No. 182 - Cummings Gone, Boris On Probation.
Dear James,
He’s gone. Dominic Cummings, eminence grise, deus ex machina, this urban guerrilla embedded at the heart of Boris’s government, has departed with his revolutionary mate, the same way that Steve Bannon, his alter ego in the USA, went last year. Last night at about 11pm, it was announced that Boris had been pushed to do the unthinkable. He had sacked his own right hand man, his own personal magician, his own genius sorcerer, which is not far short of cutting off his own right arm. Or should that be his own cerebral cortex. For without Cummings Boris has lost a huge part of whatever political brain he has. He will now be subject to his party and his closest confidantes such as Carrie Symonds, his fiancée. He has abandoned himself to what remains of the ‘normal’ Tory Party! Boris is lost without Cummings.
This may be his last chance. While his MPs claim that Cummings’s departure is an opportunity for a reset, how does one ‘reset’ Boris? All the failings, the U-Turns, the delays and general mayhem of the last eleven months are just as much down to Boris as to Cummings. Cummings wanted his upturning of the BBC, the Civil Service, the Law and much else but it was Boris who scrambled the messages as he will scramble any message from any group of people. Boris is not a leader. He is a socialite who likes to be liked, not the man to make hard strategic decisions, to plan ahead, to analyse detail. He is there for himself just like Trump. There is no resetting of Boris as there is no way to reset Trump. So Boris is on probation now. He has just months to show that he can lead. And we all know the outcome of that!
Cumming’s departure came a day after the ousting of Lee Cain, Boris’s Director of Communications. Cain, like Cummings, was known for his acerbic manners and ‘bovver boy’ dress which seem to be standard issue for the cabal around Boris. It was based upon the Vote Leave’s success in manipulating social data to gain those few extra percentage points to win over a small majority for Brexit and in so doing, launched the UK’s version of populism. Cummings is saying that his departure was all in his plan – to leave when Brexit was done. Tell me another one Dominic!
The Vote Leave cabal in Downing Street were the mechanics of Boris’s success. His group of misfits and wierdos were designed to ‘Take Back Control’, ‘Get Brexit Done’, notorious slogans that will be engraved on their tombstones. Facebook has 5000 data points on every person who uses their platform. They know which way you think and feel about everything from consumption choices to voting leanings. On the basis of these data points they can psychologically profile each and everyone of us and thus, through advertising, give each of us that final prod, tipping us one way or the other. Cummings and Co were brilliant at this and that was why Boris fell under their charms. They served his childhood dreams!
With the absence of leadership, Cummings and his cell became unelected, self-appointed executors of their own agendas. Grievance of expert elites was central but it was blended with revolutionary ideas about restructuring government. None of the Downing Street clique of advisers were members of the Conservative Party. In fact they often voiced their disdain for the party. Munira Mirza, head of the Downing Street policy unit, is an ex-stalwart of the Revolutionary Communist Party and possibly Johnson’s most important adviser after Cummings. Johnson called her “extraordinary”, “ruthless”, and one of “the five women who have shaped my life”. She is dogmatic in her dislike of liberal causes, such as multiculturalism, and left wing institutions such as trade unions. Like Cummings, she worships modern technology and what he calls “normal voters”.
We are a democracy. Or at least we are at key moments in the democratic process. For example, on polling day itself. After that our votes are diluted and manipulated by money and lobbyists. Your government James, has spent huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on projects awarded without competition and on the basis of profoundly flawed research. One such case is Abingdon Health, currently subject to a legal process by the Good Law Project. Such scrutiny of governments should be the job of parliament yet under Cummings, parliament was being cut out of the picture completely. Government became secretive, autocratic, paranoid and chaotic. Cummings is gone but leaves a gap which Boris will be unable to fill. He, and therefore we, will be susceptible to the next gang of sycophants who gather around his vacuous head.
Boris has a few months to show leadership even if that leads us back to the traditional Tory roots of golf clubs and leafy suburbia. One day however, there will be a reckoning. Last week Trump was ejected from the White House. This week Cummings has gone from Downing Street.
Perhaps the Populist bubble really has burst?
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent