Name? Dominic Cummings
Westphalian identity? British
Age? 48
Why is he in the news? Cummings has been the major news this week in U.K. domestic politics because of an impromptu (illegal) trip taken from London to Durham on April 12th; well into the U.K.’s lockdown in response to COVID-19.
Why do we care? Political advisors somehow remain a significant grey area within international politics. Understanding how Cummings’ anti-EU rhetoric might be brushing off and influencing Johnson during the transition period is crucial if we are to ever understand why we’re still discussing Brexit 4 years after the vote….
Why should you care? Cummings’ trip supports the idea of how the affluent and powerful have lived a disparate kind of lockdown. The Financial Times did a ravishing job of giving prominence to the differences between the haves and haves not as well as how lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing are only for those who fly commercially. The reality is that countrywide lockdowns have only helped clarify the stark differences between the 1% and the 99%.
Who else cares? The EU. Johnson is being lambasted for the omnishambles that is the British Government; a collapsing Brexit negotiation campaign, a disastrous reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and ever increasing tautness between the current “letter diplomacy” that seems to have become the habitual negotiating method. Coming out of Covid-19, the EU seems in an even better position to come out on top than the incompetence that some call the UK government.
Any further comments? Ironically, the Brexit campaign’s slogan was “Take back control,” yet Cumming’s holds no accountable or elected position and is the most powerful unelected official in the U.K. Ironic? Yes. And if you’ve ever seen The Thick of It, Dominic Cummings is this decade’s real-life political juggernaut replacing Malcolm Tucker.
