UPDATED Dominic Cummings specifically stated now in the press briefing that he had been eager to “get back to work to get vaccine deals through, move regulations aside” and that is why he drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.
Now it may be entirely a coincidence that the place to which he chose to drive for his eyesight test happened to be the site of the major factory of GlaxoSmithKline. It may be an entire coincidence that two days later, on the very day Cummings actually started work back in Downing Street he has stated was “to get vaccine deals through”, GlaxoSmithKline announced an agreement to develop the vaccine.
It is however plainly not crazy to ask the question. This astonishing Twitter pile-on against Clive Lewis for retweeting my piece says something very worrying, when you consider that the large majority of those piling in are supposedly part of the “opposition” and include many journalists. A society where it is viewed as a sign of madness to look into the prospect of corruption involving a company as massively, provenly corrupt as GlaxoSmithKline and a figure as shady as Cummings, is a very unhealthy society indeed.
One red flag to me is the number of trolls claiming GlaxoSmithKline only has a small and remote office in Barnard Castle. This is not the entire site, and in a further £96 million investment two new blocks are in construction or recently finished:
So to return to my original posting:
In 2012 GlaxoSmithKline were fined $3 billion for fraud, overcharging and making false claims about medicines in the USA. In 2016, GlaxoSmithKline were fined £37.6 million in the UK for bribing companies not to produce generic copies of their out of patent drugs, thus overcharging the NHS.
Despite the fines, these frauds were still massively profitable for GlaxoSmithKline. A perfunctory search on the company brings up similar frauds and fines it perpetrated in South Africa and India. All this within the last decade. I cannot find any information that anyone was jailed, or even sacked, for these criminal activities. It is absolutely astonishing that such an habitually criminal enterprise carries on serenely in the UK. And what is particularly interesting today is that it carries on its crooked activity from its massive manufacturing and research base in Barnard Castle, County Durham.
On 12 April Dominic Cummings was seen in Castle Barnard during lockdown. Two days later, GlaxoSmithKline of Barnard Castle signed an agreement to develop and manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine with Sanofi of France.
Of course, that could be coincidence. As a child I lived in nearby Peterlee and I know families may go to Barnard Castle just for relaxation. Even when that is illegal. But GlaxoSmithKline Barnard Castle has been working 24/7 during the coronavirus crisis including the weekends. It was working.
The government’s extraordinary refusal to confirm or deny Cummings visit to Barnard Castle appears to make little sense if he just went there for a walk.
But surely if he was discussing Covid-19 vaccine business on behalf of the government, that would answer all the critics of his trip, would it not? They would want to trumpet it from the hills? I mean to believe otherwise, you would have to propound a crazed conspiracy theory. You would have to believe that criminal activity may be occurring again involving GlaxoSmithKline of the kind which might lead to fines of 37.6 million pounds for overcharging the NHS, or of three billion dollars for fraudulent medical claims in the USA. Nobody sane believes that kind of thing, do they?
UPDATED: I should never be surprised by the puerile nature of debate on the internet, but I frequently am. There appears to be organised pushback stating that this article is only speculation. Of course it is. It states a number of facts not generally known, and wonders if there is a connection. It does not claim to have proof Cummings visited GSK, let alone of what he did when there. But both GSK and Cummings are known bad actors.
The even sillier argument is that Barnard Castle is the research and manufacturing centre and not the corporate HQ and therefore no deal could have been done there. Because when a company is involved in a massive criminal conspiracy, as GSK undeniably was in the multi-billion fraud in the USA or its price-fixing to the NHS, such criminal actions obviously can only be arranged in the main London company boardroom during normal working hours with lots of people around and the maximum chance of inconvenient people finding out what is happening? That is a stupid argument.
Equally, those who claim I have uncovered a criminal conspiracy are wrong. I have not. All I have done is put together some circumstances around Cummings denied trip to Barnard Castle, that could potentially provide a more reasonable explanation for why he would take the risk of going there, and why the government would stake all politically on denying it, than a day trip for a walk for his wife’s birthday. I have not proven anything.
