THERE cannot have been a single person in Glasgow who did not listen with absolute jaw-dropped horror to Dominic Cummings tell the nation that he drove a vehicle while his vision was impaired to... wait for it... see if he was fit to drive.

Of course, this admission will have appalled any right-thinking person anywhere in the country. But here in Glasgow we have seen first hand - and some of us more closely than others - the horror wrought by a man who knew he had a physical impairment but decided to get behind the wheel anyway.

In 2014 bin lorry driver Harry Clarke ignored his medical history to continue drive a vehicle and six people died as a result of that decision.

Mr Cummings believed he was going in front of the country to set his story straight and instead dropped in the utterly bizarre detail that his infection with Covid-19 had affected his vision but he'd had his wife and child jump in the family car while he did a 60-minute round trip just to check he could see straight.

Why this wasn't a main focus of the questioning of the journalists at yesterday's mad farce in the Downing Street rose garden I cannot fathom but it certain further undermines the Prime Minister's chief special advisor as a man who feels himself above the law and an exception to all rules.

It also grossly undermines Boris Johnson's attempted excuse for Mr Cumming's behaviour as being a "father's instinct", unless of course it's instinctual to dads everywhere to risk their children's lives in a sort of Russian roulette Whacky Races.

It was always highly unlikely that the monkey would sack the organ grinder but the nation's collective gasp of fury was not at the news that Dominic Cummings would be staying on in Number 10 - Boris Johnson could not cope without his de facto prime minister, this has long been clear.

On Sunday afternoon the roar of rage that lifted bums from sofas and roofs from homes went up at the sheer, bold faced audacity of the elected Prime Minister in a pandemic crisis defending Mr Cummings to the nation.

We all watch videos of Donald Trump making it up as he goes along and we laugh with horrified relief that, at least, here in Britain our elected leaders would not get away with such appalling behaviour.

Not so now. A line was crossed. A line far worse than that made by Dominic Cummings car as it traversed 260 miles up the M1.

The messaging from the UK government has been abundantly clear: stay at home. Stay at home, stay at home, stay at home. Around 14,000 fines have been handed out to people for breaking lockdown rules and not staying at home.

Parents are busting under the strain of home schooling, working full time and having no outside support from grandparents, carers, nurseries or schools. But they are making it work.

We know the everyday tragedies of our neighbours. We know that loved ones have missed the funerals of family members. We know that husbands have said goodbye to their wives over FaceTime.

We know that elderly people are fading from loneliness. We know grandparents have yet to meet newborn grandchildren.

We are all making sacrifices because the advice was clear: stay at home.

Yet there is the Prime Minister, standing live in front of the nation saying that, actually, the rules were totes flexible all along and, actually, you didn't have to, you know, go along with them if they didn't quite suit you.

Cummings "acted responsibly, legally and with integrity." Integrity! Tell us more. "I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent, and I do not mark him down for that."

If you weren't roaring expletives at the TV screen before, you were now.

A responsible father? It's a cheek for Johnson to wheel out the fatherly line. This is a man more likely to get in a car with the purpose of driving hundreds of miles away from his child, not risk his career to protect one.

And then yesterday we had the extraordinary scene of an unelected government official giving a live televised address to try to explain his behaviour. If you had been waiting for an apology you would have been sorely disappointed.

Mr Cummings tried to blame the media for misrepresenting his behaviour, despite having just confirmed what we knew about what he'd been up to. He tried, briefly, to pass the buck to his wife. He said he had no regrets. The whole thing was an excruciating and pointless exercise.

The prime minister is left looking weak and pathetic. Why on earth did he not apologise and use Cummings as an example of what people should not do? It would have been the chance to demonstrate to voters that the Prime Minister understands what people are going through.

Instead, it was clearly thought in Number 10 that Mr Cummings would succeed in winning over Britain where Mr Johnson had failed.

Boris Johnson has used war metaphors when making speeches about the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis. He has referred to himself as a wartime prime minister. The reason for this rhetorical choice is to emphasise the fact that living with and surviving coronavirus is a collective national effort.

We are reliant on people doing the right thing. I believe that people will continue to do the right thing because, unfortunately for this government, its people are not stupid. We understand the sacrifices that need to be made in order to come out the other side of this crisis.

We will continue to make sacrifices and follow the guidance. And that will be in spite of Boris Johnson's leadership, not because of it.

After yesterday our one and only saving grace is that it was only Mr Cumming's television performance that was an utter car crash and not that his careless arrogance had caused a literal car crash.