UK PM under fire from scientists, bishops, Harry Potter | Daily News

UK PM under fire from scientists, bishops, Harry Potter

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings.

UK: Harry Potter author JK Rowling, bishops and top scientists on a key government committee joined millions across the United Kingdom to express fury at Prime Minister Boris Johnson defending his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who breached lockdown rules in end-March.

Cummings, who has been close to Johnson since the successful Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum, travelled to Durham in north-east England with his family when the official advice followed by Britons was to ‘stay home’, prompting accusations that there is one rule for those in power and another for others. The Johnson government has been grappling with growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths due to Covid-19.

As the storm rose across the country, including in usually Conservative supporting sections and tabloids, Johnson insisted on Sunday evening that Cummings had done no wrong, defying many who sought the aide’s resignation.

More than 10 bishops said Johnson’s defence of Cummings was “risible”, that he had “no respect for the people”, “lacked integrity”, and risked undermining the trust of the public.

Pete Broadbent, the bishop of Willesden, tweeted: “Johnson has now gone the full Trump.”

As police chiefs said it would now be difficult to enforce curbs, at least three experts -- Stephen Reicher, Robert West and Susan Michie - on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies influencing government moves on the coronavirus pandemic deplored Johnson’s remarks.

Reicher said: “If you look at the research it shows the reason why people observed lockdown was not for themselves, it wasn’t because they were personally at risk, they did it for the community, they did it because of a sense of ‘we’re all in this together’.”

“If you give the impression there’s one rule for them and one rule for us, you fatally undermine that sense of ‘we’re all in this together’ and you undermine adherence to the forms of behaviour which have got us through this crisis”, he said.

- THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

 


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