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Have you noticed the other coincidence about April 14th? Cummings sister Alice – the one who was to provide child care presumably – was appointed Director of IDOX
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/sPif5LKdJKWgmZLu1QeqJZnjV2I/appointments
just before they got the contract for magic app
https://www.idoxgroup.com/archive/idox-partners-with-nhs-on-health-tech-to-streamline-covid-19-testing/
We here are all convinced there is a perfectly rational explanation
IS she confirmed as being Cumming’s sister?
She isn’t Cummings’ sister. Cummings’ sister was born Francesca McDonald Cummings, married name Herriott. The director is (Mrs) Alice Sarah Louise Cummings, nee Banks – wife of a Russell Cummings. No idea whether Russell is a relative, though.
(Info from freebmd.org.uk & Ancestry.co.uk)
Francesca Cummings nee Herriott is a director of the New Frontiers Foundation, where Dominic Cummings is also a director.
https://www.companieslist.co.uk/04993774-the-new-frontiers-foundation
Whatever that was (sounds vaguely dystopian!) it was dissolved in 2006, according to that link.
I am wondering if Dominic, as a very intelligent man addicted to ‘disruption’, not at all concerned with popularity, planned to be found out. The resulting backlash and public opinion of ‘if he can do it, so can I’, might chase a few back to work. We have been too well-behaved, doing as we were told so cocking up the herd immunity plan.
Sorry Craig; bit of a dog whistle post this one. The only people who are going to get excited about this information hate Cummings already and wake up every morning just gagging to post foaming, screeching rants about him.
It’s up to you what you write on here. But if I wanted to read what a git DC is I can go to the MSM or the usual airheads on Twitter. My point isn’t that you’re wrong in your theory (though it’s not backed up), the big problem for me is that the last time I saw such a concerted attempt at pulling someone down it was directed at JC.
Now I believe that the MSM and social media are utterly compromised and censored so one should always ask cui bono whenever a story starts to show signs of traction. It’s incoherent to suggest that the media go after one person out of political spite but another one because they are rigorous defenders of truth and decency in public life.
andic, neither JC and DC were/are part of the Establishment.
You are quite right to highlight this very happy coincidence of timing and place. When such coincidences occur, involving people like this, the moat prudent thing to assume is that the most corrupt, nefarious activities have taken place.
UK Column have covered this giving Craig credit
https://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-25th-may-2020
Thinking about it. What is worse going to a Tourist spot for a bit of shopping
or visiting GlaxoSmithKline that could be passed of as work related.
both he should not be doing
Interesting theory. If Cummings should have been self-isolating with his family, but chose to visit a company producing medicines, didn’t he risk infecting the workforce? If he did leave his wife and child alone while visiting said company, was he not also risking their lives by being in the presence of a potential source of infection – it is accepted that there are non-symptomatic covid-19 carriers in the population. The more “reasons” for excusing his behaviour, the more are the reasons for him not taking those actions.
Tut. Perhaps he wore a mask and washed his hands. DC isn’t the sort of chap to dice with other people’s health . . . is he?
The Dom is to make a public statement later today – and then answer questions (!)
Here’s one: “When did you first communicate with the prime minister about any meeting you had on 12 April?”
DC statement, 4pm.
Usual Number 10 briefing, 5pm.
DC will resign I think. He has had “hubris” written all over him, as has Trump.
N
I think I’ll start putting money on the oppsite of what you forecast.???
April 12 was Easter Sunday so presumably not many of the work force around – also the day that Johnson resurrected himself from hospital. The situation can be looked at in different ways – Barnard Castle is a nice place to visit but a perfect occasion for a hush hush meeting if one was required. Cummings by then would consider himself FFI if by then he had recovered from the virus 2- 3 weeks before.
