I would think most people in the middle of a crisis would think twice before deliberately starting a second one. But most people aren't Dominic Cummings. Not content with just two crises he is now embarking on a third with a complete and radical 'overhaul' of Whitehall, the cabinet office and the entire civil service if reports are to be believed. It's a bit like trying to fit a supercharger to your car while still in the middle of a road accident and before the vehicle has come to a standstill. Only the fevered mind of a psychopath could even think about it.
Apparently he told his little gang of SPADS during a Zoom call last week that a "hard rain" is coming for the civil service. Obviously one of them leaked it - deliberately I assume.
Mark Sedwill the cabinet secretary is about to be "removed" - with an announcement coming as soon as tomorrow according to The Sunday Teloegraph. Briefings against Sedwill began even before Johnson became PM so it's a surprise he's lasted as long as he has.
The Times last week had an article about the hard rain:
"A study published by the Civitas think tank today blames Whitehall culture for government failures in the coronavirus crisis. Its authors criticise a “scientific clique entrenched within a managerialist Whitehall culture” and say that advisory groups had a “monopoly” over advice, The Daily Telegraph reported. Countries that have had more success, such as Germany, have “used a far wider range of expertise in response to the pandemic”, it says."
Most administrations end with a bunker mentality but Johnson's is unusual in beginning with one and Cummings is at the centre of it. He has upset a lot of MPs and cabinet ministers and he is at loggerheads with the scientists in SAGE according to an article in the New York Times (HERE). One member of SAGE, professor Susan Michie, a professor of health psychology at University College London is quoted as saying:
“The overwhelming majority of our advice is ignored, but the pieces are picked up and used for political purposes.”
She was talking about the risks associated with scrapping the two metre rule, which Johnson did last week seemingly for political and economic reasons without explaining the increased health risk.
This 'overhaul' is apparently going to happen in the middle of the pandemic crisis with trepidation among scientists that lifting restrictions has come far too early and without clear rules making a second wave more likely than ever. The economy is utterly tanked with government borrowing now touching stratospheric levels never seen before and unemployment set to rocket when the furloughing scheme ends.
And today a bunch of negotiators are headed to Brussels to begin the next series of talks with David Frost our chief negotiator, going back to precisely the same belligerent language that has brought us the impasse we are in. The Express quote him saying:
“But any deal must reflect our well-established position on difficult issues such as the so-called “level playing field” and fisheries – that is, as an independent country we will have control over our laws and our waters. Our sovereignty will never be up for negotiation.”
This is the next crisis coming rapidly down the track and threatening to engulf the government and industry, both of whom are totally unprepared for the changes to come.
Support from traditional conservatives is dwindling with attacks on Cummings and Johnson from the likes of Tim Montgomerie and Alex Massie at The Spectator and a growing rebellion among Tory MPs.
Cummings' answer is to circle the wagons. It is amazing how people who think they're very clever cannot see the trouble they are in even when everyone else can. Cummings is a perfect example of the Peter principle - a concept in management, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence." In other words employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.
His success in sloganising is not a substitute for good government and I forecast it will all end badly for him. To succeed you need to carry people with you, not alienate them.
