I awoke this morning to the news that the Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, Sir Mark Sedwill had “agreed” with No 10 Downing Street that he should “step down” at the end of September. In normal circumstances this should scarcely cause the slightest quiver of an eyebrow; but the circumstances are far from normal, and our eyebrows should be tightly knit in deep concern. There is a fly in the ointment of government, an éminence grise in the shape of the Prime Minister’s SPAD, Dominic Cummings. (I have deliberately chosen to use the term “SPAD”, which is short for “SPecial ADviser”, because the letters also stand for “Signal Passed At Danger”, which is often used to indicate the cause of a collision on the railway.) Reports have been circulating for a while of Mr Cummings’ desire to take a razor, if not an ax, to the Civil Service and the Cabinet.
The Prime Minister’s propensity for telling alternate truths is well documented; why even SMR’s episode #59 was entitled “Lies, Lies, Lies”! Time and again Mr Johnson has been depicted as Pinocchio, with his nose stretching way out in front of him. The puppet’s redeeming feature was a small insect which settled on his shoulder to remind him of what was right and what was wrong, namely Jiminy Cricket.
What is now troubling me is the thought that Cummings is Jiminy Cricket to Johnson’s Pinocchio. First, because his trip to Barnard Castle in the name of an eye test shews us that he himself has difficulty in discerning right from wrong, and second because crickets are chirpy and cheerful, while Cummings is largely dour and brooding. Say, more cockroach than cricket.
Nico
[Broadcast on SMR Episode 67, “The Blame Game”, on 2020-07-13.]
European Movement Mid Kent 