The nation has turned temporarily away from Line of Duty and is focusing on the psycho-drama taking place at the centre of British politics. The newspapers are full of talk about Cummings, Johnson and now increasingly Carrie Symonds, Johnson’s partner who seems to have kicked the whole thing off. Cherchez la femme? It looks very much like it. She and Cummings clearly don’t get on. She was more than instrumental in getting Johnson to sack Cummings last year for supposedly briefing against her. Ever since, Downing Street has been terrified of the blow-back and are now braced for more damaging revelations.
Cummings has always struck me as the psychopath that Cameron said he was. He is driven, vindictive and not a man to cross. He has spent months at home stewing over his dismissal from a position as the most powerful man in the country, ordering ministers about and directing policy as the PMs most senior adviser. Men like that do not ‘move on’
Perhaps the central problem that runs through this whole government is about to be played out. It is an administration of journalists, for journalists by journalists. The machinations inside the madhouse are being widely leaked to the various newspapers who are preparing to attack Johnson or defend him, depending on the editor's or proprietor's whim. The Daily Mail and The Times seem to be at the forefront. The Mail report:
'"This is Carrie flexing her muscles': Boris's fiancee 'put him up' to attack on Cummings that sparked devastating response accusing PM of incompetence, covering up No 10 mole to protect her pal and calling her lavish flat revamp 'possibly illegal'"
The Times' headline is: Guerrilla warfare: Johnson steels himself for final assault from Cummings, and makes the claim as do several other newspapers that Johnson "may have briefed newspaper editors himself" adding to the picture of a prime minister unable to delegate. At one moment dealing with James Dyson's ventilator proposals and his employees' tax affairs and then ringing editors of our national newspapers to brief against his former adviser.
It is almost as if there is a war between newspapers with Johnson and Cummings just proxies. They are lining up on each side for a ferocious battle.
Comments yesterday morning from former AG Dominic Grieve on Radio 4 that Johnson is a "vacuum of integrity" have captured writers imagination - mainly because it sums him up in three words and I suspect it will stick to him forever in the way that three word slogans do. What an irony.
Dominic Grieve speaks for England. https://t.co/bD1pypy9Ph
— John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar) April 24, 2021
It's well worth listening to. Grieve makes the point that the "constant wriggling" about where the No 10 refurbishment money came from is just one of the dodgy issues surrounding the prime minister. This is the problem. Cummings has apparently prepared a dossier and I am sure there was no shortage of damaging stories. Cummings's difficulty was probably in deciding which ones to leave out.
The word "embattled" is often overused but I think the next few months are going to be extremely difficult for the PM. Gove is nowhere to be seen and is thought by many to be behind Johnson's present problems.
Gove brought Cummings into government and is close to him. His wife works at The Daily Mail and he used to work at The Times and knows Rupert Murdoch very well. If anybody understands how useless Johnson is at governing, it's Gove. He told us as much when he stabbed Johnson in the back at the launch of the 2016 Tory leadership campaign. I shouldn't think he's seen anything in the last five years to change his mind.
The refurbishment of No 10 is just the tip of the iceberg. The access to government for friends is also damaging and the PPE scandal is just beginning to be revealed. The court case has only just got started and many of the companies who bid for contracts will soon be reporting results for 2020 showing the extent of the profiteering.
As lockdown comes to an end a lot of businesses are going to fail. The FT reported the other day that the number of UK companies in financial distress is rising at the fastest pace since they started being recorded in 2014. The report says, "Almost 100,000 more businesses were found to be significantly distressed in the first three months of the year compared with the previous quarter, despite the ban on winding-up petitions linked to Covid-related debts."
Northern Ireland is a running sore and will be so for years to come and the Scottish elections next month will give an indication of the appetite north of the border for another independence referendum. Whatever happens it will reveal the growing schism between England and Scotland that Johnson has done so much to foment. These are all formidable challenges, with the latter especially close to Gove's heart.
The only thing keeping Johnson's poll ratings up is the vaccine roll out - something he had little to do with but is happy to take the credit for. BUT - Cummings will testify next month in front of a Select Committee of MPs and will probably blow the lid on the PM's incompetence and lack of empathy in his handling of the pandemic after which he will have nothing to cling to. Can he survive?
This is No 10s fear, I'm sure of it.
