Boris Johnson will regret standing by Dominic Cummings

Boris Johnson is a populist who no longer understands the populace. Dominic Cummings pretends to be an anti-elitist but cannot see how lethal the slogan ‘one rule for me and another for everyone else’ is to him and the elite he serves. Their government and the Vote Leave movement it grew from once had a crass genius for simple slogans that cut through – £350 million for the NHS, Get Brexit Done, Stay at Home.

Boris Johnson’s slogan was Cummings ‘acted responsibly, legally and with integrity’ when he packed up his family, drove 250 miles, stayed near parents and siblings and, according to a witness, went off on family walks. 

The message has certainly ‘cut through’ but not in the way Johnson intended. For it turns out that to say there is ‘one rule for the elite and another for the masses’ isn’t the half of it. Johnson retrospectively rewrites the rules to protect the elite.