Day One - What Wasn’t
PETE & DAIS
*** All views are our own *** *
*except those plagiarised from more intelligent and better-informed family members, friends and pundits
We thought that we’d dip our toes into the waters of political analysis. After all, if Laura Kuenssberg can do it then surely there’s a place for someone who’s been following actual events. Pete and Dais for the next week will be giving you all the inside scoop (their thinking) on the current political situation and actual events. Be prepared for a full range of content; from Boris Johnson biographies to a 15-minute video on what should have been asked in the infamous Dominic Cummings press conference…. Stay tuned.
In today's blog we have split it out into an opinion section and an analysis section.
Opinion: The press conference that never was
So…. Pete and I were sat at home after the astonishing Dominic Cumming’s Press Conference and decided the following:
1. Did the media all make a pact about not asking Mr Cummings the questions that we needed answers to?
And 2. Did Mr Cummings actually think his answers to the media’s questions were sufficient?
We have created the press conference that should have been…. With some questions that should have been answered. Pete starring as Dominic Cummings, Dais making appearances as several journalists. Hopefully it’s a bit of fun and a little thought-provoking. It was interesting when putting this together how hard it is to write insightful questions and to answer them coherently.
Enjoy.
P.S. I fully admit that my Laura Kuensberg accent needs some work.
Analysis: Blood and iron
Contrary to his own claims, Dominic Cummings is not Bismarck. He is not a highly talented and experienced statesman skilfully manipulating regional events to his own inglorious ends. He is a bloke with an insight about Brexit voters who writes good slogans. I think that’s important to remember when you start thinking deeply about the outrage of his non-departure. He is only the advisor. He doesn’t have the machinery of government operating to his commands. His boss does and that’s a big difference.
His policy, much like Trump’s, is to constantly do the unthinkable, to spend his time calling bluffs and blame the media. For example, every media outlet thinks that he should go and his behaviour is illegal and deeply immoral. His strategy therefore is to stay and make yourself more prominent. When your boss is the boss you can do that for a while. But, unlike Trump, Johnson is not elected on a personal mandate and his removal does not require the careful orchestration of a cross-party legal mechanism to impeach him out of office. All Johnson requires to be removed from office is a perfectly constitutional tap on the shoulder from the 1922 committee and a nod in the direction of the exit.
The question is therefore when and why would the Tory party remove its electoral magician and advisor. This narrative takes a little longer to get going because Johnson needs to be shown to be unpopular and near an election campaign. It is my supposition that in the long-term, when the UK is shown to have had the worst death rate in Europe, it will take more than a policy of opposites to win around voters. When you then offend the public with a clearly unfair bending of the rules for your advisor at the same time that literally millions have been unable to see their own families, often in deeply distressing circumstances, then you will alienate large numbers of moderate people.
Brexit voters and libertarians will continue to follow Cummings’ narrative that this is a media storm full of lies with an agenda to remove the one reforming influence in no.10. Remainers will continue to be outraged by his behaviour and callousness of the government. But my guess is that a sizeable percentage of the population will have their sense of fairness insulted by this spectacle.
