READING the transcript of Dominic Cummings statement to the media (https://preview.tinyurl.com/ybtc27pa) is more illuminating than listening to him. It is full of holes and inconsistencies that give one serious pause for thought.
I am not going to attempt a forensic examination of it. Firstly I am not really qualified but more importantly I do not have the resources to check details. Others I am sure will.
But there are points which are easily examined. For example, right at the beginning of the saga Cummings tells us that the 'usual childcare' arrangements in London were not available. Yet by the time he returns 15 days later they are, in his words, able to 'enjoy childcare'. Either way it is an odd professional couple who have not nailed down their care package.
More critical to me is his failure, before embarking on the five hour drive to Durham, to consider his security options. He says he was under siege at home. Yet he does not turn to the extensive Number 10 security arrangements for assistance. Indeed the real escape for him was right there.
If he had explained the situation the security team would have advised him to take the Durham option BUT driven the family themselves. Why? Because the media scrum would have been left at Cummings home, securing him and his family AND ensuring their whereabouts were known.
Frankly I find it equally worrying that a senior adviser with all the knowledge he will have in his head is able to vanish from his home and remain in Durham ex-communicado. Or did he?
Then of course there is the clearly questionable eyesight test. His wife drives so why did she not drive if he was not up to it? That is what we did in similar circumstances when in west Wales. What would a short drive tell him more than was already obvious? Why if he was that bad did he risk his wife and the child? Once they knew he was OK why did they not turn around and come home?
It sounds far too much like a construct to explain why, on his wife's birthday, they took a drive to a beauty spot.
And we have as yet no idea how long they were there. CCTV en route will be checked pretty soon. If brief, OK. If not, then not OK.
One more point worth considering is how many words are spent convincing us of his enthusiasm for lockdown.This would be fine but we now have allegations of revisions to his blogs from that earlier period.
So much of what he writes has all the hallmarks of hindsight. A version put together to cover all the various allegations just well enough to be credible. Except not quite. One PR trick is visible. He concentrates on debunking one allegation that is palpably not true.
He reveals a chaotic situation inside Number 10. No testing of key personnel. People at work after being ill but untested, others gpoing off variously. He makes much of how important his work is, especially with his cheerleader off sick, but he appears able to vanish without rocking the boat.
In the end the real problem is simple. He made a bad decision. He has been slow to confess the details. He is a spad but became the story. The decent thing is always to fall on your sword. Thus he is further convicted of arrogance.
There are only three logical conclusions:
One – the Johnson secret he holds is massively significant;
Two – this is the diversion, the real story is huge and imminent and will break the day he announces he is quitting;
Three – It is he who is in charge of Johnson.
All are entirely improper, unreasonable and corrupt.
Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Monday, 25 May 2020
Johnson's Rasputin could spell his own demise...
WHEN I wrote in this blog only yesterday that Boris Johnson was committing political suicide in front of the entire nation I never for one moment thought that wiser counsel would not prevail and that this morning would dawn a Cummings-free zone.
So to find that he is still in post and that the chaos he has caused has become worse was disappointing. Until I realised that the smirk he wore leaving Downing Street last night was not only for the Rasputin-like hold he has on Boris Johnson but for the triumph of his game plan.
The man is a self confessed anarchist. What anarchists want is to create chaos and division on all sides. Job done then.
THERE are other possible explanations.
1 – He has dirt so extreme on Johnson that it is worth all this damage and disgrace to keep it under wraps;
2 – He is Machiavelli-like and taking the hit to protect Johnson from a much worse revelation that is just around the corner;
3 – Johnson has woken to the fact that his Covid strategy has been a cock-up from the get-go and wanted grounds to resign himself that might give him time to get clear of the implosion;
4 – The Russian report is worse than we fear.
It is also possible that he actually does think that Cummings acted properly, legally and with integrity. I find this the least likely of all because the price he is paying and will pay is too high for such bone-headed stupidity.
When the chips are down you throw the perpetrator under the bus. Sometime about now the 1922 Committee will be meeting. On the agenda will be – can we afford Johnson any more? No, it really will, but not in plain text of course. Johnson's problem now is that Cummings has become what he honestly always was – just an unelected, here today, gone tomorrow adviser. Disposable. Replaceable. He will be collateral damage to Johnson's earthquake departure.
Oh it won't happen right now. The Tory party dos not do things quickly. But the word will go out, the knife will go in and a slow death by exsanguination will occur.
