Come on, you know my post titles are the poor man's Times crossword so award yourself a prize if you can work out what I'm about to bore you with! In this case, I refer to young Master Dominic Cummings, hitherto a SpAd (a Special Advisor for the benefit of my foreign readers) to Mr.Gove our 'Edukashun Sekratary'. (Actually, that last deliberate miss-spelling was a cruel jibe because Gove, perhaps aided by Master Cummings, has achieved more in his department than the rest of them put together.) Anyway, for reasons I am unaware of, Master Cummings has walked out but, bless his little cotton socks, he has blown the roof off No. 10 Downing Street. Alas, I cannot quote his original 'improvised explosive device' because it is hidden behind my mate Rupe's paywall and, sorry, Rupe, mate, but you're rich enough, my life already! However, two contributors to The Coffee House, Isabel Hardman and Alex Massie, provide excellent summaries from slightly different viewpoints and also point the way to Master Cummings's blog in which the lad, himself, spells it out - not to be missed! Part of his title sums up his description of the Downing Street 'operation', if that is quite the right word to use: "Gesture without motion from the hollow men in the bubble ..."
Despite having warned about this for the last four years I claim no special insight because it has been obvious to a blind man that 'Dim Dave' is so hollow, he echoes! The value of Master Cummings's essay is that he spells it out in detail. He begins by reminding us that we have been blessed/cursed (you choose!) with hopeless and hapless governments certainly as far back as the mid-19th century when Bismarck reached power in Prussia:
In the summer of 1862, as he awaited the summons to become prime minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck had a wonderful summer flirting with a beautiful Russian princess in the south of France and traveling to London. There, he had dinner with many of the leading British politicians of the day. After one dinner, he wrote to his wife about how little our leaders understood of European politics: ‘[Palmerston] and, to an only slightly lesser degree, Lord Russell too were in a state of complete ignorance… The British ministers know less about Prussia than about Japan and Mongolia.’
So no change there, then, despite our "Rolls Royce" Foreign Office! He continues with a litany of muddled cock-ups by just about every British government since which, with a very slight improvement under the leadership of 'that woman', continue to this day. Downing Street is obsessed with the 24-hour rolling news schedule and there simply isn't the time or the inclination, and even worse, the ability to think long-term. I would urge you all to read those three links, especially Master Cummings's effort because it will tell you much about the real world of British politics.
It will depress you but, in my harsh, unforgiving way I will lay on another lash or two to add to your pain. Cummings describes an almost totally dysfunctional British government but the good news is that it doesn't really matter because we don't count any more. However, lift your eyes from the view of the Thames and instead gaze across to the Potomac and you will see exactly the same mixture of total, ignorant incompetence, plus a huge dollop of outright corruption, by politicians who couldn't spell the word 'strategic'! And, alas, they really do count on the world stage.
Y'all have a good night now, y' hear?!