Dominic Cummings - a new kind of (anti-)hero..

[jayne lee wilson]

This is truly explosive isn't it? Explosive, chaotic, messy HONESTY.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-57245479

The tabloid-telegraph Brexit-hero-boris defence will soon kick in but...

Cummings' testimony to the joint committee has had me ( a devoted EU-Remainer) transfixed, almost cheering on someone who I have always had as a hate-figure (if always intelligent and, like Daniel Hannan (aka Godfather of Brexit), worth listening to - keep your friends close & your enemies closer, as the Mafia said..)....

I can only use my human instincts, and Cummings words have the "ring of truth" here...
But will anything register, with media or public, can anything really, finally, change?

Bad luck (or maybe good) Royal Family and Princess Diana (for whom and for whose sons, I have much, very deep empathy, media-decieved as they often were & are, even as they "played the game"...) - you are off the front pages for a few days!

Poor UK now has a rather bigger scandal to deal with... which the BBC, so much under attack from "The Right" now - is, of course, recording and transmitting immaculately and accurately....
And in fact it shows that "British Politics" can function very well...given the chance...the questioning has been intense, unflinching and - yes - courteous.

But watch for the media reaction over the next few days....and much compelling blackly comedic u-turning self-deception to result...
Oh what fun we'll have ...

[Bryn]

We do, indeed, "live in interesting times".

[Belgrove]

I have watched the entire proceedings thus far and it has indeed been compulsive viewing in terms of the revelations and candour in which they have been conveyed. Cummings has become a hate figure, but I always had a begrudging admiration in what he was trying to do in reforming government practices, in spite of being unelected. His scathing assessment of the abilities of senior government members (and turf protectors in the Civil Service), chimes with my own views that these people simply have the wrong background - PPE from an Oxbidge college is an inadequate preparation for understanding and reacting to a technical world. Cummings admits to his own technical inadequacies, but strives to enter into a dialogue and taking notice of those who do, and translating that information to the dimwits in charge. Sadly the public is unlikely to take notice of the bombshells he is dropping, and so the incompetent scoundrels in government will persist (but Matt Hancock will have some serious questions to answer when he comes before this committee).

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree - but Brecht, in "Die Rundköpfe unt die Spitzköpfe", summed up in parable form the caution with which we should attribute all notions of good health to a system that would by now be in terminal decline were it not for the ruling class's ability to divert attention from its contradictions and resulting divisions, now surfacing and unable to be hushed up.

You raise Brexit and it's not un-germane to the drama under consideration. Brexit highlighted two different lines of thinking about how capitalism can carry on in the teeth of all the wars, inequalities, and now threats its modus operandi impose on the natural world and peoples: the Remain way being to further galvanise the systems ever-expanding need and propensity for globalisation on its terms; the Brexit way to fall back on that trusty old bolthole when things go awry, the nation state (that gave it birth) with its indigenous(as opposed to foreign) bourgeoisie plus acolytes (press etc), and state apparatus of law, police and, in the final showdown, armed wing. So far, the ruling classes and their Eton-raised members and reps in parliament have just about held the line, in the presence of pitiful formal opposition for the past year, and in the light of belated responsiveness to the pandemic.

Someone, probably it was Lenin, said to the effect that revolution came about when the ruling classes were no longer able to rule in the same way and the working masses were not prepared to be ruled in the same way any more. If the ruling orders are not careful, this could prove their ultimate outcome, so we will need to be prepared.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh what fun we'll have ...

,,,in a one-horse open slay.

[Nick Armstrong]

And yet in the absence of a sensible opposition, the government will probably go up a point or two in the polls after a couple of Sun front pages about daytime telly presenters

(Also: an enquiry into Ms Kuenssberg’s conduct seems at least as germane as one into Mr Bashir’s)

[ahinton]

This is truly explosive isn't it? Explosive, chaotic, messy HONESTY.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-57245479

The tabloid-telegraph Brexit-hero-boris defence will soon kick in but...

Cummings' testimony to the joint committee has had me ( a devoted EU-Remainer) transfixed, almost cheering on someone who I have always had as a hate-figure (if always intelligent and, like Daniel Hannan (aka Godfather of Brexit), worth listening to - keep your friends close & your enemies closer, as the Mafia said..)....