If I am correct about the secret dealings, it would cure not only the pandemic but also the corrupt dealings in having worldwide alleged absolutely safe wastewater treatment plants without the public ever knowing.
No wonder it was ultra top secret..
Wonderfully written, and well researched! thanks .
Time will tell but the whole Barnard Castle rumour strikes me as some kind of ‘Aunt Sally’ constructed by people trying to protect Cummings. There is most likely proof he never went there or was there for relatively innocent reasons, thus weakening the other claims.
Note how all this ties in the ‘big pharma’ conspiracy theory about the coronavirus that has been doing the rounds. It a neat distraction from what I suspect is the real issue here – American military and economic power in this country exercised through placemen like Johnson and Cummings.
An interesting question is who decided to blow the whistle on someone as plainly powerful as Cummings, and why exactly. Coming so soon after Johnson’s illness, there are clearly people in high places getting restive.
Perhaps Cummings visited a doctor in the town of Barnard castle and afterwards went on his once a day permitted exercise by walking through the bluebells, whilst talking to a Glaxo executive, whilst they were more than six feet from each other, at all times?
HMYOI Deerbolt is just down the road on the other side of town. A humanitarian trip to offer comfort and succor in these difficult times? A game of footie with the lads?
What proof do we have that he or his wife had the virus. Maybe an anti body test will provide the answer.
We need a public inquiry into how Nicola Sturgeon is getting hair dressing services legally during lock-down.
Perhaps Peter is handy with the scissors?
GlaxoSmithKline was involved in a vaccine scandal in Russia.
“… In 2006, GSK conducted 58 studies in Russia at 315 centers at the same time…”
“… In Volgograd, experimental vaccination resulted in a scandal. 37 out of 112 children who passed through the vaccine were recognized as victims …”
Here is the source in russian language, dated 2007
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2299172
The investigation was conducted by journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in Ukraine in 2016.
By the way, the investigation revealed that the Sheremet’s car was blown up by Julia Kuzmenko, a military doctor and pediatric cardiologist.
“On 12 April Dominic Cummings was seen in Castle Barnard during lockdown”
According to one old guy almost certainly bullied by (so called) journalists. Ludicrous bias.
Are you suggesting journalists bullied Mr Lees into making a false statement to the police, because for some reason the journalists want to make out that Dominic Cummings was in Glaxo Town on 12 April when actually he wasn’t?
If so I guess you will be expecting Cummings to deny he was in Glaxo Town on that date when he gives his press conference starting in a few minutes’ time. He won’t. He was there.
GSK produced the Pandermix vaccine in response to the Swine flu epidemic which wasn’t. The vaccine was withdrawn but not before causing lifelong damage to some of the vaccinated. The victims eventually were awarded compensation, £61 million, paid by the UK government not GSK because of the indemnity clause.
Why were the public not told of the early warning signs? https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3948
Except compensation was not actually ever paid … the stale mate between GSK and the Gov continues.
Cummings is a dangerous lunatic who has not been elected. He should not be anywhere near government. It really is that simple
Exactly – we should only be governed by elected dangerous lunatics.
The update is very amusing. The fact that many people suggest this is an untenable conspiracy theory must therefore be evidence of another conspiracy!
Having worked with a drug company the chemist/owner would get a visit from a sales rep with an envelope Full of cash with the percentage of the previous months transactions.
The NHS hospitals Would be buying Common drugs for £6.53 The chemist would be purchasing drugs off the exact same production line and he/she would only be paying £0.05 for the exact same quantity. Only difference was a logo on the packaging.
The presser was supposed to start at 4pm and it’s now 4.25. Let’s hope Dominic Cummings hasn’t followed in the footsteps of Cardinal Wolsey who was taken fatally ill on his way to answer charges of treason.
OK it’s a breach of the Cabinet Office code of conduct for a special adviser to talk to the media about a political controversy, but come on, Dom, who cares about the rules, eh?
I wonder whether Mary will be there.
