Cummings reveals the Unionist heart of darkness

Like Walter Kurtz, Dominic Cummings had immense plans but was tripped on the threshold of greatness by the weaknesses of his superiors. Now he holds court from his fortress temple of Substack where, in the fashion of Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard, subscribers receive his glum musings on Covid strategy, systems management and judicial review. Cummings is sometimes regarded as a brilliant sociopath and while I sway back and forth on whether the emphasis belongs on the adjective or the noun, his insights into how government really works are immensely valuable to understanding policy-making, implementation and the impotence of power.

I have come to the view that, if you want to study government in Britain, you could subject yourself to three or four years of being expensively miseducated in those theory-throttled closed shops called universities, but you’ll get a more accurate and less pricey education from binge-watching Yes, Minister and The Thick of It.