Cummings protesters were not an angry mob

Marina Hyde, in her excellent article about the Dominic Cummings scandal (The truth about why Cummings hasn’t gone: Johnson is too terrified to sack him, 26 May), mentions her concerns about an angry “mob” outside his home. As one of the protesters who went there on Monday, I would like to clear up this aspect of Cummings’ misinformation campaign: there was no “mob” of protesters outside his home, though there was perhaps a “mob” of paparazzi.

On Monday, there was – at our peak – a handful of protesters quietly standing around and socially distanced on the pavement. A few of us had placards. Nobody was chanting. The police facilitating the protest confirmed we were not breaking the law and were very friendly to us. They also told us there hadn’t been a protesting presence outside Cummings’ home over recent days.

When Cummings returned from his press conference, having brazenly insulted our intelligence, quite understandably he was briefly shouted at as he entered his home and the paparazzi pressed in. One of our number swore, which, given his behaviour, didn’t seem that outrageous. Of course, it was this moment of high drama and jostling that made the evening news bulletins. Once he got inside we shut up, and shortly after that we all went home as it was getting dark.

The paparazzi were perhaps more mob-like, but in my view the man has brought that level of scrutiny on himself and it is by no means disproportionate to his crime. Please don’t allow Mr Cummings to weaponise this legitimate protest by evoking images of misbehaving protesters. We, as with the lockdown, obeyed the rules.
Samuel Jones
London

• More alarming than Dominic Cummings’ actions and cover story is the number of cabinet ministers who are willing to say the most absurd things in the chief adviser’s defence. On Tuesday, satire died when Michael Gove suggested on LBC that he too had “on occasion” driven to check his eyesight. What next? Operating heavy machinery to test his sobriety? In defending the indefensible ministers undermine their own credibility and imperil the government.
Shaun Passey
Stourbridge, West Midlands

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