If I may be so bold as to make four observations which are undoubtedly true.
1. Dominic Cummings, for all his faults, is not stupid.
2. Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove are long time political allies.
3. Michael Gove has always had his eye on being Prime Minister.
4. Unless he is doing someone else's dirty work, Dominic Cummings has made himself completely unemployable by publicly coming out in the way he has. No one would give such a figure a job.
I trust that the readers of this blog will come to the same inescapeable conclusion that I have, in light of these facts.
If I was Boris, I'd sack Gove from the cabinet today. Boris should cut Gove off at the legs and make it absolutely clear than anyone who tries to undermine him will go the same way. Gove persuaded Boris to take Cummings on. Gove has said nothing about the whole sorry business. He is quite happy for Cummings to do his dirty work. Unlike the rest of the country Gove still rates Cummings. Gove knows that now is the time to get rid of Boris, if he wants to build some sort of legacy of his own. I personally think Gove lacks any of the qualities that make people vote for Boris, but I don't really understand Tory voters, so I may be wrong. I do know that after his repeated outbursts, Dominic Cummings is unemployable, unless he's part of a bigger plan, in which case he'll be due a plum job when the dirty deed is done. I doubt Boris will ever shut him up, but whilst Gove harbours ambitions of high office and the ability to pay back his henchmen, Cummings has the motive to keep shouting as loudly as he can. Sacking Gove wouldn't necessarily kill his ambitions, but it would mean that he doesn't have the trappings of office to entice in any would be accomplices. I'm sure that if Boris was to go public and say what I suspect he really feels about Gove and Cummings, not too many Tories would want to see the crown handed to Gove.
They say that Boris lost his mojo and has become risk averse since Covid nearly killed him. If he doesn't get it back, take the risk and despatch Gove, this cautiousness will kill his political career for sure. Gove knows he will never get a better opportunity to step in and create a legacy, with a large majority. He can blame the worst of covid and Brexit on the mismanagement of Boris and take the credit for the post covid boom, as the economy benefits from not being shut. Of course he can't say any of this, so he's got his buddy to do it for him. Boris has the opportunity to bring this plan to a shuddering halt and change the narrative. The only question is whether he has the cojones to do it.
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