Leave it any longer and it will be time for the daily briefing to start inside the building…
“However, his eyesight had been affected by his illness and so he went for a short drive to see if he could drive safely – to the town, Barnard Castle.
He said they sat by the riverbank for 15 minutes, and they wished a passerby “Happy easter” while returning to the car.
They spent some time in the woods on the way home as his child needed the toilet – he said they saw some people at the distance, but did not break any social distancing rules.”
That’s the Graun’s version of Cumming’s account of visit to BC. Quite entertaining really. Nothing said yet is going to get him off the hook.
I mean he’s just continuing to defend his actions. He evidently doesn’t understand the anger.
It’s as if he wrote the questions he’s being asked.
Superb performance. Looks as though he will stay, and won’t even say he offered his resignation.
He’s now overrunning the official briefing…symbolic or what?
Is someone going to follow him up on “I was involved with…vaccines”??
What on earth are you on about? It’s a disaster. A car crash.
Now we know why the government has been so bad for the country with him giving Johnson advice.
He’s just done the same as Johnson said yesterday, with a few additional details, which may of course be true or not, especially if Johnson had anything to do with the statement. Absolute failure to understand why people are so angry. And they are really angry, I’ve rarely seen natural supporters of the Tories so angry.
Surely this is a coincidence? Have I won the lottery? Am I exempt from Lockdown rules?
No, No, No.
Barnard Castle visit is extraordinary?
Yes and more likely than me winning the Lottery.
He tested his eyesight by going for a 30 mile drive.
Perhaps not quite as risky as using that method to test one’s sobriety but still deserves a spot in the annals of poor judgment that could endanger yourself, your family and the general public.
Can Mary drive?
Presumably because someone drove the family to Durham.
But if you think your eyesight is questionable, you get your eyes checked first. Or perhaps go for a drive around the family estate. Not on public roads to a destination 30 miles away.
Anyway, how does that go? You pull out of the driveway and drive for about 3 miles and then you realize your eyes aren’t up to the task. So you say ‘Mary, take the wheel.’
And then – knowing that your eyes are still affected by the deadly covid-19 – you say ‘Well, let’s drive another 27 miles to Durham during lockdown!’
But that’s the thing: during quarantine, you’re not supposed to be going for a drive at all. There’s no need to test your eyes that way. You’re not supposed to go anywhere.
What an incredibly stupid way to test your eyesight. You kill your wife and kid in a crash and, yes, it may be that you have defective vision. But it may be that Anne Sacoolas was driving the other car.
Cummings’ Barnard Castle excursion might be the saving of Johnson. If BJ approved – or just knew in advance about – DC’s trip(s) to Durham, which he likely did, he can’t let DC be sacked on that count without jeopardising his own position. It’s less likely that BJ knew about Barnard Castle (‘Barnie’ to some locals) or other local Durham trips, so if DC has to get the chop Barnie could be a convenient chopping-block.
He’s screwing up his answer to “Why didn’t you just set off for London and turn round and go back again if you felt you couldn’t drive any further, rather than go to Barnard Castle?”
Because just setting off for London involved packing the car first. Trial run did not need the car to be packed.
Well – that clears that up.
He says that his wife’s Formula I style driving made them all feel sick – so he had to go into the GlaxoSmithKline factory to get a box of sea-legs.
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I believe him!
He can’t remember whether he bought petrol on the way back? His bank records will show that. Or he can get MI5 to click a button and they’ll tell him.
….. maybe he filled up the tank with jimmy riddle.
He also wasn’t asked whether he and his son were parking custards in Barnard Castle and whether vomit from a Covid-19 sufferer can spread the disease.
Well, Cummings is coming out of the press conference rather better than the reporters asking questions that they obviously put together without first hearing him.
What a load of useless, ineffectual, journalists. The questions were easy lobs. And to add insult to injury, the BBC newscaster said of the press statement as one facing pretty hostile questions. I must have slept through those. But I didn’t really expect any thing more.
