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A Positive Cummings Effect? 

Dominic Cummings’ lockdown visit to Barnard Castle was an international scandal, but it is now a significant part of local tourism.    

Such was the damage of Cummings’ purported eye-test trip to Barnard Castle, on the 12th of April 2020, that a term for government officials’ behaviour and loss of public confidence was coined: ‘The Cummings Effect’.  

But for the business community of this small, County Durham town the economic benefits of Cummings visit are largely seen positively. It has put ‘Barney’ on the map. 

Not short-sighted when it comes to business, Angela Baitson of The Olde Barnard Castle Curiosity Shop holds up a comedy tea-towel based on the town’s most infamous visitor. Photograph: Mark McKeown.

Nigel Allison, who has been in business for 15 years with First Impressions Framing & Gallery, said: “There has been a massive influx of tourists, from being all over the news. You know, being on ITV, BBC & SKY”.  

His is only one of many local businesses which have benefitted.

Kenny Walker of family-held company, Chocolate Fayre, said: “we capitalized on the opportunity by hashtagging the hell out of it for online sales before the lockdown ended”.

Chocolate Fayre of Horse Market, Castle Barnard, had made the “ambitious step up of” larger premises just before Covid-19, and the incident helped the business. Since then, “a six-month tourist season went to being a 12-month season” he said.

Without having a chamber of commerce or business guild in the town, each business reacted in different ways to this ‘Positive Cummings Affect’.  

Angela Baitson, of The Old Barnard Castle Curiosity Shop, has also made the most of the opportunity. She and, her graphic designer husband, Tim, have produced several Cummings-themed items. These included eye-test prints, postcards and tea towels. Many of which were produced for their mail order business, before their shop reopened in July 2021.

They are all still popular. Some have which have been bought by the wider Cummings family themselves. Angela Baitson said: “His sister-in-law bought four tea-towels to give to his nephews”.  

There are two opticians and one optometrist in Castle Barnard. None were open in April 2020.  

Specsavers in Barnard Castle was not willing to talk about former Chief Adviser’s visit. Photograph: Mark McKeown

Christopher Burdis, Practice Manager of Bayfields Opticians, does not know if his location did benefit from the Cummings visit, as there was such a huge backlog of customers. But members of the public “still come in to have an eye-exam and say ’I had it done here in Barnard Castle so I could tell my mates’”.   

Castle Barnard previously suffered from being off the beaten path. But on the 12th of April 2020, Dominic Cummings found it convenient place to self-administer an eye test.

As part of the test he, his wife, the journalist, Mary Wakefiled, and their young son walked along The Sills. The Sills is between the County Bridge and the Green Bridge on the southerly, Startforth side of the river Tees, in the shadow of Castle Barnard.

Within weeks of this walk, a commemorative, blue plaque was installed at The Sills. It read: ‘Dominic Cummings was lurking in these parts. 12.04.2020’. The plaque has now been removed. 

The scandal broke on Friday, 22nd May 2020, when the Guardian & Daily Mirror, published reports on how the Chief Government Advisor to the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, had directly broken the government’s own lockdown rules.

He and his family had travelled over 240 miles from London to his parent’s country estate in rural County Durham. But before returning to London 19 days later the family broke further lockdown rules by stopping in the town. The accounts led to a national outcry.

Public anger was further stoked after a Downing Street rose garden press conference on Monday, 25th May 2020. Cummings said he felt he had acted “legally and reasonably”.

But some of his statements were ‘inconsistent’ with those made by his wife, Mary Wakefield, to media outlets before his own rose garden announcements. Particularly a column, she had written herself, on the 25th April 2020, as commissioning editor of her own magazine, The Spectator.

In the article Wakefield does not mention an eye-sight check, or a visit to Castle Barnard at all. 

At The Spectator, Boris Johnson was once Mary Wakefield’s boss. Her starting at the weekly magazine coinciding with his becoming editor.

Boris Johnson was Dominic Cummings boss from July 2019 until the 13th of November 2020, when he resigned: covering the time of his Castle Barnard visit.   

The Sills, where Cummings self-administered his eye-test. Photograph: Mark McKeown

Further, an explicit, negative link was found by University College London researchers, as published in The Lancet August 6th 2020, between the Cummings family trip and public confidence in the Johnson government’s approach to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hence the coining of the term: ‘The Cummings Effect’.

In the article, the main author, Professor Daisy Fancourt, states: “Trust in government decisions and actions relating to the management of COVID-19 is a major challenge globally and these data [sic] illustrate the negative and lasting consequences that political decisions can have for the public trust and the risks to behaviours.” 

The government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is still very much in the news.

The independent, UK Covid-19 Inquiry began on June 28th, 2022. It was “set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future”. 

The inquiry is ongoing. There was a hearing as recently as, Tuesday, October 17th. Another public hearing is due on October 30th, 2023. Chaired by the former Court of Appeal Judge, Baroness Heather Hallet, the inquiry does not formally conclude until 2026, so this shall remain very much in the public eye. 

In Barnard Castle, some local businesses were more guarded when discussing the public’s anger about the events of the 12th of April 2020. Several businesses were not willing to talk about the Cummings’ visit and would not give a reason. 

There are many novelty Dominic Cummings products available in the town, such as these postcards found in a local newsagents. Photograph: Mark McKeown.

At certain points over the couple of years, the Chocolate Fayre considered Dominic Cummings-based products such as ‘Eye-test font shaped chocolates’ and ‘Cummings Truffles’. But ultimately Kenny Walker and his team decided against this as “it was tricky to walk this emotional tightrope, after all many people are still hacked off about it all”. 

When later asked about any obvious negative impacts of the Cummings family visit, the only ones he could think of were the overuse of local footpaths and public parking. Mr. Walker said “it was rumoured that the town’s Christmas lights committee invited Dominic Cummings to switch on the lights last year, but that was just what I heard.” We were unable to substantiate this at the time of publication.  

But whatever the views of the public, whether locals or tourists, or even those who make up the business community themselves, ‘The Cummings Effect’, has been a positive one for Castle Barnard economically.  

As Angela Baitson, of The Old Barnard Castle Curiosity Shop, said: “people still ask daily about Dominic Cummings’ visit to our town. Conversations tend to end with ‘at least some good came from it’”. 

What do you think?