O/T The Saj and Dominic Cummings

ElBurroSinNombre

ElBurroSinNombre

Well-known member
I see that Sajid Javid has been effectively removed as chancellor this morning seemingly at the behest of Dominic Cummings. The Saj was told that he had to sack all of his special advisors and instead work with a team of advisors selected and managed by DC . Although the media were surprised about his resignation, it would seem that number 10 had expected this outcome, given the speed with which they have found a replacement. And it is hardly surprising that The Saj couldn't accept being a castrated, nodding dog of a chancellor.

What does the board think about the rather vindictive way in which the PM (and DC) treat anyone capable of independent thought and / or action? This is not the first incident of this type (think the expulsion from the party of any who voted against Johnson in the Brexit bill) and DC seems to revel in the 'evil genius' image that the media portrays. Last Friday he wrapped up his weekly meeting with all SPADS by saying 'I'll see some of you next week' and I suppose he was alluding to this. Can this sort of approach work in the long term? The more enemies you make the harder it gets.
 
I was going to try to reply constructively with an open mind on this issue but reading the usual knee jerk responses from the usual suspects above who would have responded exactly the same way whatever he had done made me realise that debating with closed minds is never worth pursuing.
 
I'm not really sure about this sort of approach.

On the one hand I think that they are very clear about what they want to achieve and are ruthless in removing obstacles to making the changes they want as a government. Some (or a lot) of what they are doing is not what I want for my country but we do now have a direction of travel as a country which is better than the last few years. I have been pleasantly surprised by a few of their ideas, for me building infrastructure in relatively deprived areas is more likely to work to alleviate poverty in the long term than just throwing money at poor people (which was IMO Gordon Brown's approach).

On the other hand it shows a very thin skin and fragile ego if you just sack anybody who holds a differing opinion to yours. If you do this for long enough you end up with no friends at all, just sycophants. After all a good friend is one who will tell you the truth and not what you want to hear. Surely the job of a politician is to lead by persuasion. Interesting times ahead, how long will it be before there is a rebellion within the Conservative party. The Saj now on the back benches with time to build alliances and subtly undermine the PM (rather like Johnson himself did). Ruling by fear works in the short term but is unsustainable long term IMO.
 
There was a thread on the other site asking were we heading into Fascism. My own view was that we were heading into totalitarianism, and this does nothing to dispel that. Cummings, an unelected "adviser" was present at a meeting between the PM and the Chancellor, and ordered the Chancellor to sack his advisers.

The Tory party was always a broad church, that was part of its attraction, and its safety net. One extreme or another had to work with the other and so kept to a moderate ground. Boris's majority, and his reliance on Cummings totally controlling what hits the media from No. 10, means he doesn't need to work with anyone or moderate his agenda. He has appointed an Attorney General who is openly hostile to 800 years of Judicial oversight and will legislate to remove any role for them.

Trump mark 2, control the media, control the judiciary, get rid of anyone who is not a yes man. Not sure why the NI Secretary was sacked, maybe to take a harder line with Eire.

Worrying times
 
So we left the EU because of allegedly* unelected leaders but it's ok for Dominic Cummings to call the shots?

*they are elected by MEPs.
 
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