Can you please put this article on Facebook.
People need to know about this situation. And read your amazing article.
Why did his father phone the police? And what was the security advice they gave him?
Was it not the plods who phoned the father, following the complaint from the neighbour?
So, just to be clear, Mr Cummings – before you drove to Durham, had you been tested? No. Did you seek expert medical advice about whether you should have gone? No. You say that you considered what would happen if you became ill the following day – did you consider the consequences of you becoming ill halfway to Durham? Er…
As for the walk in the woods, privately owned doesn’t mean there’s no public access, whether of right or permitted.
https://www.nepic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/GSK-Alastair-Leighton.pdf
The site is manufacturing only.
Interesting link.
GSK switched and swapped their oncology business with Novartis (Swiss) in 2016.
Novartis is vaccine business, at the time GSK saw opportunity in US market and saw vaccine becoming mandatory through regulation and a good cash earner. Also with vaccine GSK would get exemption from any potential liabilities. Gah main R & D centres are in Stevenage and a smaller operation in Ware. Both sites in UK, they also have a site in at research triangle, North Carolina, USA. Plus also in China. In the last 6 years they have been rebuilding their labs to bio security level 2 and calling them smart lab. In 2014 GSK were involved in trying to develop an Ebola vaccine.
There is no reason for Dominic Cummings to visit the facility at castle barnyard. GSK have a very discreet office in Berkeley Square. This is big enough for discreet meetings and is used for discreet meetings. There is normally only one receptionist or security person located there. So if information is leaked it is easy to track the source down. Any other significant sites including Brentford have security contracted to Gs4. Also visitor passes are recorded and logged in book, with anyone who works in security having access, so not so easy to manage.
Also London office is ideal for anyone fly into Luton to get to via car.
This is Mary Wakefield’s article about her and her husband’s experiences with the virus, published in the Spectator on 24 April. She gives the reader to understand – but she does not explicitly state – that they stayed put at the home that her husband rushed back to when he learnt she had been taken ill, namely their house in Islington. “(G)et out the doctor’s kit and make it your child’s job to take your temperature” might be her only “really useful” advice, she says, for “other double-Covid parents”. She doesn’t say anything about crossing the country to hole up in one of the houses on your parents’ estate. She also writes, “After the uncertainty of the bug itself, we emerged from quarantine into the almost comical uncertainty of London lockdown.” Did you now? Funny, because I thought when you “emerge” from something into something else, the something else is the environment that you enter immediately, not one that takes you several hours to get to because it’s hundreds of miles away, and which you only reach some time after you’ve had a trip to Glaxo Town, which isn’t even in the same direction as London.
I’m thinking of Mary Archer for some reason.
BTW Craig other than that you don’t like GSK what exactly do you think is dodgy about the deal with Sanofi? GSK have made a Covid vaccine, they need it produced at some scale so it can be tested. There are no longer any vaccine production facilities left in the UK. So GSK has to go offshore to get their vaccine produced at any sort of scale. Hence the deal with Sanofi.
I would be grateful for your further attention to this point. What is your objection?
Nothing on the surface, looks perfectly normal. If anything were wrong, it would most likely be simply a kickback on big government orders or research funding.
Do you mean this Jeggit – Jason Michaels? Coincidentally, he’s been pushing the same story – as with this tweet only 2 hours ago:
Dominic Cummings, the seriously dodgy pharmaceutical giant, and a day trip to a castle. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real story.
And I have been calling him out on it on twitter (@wingsecosse) and am rather disappointed in him as a result. But then we are all tempted by narratives which seem to confirm our worldviews as I pointed out on the podcast. None of us are entirely immune and we must therefore always be on our guard.
GSK’s track record alone is enough to set the alarm bells ringing. In any other sector, for any substantial government contract, GSK’s appalling history and undisputed rap sheet would be reason enough not to do business with them.
GSK Violation tracker – https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/glaxosmithkline
……and that’s just the stuff they have been caught out with.