Boris Johnson may have wanted the nation to move on from the Dominic Cummings lockdown saga, but he probably didn’t expect one angry voter’s message to keep moving on.
For a man in a van has taken to Wokingham’s roads to share his perspective on the controversy, caused by the Prime Minister’s advisor taking a 260-mile trip up to Durham with his sick family, and then taking a 60-mile round trip to ‘test his eyesight’ before driving back to London.
Like many across the country, 72-year-old Colin Ballard is angry that over the situation, and has been letting people know.
He has been visiting the borough’s supermarket car parks this week to showcase a sign attached to the side of his blue vehicle.
The message on the notice is as follows:
DOMINIC CUMMINGS ADVICE ON
DOUBLE STANDARDS
HYPOCRITE TIPS
DURHAM TOURS
TAKING THE P*SS
References from Downing Street
Since creating the sign on Sunday, May 24, Mr Ballard has shared it with customers of major stores including Aldi (Molly Millars Lane) and Asda (Earley) where he parks before placing the sign on the exterior of his van.
Colin said: “I created the sign to highlight the hypocrisy of the situation. I have a strong opinion on the issue and was spurred to do something about it after reading an article on the topic in The Wokingham Paper.
“It might seem like a tiny incident in the overall situation to some people, but this man was not adhering to the guidelines set out by his own government.
“As someone who is retired and in the vulnerable age group, I have been restricted in who I can see and where I can go so it frustrated me to hear that Mr Cummings had broken the lockdown rules.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns into a case like that in 1999 with Jonathan Aitkin and 2004 with Jeffrey Archer. It would just take one thing to come out.”
Mr Ballard, who has so far spent 12 hours touring his sign, added: “The response has been very positive. I’ve had lots of thumbs up, smiles, toots and some people have stopped to talk to me from a suitable distance.
“I’ve only had 3 or 4 people signal their disagreement with the sign.
“I want to stress that this isn’t a party political statement. It is a case of common humanity and morality.”
