One Law For.......

[Gronnuck]

In case nobody has noticed, the main difference between Ian Stewart and Dominic Cummings is that Stewart is in taking on an executive role with NHS Orkney where the current population is less than 23,000. He is healthy and commutes to his home weekly, a round trip of approx. 200 miles. Cummings on the other hand is one of the principal architects of the UK’s COVID-19 management strategy for a population of 67m people. He chose to swanny off to Durham, a round trip of some 520 miles, allegedly twice, while he and his wife were suffering the symptoms of COVID-19. Big difference.

[orkneycadian]

In case nobody has noticed, the main difference between Ian Stewart and Dominic Cummings is that Stewart is in taking on an executive role with NHS Orkney where the current population is less than 23,000. He is healthy and commutes to his home weekly, a round trip of approx. 200 miles. Cummings on the other hand is one of the principal architects of the UK’s COVID-19 management strategy for a population of 67m people. He chose to swanny off to Durham, a round trip of some 520 miles, allegedly twice, while he and his wife were suffering the symptoms of COVID-19. Big difference.

And in case you haven't noticed Gronnuck, London and Durham are on the same land mass. Orkney and the Black Isle are separated by the Pentland Firth (well, and the Moray Firth if you are being accurate....). Whilst Iain Stewart may feel healthy, as we know, 85% of people with coronavirus are asymptomatic. He can feel, and look as healthy as he likes - As he brings it into Orkney......

And the other key difference is that Iain Stewart can completely work from home. He is not a surgeon, a nurse, a cook or anything front line that needs his presence on the wards. He works in an office, a board room possibly, in the new Balfour Hospital, with some of Orkney's best IT connections to the outside world. Bear in mind the hospital here only opened last year and has state of the art IT and videoconferencing systems, designed to allow patients in Orkney to consult doctors in Aberdeen or further afield. Now, if he cannot do his office job from home, with the best quality IT equipment at hand, then no one can. So he has effectively signaled that lockdown is over or irrelevant. His arrogance in the interview in last weeks Orcadian newspaper is breathtaking, and the inability of the Chair of NHS Orkney to cover up for him, or even give a reasoned explanation on Radio Orkney last week was similarly cringeworthy.

And whilst Mr Cummings stayed in England, not coming anywhere near Scotland, Caithness or Orkney, the ones who seem the most het up about it are in Scotland. But here, Mr Stewart has passed amongst us. He has passed through Caithness and Orkney. So his actions are far more relevant to us here.

Oh, and just a final bit of help with arithmetic. You suggest that Dominic Cummings has made a 520 mile round trip, allegedly twice. Cooped up in a car. Thats 1,040 miles. Iain Stewart has been making a round trip of 200 miles, 8 or 9 times - So 1600 or 1800 miles. Some cooped up in a car, but part on a ferry. You cannot stay in your car on the Pentland Firth crossings, you have to get out of your car and go into the passenger lounge. Much more risk of contamination there than simply staying in a car and driving the trip. And yes, both will need to stop for fuel somewhere on those lengths of journeys, so that applies to them both. I expect though that Iain Stewart will have had to fill his car up more times that Dominic did, creating additional risk.

But yet, the Scottish Government stand by Mr Stewart, and attempt to bring down Mr Cummings. I think that is why this thread is titled "One law for........"

[aqua]

And in case you haven't noticed Gronnuck, London and Durham are on the same land mass. Orkney and the Black Isle are separated by the Pentland Firth (well, and the Moray Firth if you are being accurate....). Whilst Iain Stewart may feel healthy, as we know, 85% of people with coronavirus are asymptomatic. He can feel, and look as healthy as he likes - As he brings it into Orkney......

And the other key difference is that Iain Stewart can completely work from home. He is not a surgeon, a nurse, a cook or anything front line that needs his presence on the wards. He works in an office, a board room possibly, in the new Balfour Hospital, with some of Orkney's best IT connections to the outside world. Bear in mind the hospital here only opened last year and has state of the art IT and videoconferencing systems, designed to allow patients in Orkney to consult doctors in Aberdeen or further afield. Now, if he cannot do his office job from home, with the best quality IT equipment at hand, then no one can. So he has effectively signaled that lockdown is over or irrelevant. His arrogance in the interview in last weeks Orcadian newspaper is breathtaking, and the inability of the Chair of NHS Orkney to cover up for him, or even give a reasoned explanation on Radio Orkney last week was similarly cringeworthy.

