Londoner's Diary
Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson, is posting again. On his Substack - a varied blog in which he carts from political commentary to historical ruminations – Cummings has published some thoughts on the current situation.
There are the now familiar vituperations against Whitehall – comically inert, inured against reform, deeply unaccountable – and some colourful anecdotes. For example, Cummings recalls how he persuaded Johnson to approve the Oneweb satellite bid, which the PM didn’t show much interest in.
Boris Satellites
Dominic Cummings' account of a meeting with Boris
Cummings: “Imagine, centuries after Cameron and Osborne are barely footnotes in history, the BORIS SATELLITES will be silently circling the earth, a permanent Augustan monument to YOU…”
The eyes glittered… He knew he was being manipulated but:
Johnson: “Verrry innnteresting… mmm [fist crashed down on the table] The People’s Government MUST have our own satellites!"
Johnson’s account may, of course, be different.
He also gives Rishi Sunak a big thumbs up for the scrapping of the HS2 extension to Manchester, despite trashing the PM’s political strategy in recent posts. Cummings wanted the whole of HS2 gone but at least he got half his way.
The rumour runs that it was Cummings who urged Number 10 to drop the Birmingham to Manchester link through his channels with Sunak’s adviser Liam Booth-Smith. We note the latest blog did nothing to pooh-pooh these claims. Influence is everything.
On the Covid-19 inquiry, Cummings says that he submitted his statement last week and will post it on his blog with redactions at an appropriate time. He will also give evidence on 31st October and hold an "Ask Me Anything" session on the subject for his Substack followers.
The Sh*t List
And three years after his departure from Downing Street, Cummings continues his symbiotic relationship with the British press. He claims to loathe most journalists, and the feeling is mutual for some, yet his antics and briefings have made excellent copy over the years. In the latest Substack, Cummings has launched a sh*t list of reporters and pundits, those he rates particularly poorly.
Under the title “SW1-NPCs” – NPCs: non-playable characters, a video game shorthand for directionless and easily manipulable actors – Cummings takes aim at political editors, columnists and academics. He jokes that they are “scheduled to be replaced by GPT5/6”.
His former adversaries Dan Hodges, the Mail On Sunday pundit, and Jolyon Maugham of the Good Law Project, get prominent billing. Cummings has previously called Hodges the "clown prince" of punditry and "the epistemological godfather of the lobby". Neither remark was intended as a compliment.
Other journalists getting a name-check from Cummings are: The Guardian's Marina Hyde, Rafael Behr and Pippa Crerar; the Financial Times' Stephen Bush and George Parker; Camilla Tominey of the Daily Telegraph and GB News; Adam Boulton of Sky News; Tom Bradby, presenter of ITV News at Ten; and Times columnist Iain Martin.
He also takes aim at some pundits outside journalism: barrister Adam Wagner; economist Jonathan Portes; ex-civil servant Alex Thomas; historian Alexander Clarkson; academic Phillips P. O'Brien; and Sam Freedman, former policy adviser to Michael Gove who Cummings once worked with in the Department for Education.
