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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Catherine Bennett

In Boris Johnson’s Lord of the Flies fraternity, women were there to be talked over or banished

Dominic Cummings, former special advisor to Boris Johnson, departs the Covid Inquiry in London after giving evidence .
‘Cross’: Dominic Cummings, former special advisor to Boris Johnson, departs the Covid Inquiry in London after giving evidence . Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

‘Women have very little idea of how much men hate them,” wrote the great Germaine Greer, in 1970. But now we have the Covid inquiry.

Last week Dominic Cummings was asked about a 2020 exchange on a WhatsApp group named “Fightback”. It concerned their colleague Helen MacNamara, the deputy cabinet secretary. Cummings: “If I have to come back to Helen’s bullshit with PET [propriety and ethics team] … I will personally handcuff her and escort her out of the building.” None of the coworkers objected. “I don’t care how it is done,” Cummings elaborates, “but that woman must be out of our hair – we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that cunt.” Then: “We gotta get Helen out [of] CabOff. She’s fucking up Frosty. She’s fucking up me and Case.” Etc.

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