And whilst Mr Cummings stayed in England, not coming anywhere near Scotland, Caithness or Orkney, the ones who seem the most het up about it are in Scotland. But here, Mr Stewart has passed amongst us. He has passed through Caithness and Orkney. So his actions are far more relevant to us here.

Oh, and just a final bit of help with arithmetic. You suggest that Dominic Cummings has made a 520 mile round trip, allegedly twice. Cooped up in a car. Thats 1,040 miles. Iain Stewart has been making a round trip of 200 miles, 8 or 9 times - So 1600 or 1800 miles. Some cooped up in a car, but part on a ferry. You cannot stay in your car on the Pentland Firth crossings, you have to get out of your car and go into the passenger lounge. Much more risk of contamination there than simply staying in a car and driving the trip. And yes, both will need to stop for fuel somewhere on those lengths of journeys, so that applies to them both. I expect though that Iain Stewart will have had to fill his car up more times that Dominic did, creating additional risk.

But yet, the Scottish Government stand by Mr Stewart, and attempt to bring down Mr Cummings. I think that is why this thread is titled "One law for........"

For once, I agree with everything you say.

I think Nicola is being more than a tad inconsistent.

[Oddquine]

For once, I agree with everything you say.

I think Nicola is being more than a tad inconsistent.

The difference is that a) the coronivirus "rules" say stay at home....and Cummings left his home to go on a road-trip, while Stewart left his "digs" to go to his home..(I can imagine the screams of "waste of money" if the Orkney Health Board had to install in Stewart's home, for the length of lockdown, the state of the art IT equipment available to him at Balfour Hospital)
and b) Cummings is employed in helping to write the rules for the rest of us to follow, because he is, as was Calderwood, an advisor to the PM (some would even say Cummings was the Rod Hull to the PM's Emu), while Stewart is simply an employee of Orkney Health Board, and has nothing more to do with writing the rules for others to follow than you or I have. So I see no inconsistency when it is apples and potatoes which are being compared.

[aqua]

I disagree. I actually think Stewart is worse because he’s travelling in both directions every week. It’s a matter of principle and it’s a matter of practice. He’s more likely to transmit the virus due to his weekly jaunts. Why doesn’t he live in Orkney?

You must be pleased that your local representative has made a name for himself by resigning and therefore doing the right thing. You should be proud.

[Oddquine]

I disagree. I actually think Stewart is worse because he’s travelling in both directions every week. It’s a matter of principle and it’s a matter of practice. He’s more likely to transmit the virus due to his weekly jaunts. Why doesn’t he live in Orkney?

You must be pleased that your local representative has made a name for himself by resigning and therefore doing the right thing. You should be proud.

Stewart has travelled in both directions regularly since the day he took up the post and given he is currently not the CEO of Orkney Health Board, should the current CEO (and the Board) not be getting pelters because he/they have been allowing Stewart to travel regularly between the Black Isle and Orkney from January to date? Why should he move his family to Orkney, out of interest, if they are well settled in the Black Isle? He worked for NHS Nottinghamshire before he went to NHS Highland, and he didn't move his family down there either. He only spent a year in NHS Highland..so he's maybe waiting to see how long the Orkney job is going to last...and the Board doesn't seem to insist on him living close to the job, do they?

As he works in a hospital, he is probably more aware of the possibility of coronavirus than most of us, and I'm sure, if he had knowingly been in contact with anyone with the virus, he'd not have been travelling to take it home to his family...unlike Cummings, who didn't just pack his child into the car for the road-trip (and by a lucky chance to celebrate his mother's birthday), he deliberately packed coronavirus in there with him for the road-trip as well.

I'd have been more pleased if my local representative had resigned because Cummings hadn't been sacked...but at least it does show that football referees understand that rules are rules to be obeyed, not simply words to be interpreted according to personal whim. But given that seemingly there have been lots of complaints from consitiuents about Cummings' actions, it is nice to see that for once he is listening to us.

[The Horseman]

In the middle of one of the most serious situations we have encountered, the headlines are about 2 guys who committed a ‘minor variance’!
Should we give our ‘heads a shake’.
I’m not talking about ‘On Here’..........I’m talking about International Headlines. Gawd!