treated the same.”
Stebbens added: “A friend of mine was fined driving to work. He didn’t realise his workplace wasn’t open but he was still stopped and fined by Durham police. And Cummings goes for a drive apparently to find out if he can see properly and gets away with it. How is that fair?” Dennis Richards, 58, said: “I think people in Barnard Castle have had enough of this issue now and I do feel that it’s a distraction from more important matters when the health of so many people is at risk. “But that said, I think Dominic Cummings should have accepted that what he did was wrong, because it was, and that he should have gone from government one way or another. “It wasn’t a major crime by any means but if you’ve done wrong you should be accountable for it and he hasn’t been.” Meanwhile, Ann-Marie Davies, 55, from Barnard Castle, said: “It is just one of those things and hindsight is a great thing but an apology would have been good. If he had just said: ‘I did it for the best interests of my family’ – it would have been better.”