The Dictatorship of the Etonariat

[muzzer]

Cummings is a proper nutter. An ideologue with the ear of the executive. Remember, he’s not interested in Brexit or BJ, his target is the process of government, and the civil service. That is in no-one’s interests, left, right, or down the he middle old school like me. I wear linen shirts with pleasure, but wouldn’t have ever to the office. In such details resides the mischief. I’m strictly persuasion not oppression but if he were my neighbour, well, his environs would have been comprehensively rearranged by now. Country before ***t.

[DracoM]

His machinations could genuinely divide govt, bully BJ into silliness, and lose the Tories the next election, so 'psychopathically fixated' is he - as David Cameron suggested.

[Bryn]

His machinations could genuinely divide govt, bully BJ into silliness, and lose the Tories the next election, so 'psychopathically fixated' is he - as David Cameron suggested.

Let's not get carried away with this. Cummings is a lieutenant, or more like Captain Johnson's batman (and not the one with the cave and batty silhouette). The Mesopotamian* thug is using Cummings, not the other way round.

* a reference to an Eton cricket pitch bounded by three watercourses (two streams and the Thames).

[muzzer]

I disagree. Johnson is an opportunist but also a craven politician who needs to stay in office. Cummings has no such judge. Take it from me, he’s nuts. It’s a co dependency of lunacy. I hate the expression, but it’s a perfect storm. Anything could happen. And I don’t mean to sound unduly alarmist.

[ahinton]

I disagree. Johnson is an opportunist but also a craven politician who needs to stay in office. Cummings has no such judge. Take it from me, he’s nuts. It’s a co dependency of lunacy. I hate the expression, but it’s a perfect storm. Anything could happen. And I don’t mean to sound unduly alarmist.

OK, but what this leads to is a continuation of the hung Parliament that we already have, only more so, in that I don't see any party either winning a GE or indeed any two or even three parties being able to agree to form a coalition in order to enable government. If this is that best that UK can do, then perhaps that will be just as well - a country not only without government but also without the means to create and operate one.

[DracoM]

I disagree. Johnson is an opportunist but also a craven politician who needs to stay in office. Cummings has no such judge. Take it from me, he’s nuts. It’s a co dependency of lunacy. I hate the expression, but it’s a perfect storm. Anything could happen. And I don’t mean to sound unduly alarmist.

Agree: this guy is not a servant, he is an operator. He sees that BJ thinks / is thought to have popular appeal, he himself is the Leaver of all Leavers, and he can see how to manipulate, bully, manoeuvre opportunists, and is ruthless in that procedure. Government is seriously demeaned by such an unelected presence whose only serious loyalty is to the creed.

Remember the May's 'back office' and the damage they did? THiS guy makes them look like Noddy and Big Ears.

[muzzer]

I think that Johnson will bring back the withdrawal agreement with a tweak or two he blames on the EU, and scare soft Brexit MPs into passing it. Or he calls a GE on a harder Brexit platform, to stave off Farage, and gets a large majority. Either of which fill me with horror tbh. But I think that’s where we are. If we, the broadly liberal, in the oldest and best sense of the word, wanted anything else we’d have bl**dy well got off our ar**s sooner to stop it. And if “we” can’t do that, I’ll be looking for somewhere else to spend the rest of my life tbh, as this country will change for the very worst.

[Demetrius]

and gets a large majority

It's possible, even if the Conservatives only get the ca 33 % shown in the current polls, depending on how the rest of the parties split the vote. It may be time to rethink that electoral system slightly.

[Beresford]

Right,. well that's your careful take on it al, but now tell me what Dominic Cummings is going to do? He's in essence the PM.
Apart from bullying and hectoring and being an invisible Rasputin?

I think the plan, if there is one (#165) is Dominic Raab's, executed by Cummings, fronted by BJ. Probably no-one else knows the whole story.
Can't see Cummings retiring to his wife's Northumbrian castle, but a memoir must be on the cards. Or restructuring of the Civil Service.
As a Liberal, I wouldn't trust any of them.

[teamsaint]

I think the plan, if there is one (#165) is Dominic Raab's, executed by Cummings, fronted by BJ. Probably no-one else knows the whole story.
Can't see Cummings retiring to his wife's Northumbrian castle, but a memoir must be on the cards. Or restructuring of the Civil Service.
As a Liberal, I wouldn't trust any of them.

Fair comment.
Mind you, as a liberal, I wouldn’t trust the Liberals.

[CGR]

[/B]

Fair comment.
Mind you, as a liberal, I wouldn’t trust the Liberals.

Yep. The Liberal Democrats aren't very liberal, in the classical Gladstonian sense of liberalism.

[CGR]

Let's not get carried away with this. Cummings is a lieutenant, or more like Captain Johnson's batman (and not the one with the cave and batty silhouette). The Mesopotamian* thug is using Cummings, not the other way round.

* a reference to an Eton cricket pitch bounded by three watercourses (two streams and the Thames).

Cummings is doing the same job for Boris as Alistair Campbell did for Blair. Remember the "Dodgy Dossier" and the Iraq war !

[eighthobstruction]

Remember the May's 'back office' and the damage they did? THiS guy makes them look like Noddy and Big Ears.

....Faust and Mephistopheles sitting around the table planning....carving up ....a tastey supper....

....

[eighthobstruction]

Cummings is doing the same job for Boris as Alistair Campbell did for Blair. Remember the "Dodgy Dossier" and the Iraq war !

....I'm not condoning the man/men/dodgeyness....but at least he/they came out to speak and take flak....

[DracoM]