SLIGHTLY ahead of Johnson's own departure, and quite soon, Scummings will find he has something better to do and will resign, rudely and arrogantly. And with a vast pay off and a huge non-disclosure deal.
There will be days of obfuscation of the main stream media (especially LK and RP) but after a short while Johnson will go, Raab will briefly hold the fort while a suddenly dusted down candidate for leadership will appear as if by magic and be offered to a primed and prepared party, to be elected by popular acclaim and take up the task of freeing the Tory party from the effects of DomCumVid-2020.
Providing there is no second wave of Covid-19 we shall slide quietly and easily towards a loosening of the rules. Trips to Durham will be offered to those willing to appear at the daily presser and NOT mention Cummings, Johnson, fatherhood or parenting. Take up will be low.
So to find that he is still in post and that the chaos he has caused has become worse was disappointing. Until I realised that the smirk he wore leaving Downing Street last night was not only for the Rasputin-like hold he has on Boris Johnson but for the triumph of his game plan.
The man is a self confessed anarchist. What anarchists want is to create chaos and division on all sides. Job done then.
THERE are other possible explanations.
1 – He has dirt so extreme on Johnson that it is worth all this damage and disgrace to keep it under wraps;
2 – He is Machiavelli-like and taking the hit to protect Johnson from a much worse revelation that is just around the corner;
3 – Johnson has woken to the fact that his Covid strategy has been a cock-up from the get-go and wanted grounds to resign himself that might give him time to get clear of the implosion;
4 – The Russian report is worse than we fear.
It is also possible that he actually does think that Cummings acted properly, legally and with integrity. I find this the least likely of all because the price he is paying and will pay is too high for such bone-headed stupidity.
When the chips are down you throw the perpetrator under the bus. Sometime about now the 1922 Committee will be meeting. On the agenda will be – can we afford Johnson any more? No, it really will, but not in plain text of course. Johnson's problem now is that Cummings has become what he honestly always was – just an unelected, here today, gone tomorrow adviser. Disposable. Replaceable. He will be collateral damage to Johnson's earthquake departure.
Oh it won't happen right now. The Tory party dos not do things quickly. But the word will go out, the knife will go in and a slow death by exsanguination will occur.
SLIGHTLY ahead of Johnson's own departure, and quite soon, Scummings will find he has something better to do and will resign, rudely and arrogantly. And with a vast pay off and a huge non-disclosure deal.
There will be days of obfuscation of the main stream media (especially LK and RP) but after a short while Johnson will go, Raab will briefly hold the fort while a suddenly dusted down candidate for leadership will appear as if by magic and be offered to a primed and prepared party, to be elected by popular acclaim and take up the task of freeing the Tory party from the effects of DomCumVid-2020.
Providing there is no second wave of Covid-19 we shall slide quietly and easily towards a loosening of the rules. Trips to Durham will be offered to those willing to appear at the daily presser and NOT mention Cummings, Johnson, fatherhood or parenting. Take up will be low.
Sunday, 24 May 2020
Defending the indefensible and other disastrous errors
THE nation has just watched a Prime Minister commit professional suicide. Well most of us have. Two other audiences remain, those who did not watch and those who believe Boris Johnson is the messiah.
It is possible I am exaggerating but I doubt it. For Boris Johnson did not merely defend his special adviser Dominic Cummings. He did not merely refuse to sack him. He endorsed his actions. Which means the buck has moved up a level to the Prime Minister's own desk.
As a retired PR adviser and consultant I listened in mounting horror to the foolishness of Johnson's words. Bad enough that he chose to defend the indefensible actions of his man. Bad enough too that he should have called his actions reasonable and legal. But then he set about lying to show that the interpretation put upon the regulations was justified by the words in them.
This is not only untrue but the facts of this case do not meet even the extreme interpretation that Johnson has put upon them.
If you brief a senior executive on a breach of the rules you have to make sure they understand what their audience understood. Stay Home. Short sweet and eminently supported by the man himself and all of his acolytes. And resulting in huge personal, emotional and familial sacrifices by the population. Not sit at home and think about it. Not figure out how to avoid it. Not use your heartfelt desire to do something else. But Stay Home.
It is worth just examining the probity of Cummings claim, which Johnson so handsomely endorsed.
