Mr Dominic Cummings seems to have been out of line to break lockdown instructions. Personally, I felt rather ashamed as the rest of us are all bidden to obey the rules and those directives appear to have been broken.
Having said that I am not aware of all the details of what happened - clearly there is some dispute. But undoubtedly Mr Cummings went North to give the custody of his 4-year-old boy to his sister. At the time his wife had full-blown coronavirus and he was developing it. Cummings says he had nobody who could look after his boy in London which I cannot verify either way. Once he had delivered his son to his sister, he and his wife self-isolated themselves.
So, going back to the rules, did Cummings break them? The answer is yes - on the face of it. Technically Cummings could argue that he was exercising his right under the 4th acceptable reason for going outside; a requirement to ensure his child was in a safe place when he and his wife were ill or about to be so.
I am afraid though that I find that very weak. Even if he was technically allowed to leave his house for the sake of a child it looks very bad that he went 240 miles and hardly an example to the rest of us.
The truth is that, whether Mr Cummings broke or didn't do the right thing, he certainly destroyed the spirit of the rules by what he did. It will make it very difficult for us, the rest of the population, to accept the largely voluntary restraints we have lived under for 9 weeks. I apologise for that because those rules remain in place.
I am afraid I believe his position is thus untenable.