The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Saving Big Dog, scrapping the licence fee and tsunami hits Tonga

issue 22 January 2022

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Sue Gray, Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, having been asked by Boris Johnson to look into accusations of parties held at 10 Downing Street, in turn formally asked him about them. Newspaper reports about such gatherings continued day after day, and Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former chief adviser, said that he had warned Johnson in advance about one for 40 people in the garden on 20 May 2020, telling him: ‘You’ve got to grip this madhouse.’ ‘Nobody warned me that it was against the rules,’ the PM said. The commentariat at large talked of Operation Save Big Dog, by which officials would take the blame to preserve the Prime Minister.

There was talk too about Operation Red Meat, by which backbenchers would be distracted from the Prime Minister by announcements of policies.

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