Over the past week, it’s been revealed that the Prime Minister’s Chief Advisor drove four hours across the country during lockdown. It’s being debated whether his journey broke the rules of lockdown or not.
Dominic Cummings released a timeline of what took place when he drove to Durham to see family after falling ill with Covid-19 symptoms. The Government has said that we should self-isolate for 14 days after contracting symptoms and although Dominic Cummings has said he was isolating, he was reported to have gone back and forth between London and Durham over the next few weeks.
People around the UK are in debate as to whether he has broken the rules of lockdown and most of the country are angry that they are being told to stay in their homes, while they believe others are choosing to ignore the rules set in place by the Government.
Some people are even demanding that Dominic Cummings resigns after the revelations over the past week.
When is it acceptable to break the rules of lockdown?
This debate has started people thinking about what would be acceptable to break the lockdown rules, starting with childcare.
While the Government’s guidance allows key workers to take their children to childcare providers or parents who live separately to take their children between homes, some believe that this is not enough.
There is the possibility that childcare may not be available to some key workers but they do still have to go to work. This means that they need to find someone else to look after their children but the guidelines have specifically said that grandparents and other family members do not count as childcare providers. So who else is supposed to look after the children of key workers?
However, some families are angered by this argument as they have faced difficult times during lockdown but have still managed to stick to the rules. Lucy and Matthew Jenkins are just one example of this.
Despite needing surgery during lockdown and having two young children, Lucy Jenkins managed to go through the surgery alone so that her husband could stay at home and take care of the children.
Dr Beatrice Hitchman, a lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire said:
“His actions are typical of a Government that doesn’t seem to understand or care, anything about the people they govern. Whilst millions of families have respected the quarantine rules, often at a great personal cost, you have a senior official who thinks he is above the law”
Families across the country believe that there is always another option to breaking lockdown rules.