Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How will Gove deal with Dominic Cummings’ attack on Number 10?

One of these days, former Gove adviser Dominic Cummings is going to tell us what he really thinks. He’s followed up his interview with the Times (£) in which he describes David Cameron as ‘bumbling’ and attacks the team around the Prime Minister with a blog examining the gap between politicians and the electorate and the failure of successive governments to learn from mistakes.

The main problem for Number 10 in Cummings’ analysis of the way it works is that he’s not the only one who holds that opinion. He argues that Number 10, like MPs, has ‘no real knowledge of how to function other than via gimmick and briefings’ and that it avoids ‘solving very hard problems’. Though Number 10 has sharpened up in recent months, it is never hard to find an MP or minister frustrated by an apparent lack of strategic thinking.

And it is still very easy to find a Conservative who will agree with Cummings that ‘you have to have priorities and there are no priorities’.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in