Dominic Cummings’s trip to see the bluebells is a gift from God for sketch writers

What’s not so amusing is that thousands of people have had to leave loved ones to die alone, obediently following rules written by a man who considered them beneath him, writes Tom Peck

Screaming blue murder: his actions have angered a country that’s spent 10 weeks indoor (Getty)

No story I can recall has been as simultaneously hilarious, depressing and enraging as Dominic Cummings’s secret road trip, which presents challenges for those of us whose job it is to focus on the hilarious side of things.

Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser making a secret dart up the A1, in direct contradiction of the lockdown slogans he wrote, not to mention a second day trip to check out some famous bluebells, has plenty of comedic mileage, arguably more than 264 miles in each direction.

As does the cabinet’s collective social media action, to come out as one and defend what each of them had called indefensible barely a week ago, when the scientific adviser, Neil Ferguson, had done the same.

And that is even before the sightings of him singing Abba in his garden are considered. For several hours on Sunday afternoon, the strapline on Sky News read: “Sky News has spoken to eyewitness claiming he saw someone who looks like Dominic Cummings in Barnard Castle on 12 April.”

For a sketch writer, a farce this rich is a gift from the gods. But there are plenty of people who aren’t laughing, not while so many are dying. Cummings’s actions have irritated a country that’s spent ten weeks indoors.

But thousands and thousands of people in that time have had to leave loved ones to die alone, obediently following rules written by a man who considered them beneath him.

Still, politicians and governments are used to being hated. It comes with the territory. Being openly laughed at is harder to recover from, and this story has many more miles of open road in front of it.

Yours,

Tom Peck

Political sketch writer