Reading the title of this thread I expected it was going to be about a leaked Tory p***....

If you believed he was telling the truth last time then you’ll believe him this time as well then.

Staggering, isn’t it? I’m perversely interested now just what depraved act Johnson would have to actually do for it to dent his polling figures.

Having to push the June 21 date back would surely hit them? Especially given that this increase is down to the Indian variant and the farcical border policy/decision not to put them on the red list sooner.

[Tweet Link]

How would you feel if they have to push the date back?

Gove and Cummings are close. And Gove is definitely the most intellectually impressive one on the current Cabinet. Sunak, not so sure but the Treasury operate in their own gravity so I would hazard a guess that Cummings probably did not have much to do with them whilst he was at the centre of it all.

I would assume that the Treasury would have been instinctively against strict lock-downs and so on because they are all about tax revenue and keeping expenditure down but it would ultimately be a political decision rather than one dominated by money. And given that one of Cummings big projects was an overhaul of the Civil service by way of cutting back on it, thereby saving money, probably somebody the Treasury saw as an ally.

And, once again, I cannot recollect Cummings being too much involved with foreign policy, outside of Brexit.

Truth be told, as matters stand, Johnson is untouchable. He has the special sauce that seems to be able to cast all previously consider political conventions to one side. Gove would be the obvious challenger but even he seems to have been put in the box recently, with my understanding that he was considered too conciliatory towards the EU.

The thing about Cummings is that here is an ideas man. About ripping up conventions, about challenging conventional approaches. About science, about pushing research and so on. Not a politician, hence why his trying to play at it now is perhaps not going as well as people expected.

And I also think, at times, Cummings is perhaps over-egged, especially around Brexit. That many people, primarily Remainers, want to believe it was solely his victory because they see Cummings as far closer to them in terms of his background and education than Farage. Easier for their battered egos to tell themselves that it was Cummings who kicked them in their metaphorical bollocks as a opposed to a loutish cad like Farage.

Edited by Matov (28 May 2021 6.27pm)

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.