On a sunny Bank Holiday Monday a thin, pale faced, balding man (who very few people outside of Westminster had ever heard of a week ago) decided to savour the roses in the garden and invited some of his chums (including Beth, Bobbie and Laura) from the media around to share the experience.
During the gathering he entertained them by providing them with a detailed account (down to the very minutiae) of a trip he took with his wife and kid to Durham back at the tail end of March, rounding it off with his "novel" and "unique" method of checking eyesight - henceforth known as the Barnard Method.
NB: as the police have correctly and wisely stated, the Barnard Method is not to be recommended as a means for testing your eyesight.
Anyhoo, so engrossed were his chums in his story that not only did they sit through it in the blazing sun, without complaint, but they asked detailed questions afterwards about the trip and the Barnard Method.
As to what the general public make of all of this is very much down to them. In retrospect the trip was highly unwise (for all manner of reasons) and the "optics", for want of a better word, are terrible. The media, and certain sections of the Twitterverse, are out for blood and (for the moment) do not intend to talk about anything else.
However, in four years time, when the general public vote in the next general election the country will be very different from how it is now. Their views, opinion and judgement on the government (and whoever is leading it) will be based on how well or badly the government has rebooted the economy post covid crash, on whether the manifesto promises (eg levelling up) have been kept and the overall landscape (social, political, economic, health, mood etc) of Britain. The actions (unwise as they may have been) of a SPAD will not be the primary thought in their minds when they vote.
As for the media and Twitterverse, this has moved on from a "simple" political scandal to a rehash of the Brexit battle where people are seeking to settle old scores and grudges - even Gina Miller has resurfaced!
Whilst the public may well be angry (with due cause) about the apparent hypocrisy of the Durham trip, they will also become tired of the same attack lines being used day in day out and will begin to feel revulsion at the sight of a pack of journalists baying for blood encamped outside the family home of Cummings and the home of his parents.
Oh, and for those in the media who keep saying he didn't apologise, wash your ears out he did apologise - at the very beginning of his Rose garden lecture, when he said sorry for keeping you waiting!
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