I can only use my human instincts, and Cummings words have the "ring of truth" here...
But will anything, register with media or public, can anything really, finally, change?

Bad luck Royal Family and Princess Diana (for whom and for whose sons, I have much, very deep empathy, media-decieved as they often were & are, even as they "played the game"...) - you are off the front pages for a few days!

Poor UK now has a rather bigger scandal to deal with... which the BBC, so much under attack from "The Right" now - is, of course, recording and transmitting immaculately and accurately....
And in fact it shows that "British Politics" can function very well...given the chance...the questioning has been intense, unflinching and - yes - courteous.

But watch for the media reaction over the next few days....and much compelling blackly comedic u-turning self-deception to result...
Oh what fun we'll have ...

Indeed so; that said, I suspect that the more negative stuff that gets flung at Johnson and his mates by DC and others, the more members of UK's electorate will vote for him/them; as someone ruefully and cynically commented to me recently, "why would anyone in his or her right mind knowingly vote for any political party or politician that evidences the slightest risk of being trustworthy?"...

[Serial_Apologist]

INdeed so; that said, I suspect that the more negative stuff that gets flungat Johnson and his matges by DC and others, the more members of UK's electorate wioll vote for him/them; as someone ruefully and cynically commented to me recently, "why would anyone in his or her right mind knowingly vote for any political party or politician that evidences the slightest risk of being trustworthy?"...

Yes, the public as presented seems to prefer waiting until a story accords with their own viewpoint, ignoring the growing caseload of pre-existing evidence. I would describe this intransigence as British bloody mindedness rather than fair mindedness.

[oddoneout]

INdeed so; that said, I suspect that the more negative stuff that gets flungat Johnson and his matges by DC and others, the more members of UK's electorate wioll vote for him/them; as someone ruefully and cynically commented to me recently, "why would anyone in his or her right mind knowingly vote for any political party or politician that evidences the slightest risk of being trustworthy?"...

I was thinking last night that the fact it is Cummings opening the can of worms risks deflecting attention from where it belongs as he is so disliked, and that makes it easier for too many people(general public) to dismiss the content?
I haven't been following this as I was at work and I'm afraid I don't know if I can face reading up on it, not least as I've got to the stage of thinking that nothing "they" can do is bad enough to force action to effect even the smallest amount of the change that is needed.

[Cockney Sparrow]

(Also: an enquiry into Ms Kuenssberg’s conduct seems at least as germane as one into Mr Bashir’s)

If its being briefed by Cummings - well, to be expected and it was his option to break his anonymity in that respect.

If there is actual misconduct by Kuenssberg, can you give me a pointer? (just spent a few minutes - more than enough - scanning - on the gutter press websites but I can't see anything).

[LMcD]

Better not to believe any of them and just get on with our lives, based on our own decisions.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was thinking last night that the fact it is Cummings opening the can of worms risks deflecting attention from where it belongs as he is so disliked, and that makes it easier for too many people(general public) to dismiss the content?
I haven't been following this as I was at work and I'm afraid I don't know if I can face reading up on it, not least as I've got to the stage of thinking that nothing "they" can do is bad enough to force action to effect even the smallest amount of the change that is needed.

I still believe one has to point out that this is a personal war between two people who are ultimately on the same side, whose disagreement is on tactics rather than the very principles which brought them together and define the extent of their differences. In the end we will be proved right.

[Nick Armstrong]

If its being briefed by Cummings - well, to be expected and it was his option to break his anonymity in that respect.

If there is actual misconduct by Kuenssberg, can you give me a pointer? (just spent a few minutes - more than enough - scanning - on the gutter press websites but I can't see anything).

Oh no, just whether coverage was as impartial and objective as we have a right to expect

[Serial_Apologist]

Better not to believe any of them and just get on with our lives, based on our own decisions.

Like polar bears.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh no, just whether coverage was as impartial and objective as we have a right to expect

While holding no brief for Laura Kuenssberg, personally, what is one to say when asked to opine objectively on what makes a person tick when it's staring everyone in the face: "Are you asking me???" ???