He and his wife are both high powered employees with work demanding long hours and flexibility. They live in a nice London house with a four year old son. To ensure his care they have a nanny. I will just say that again since it is something the media seems unable to grasp. They have a nanny. Presumably to provide support for their child when they are not available. Hmmm.
But beyond that they will have a wide circle of friends in the area. And they both have family working and living in London. Some of Cummings chums and family work in number 10. So the last problem they were confronted with when Mrs Cummings announced she had covid-19 symptoms was child care.
The regulations state that in this circumstance the family should self-isolate, at home. Mrs C would use one room and facilities; the others the rest until things changed or they had been tested or 14 days had elapsed. No problem you might say for the Cummings family.
But he must have asked himself, why do we want people to stay home? Surely they can do their jankers somewhere else? No. Track and trace requires that the trackers and tracers know where you are. If they spoke to the source of Mrs C 's infection they would come knocking on the Cummings's door. No one home? Where are they? They could find them but it would take time.
And by then Mrs C would have given it to Mr C, the child may have it, the people they went close to at the motorway stop where they took a pee, fettled the child and bought fluids... well anyway you get the point.
The rules have a purpose, the purpose was the safety of the entire family including the four year old child. Cummings ignored all that and decided he was above the rules and could do what he wanted – see his parents, honour his mum's birthday and get out of the London hell hole while they recovered.
And he had the infernal cheek to refuse to quit, laugh at the issue, tell us he doesn't care how it looks (thus insulting his boss and the cabinet). And then his boss throws the entire covid-19 strategy under a bus along with the reputation of the Tory party. For what?
To save the neck of a man who is an avowed anarchist. Judgement? Johnson never has had any and has never proved it so conclusively. Now the issue is – Johnson
It is possible I am exaggerating but I doubt it. For Boris Johnson did not merely defend his special adviser Dominic Cummings. He did not merely refuse to sack him. He endorsed his actions. Which means the buck has moved up a level to the Prime Minister's own desk.
As a retired PR adviser and consultant I listened in mounting horror to the foolishness of Johnson's words. Bad enough that he chose to defend the indefensible actions of his man. Bad enough too that he should have called his actions reasonable and legal. But then he set about lying to show that the interpretation put upon the regulations was justified by the words in them.
This is not only untrue but the facts of this case do not meet even the extreme interpretation that Johnson has put upon them.
If you brief a senior executive on a breach of the rules you have to make sure they understand what their audience understood. Stay Home. Short sweet and eminently supported by the man himself and all of his acolytes. And resulting in huge personal, emotional and familial sacrifices by the population. Not sit at home and think about it. Not figure out how to avoid it. Not use your heartfelt desire to do something else. But Stay Home.
It is worth just examining the probity of Cummings claim, which Johnson so handsomely endorsed.
He and his wife are both high powered employees with work demanding long hours and flexibility. They live in a nice London house with a four year old son. To ensure his care they have a nanny. I will just say that again since it is something the media seems unable to grasp. They have a nanny. Presumably to provide support for their child when they are not available. Hmmm.
But beyond that they will have a wide circle of friends in the area. And they both have family working and living in London. Some of Cummings chums and family work in number 10. So the last problem they were confronted with when Mrs Cummings announced she had covid-19 symptoms was child care.
The regulations state that in this circumstance the family should self-isolate, at home. Mrs C would use one room and facilities; the others the rest until things changed or they had been tested or 14 days had elapsed. No problem you might say for the Cummings family.
But he must have asked himself, why do we want people to stay home? Surely they can do their jankers somewhere else? No. Track and trace requires that the trackers and tracers know where you are. If they spoke to the source of Mrs C 's infection they would come knocking on the Cummings's door. No one home? Where are they? They could find them but it would take time.
And by then Mrs C would have given it to Mr C, the child may have it, the people they went close to at the motorway stop where they took a pee, fettled the child and bought fluids... well anyway you get the point.
The rules have a purpose, the purpose was the safety of the entire family including the four year old child. Cummings ignored all that and decided he was above the rules and could do what he wanted – see his parents, honour his mum's birthday and get out of the London hell hole while they recovered.
And he had the infernal cheek to refuse to quit, laugh at the issue, tell us he doesn't care how it looks (thus insulting his boss and the cabinet). And then his boss throws the entire covid-19 strategy under a bus along with the reputation of the Tory party. For what?
To save the neck of a man who is an avowed anarchist. Judgement? Johnson never has had any and has never proved it so conclusively. Now the issue is – Johnson
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