The Cummings Effect goes on

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 Greenbanks 17 Mar 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56427280

Wonder what the fall-out will be? Another step towards dismantling the NHS?

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 Harry Jarvis 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Greenbanks:

It seems we have Cummings confirming a) Brexit was a nightmare and b) Tory stewardship of the NHS was incompetent. 

No great surprises there, but perhaps odd to hear it from the mouth of one so close to the PM. 

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OP Greenbanks 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Harry Jarvis:

A serial agent-provocateur?

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 neilh 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Greenbanks:

Interesting observations from him about science and govt and comparisons with other countries etc.

I think most people would agree on failures should be accepted and there being too much bureacracy( although alot of scientist would say that is a govt self induced system).

Whatever you think about him he is thought provoking and rattles cages which in the short term can be a good thing before he burnt out and moved on.

His comments on vaccines, well what can you say, they are probably spot on. But in a way go back to the creation of the Life Sciences Office back in 2014 which was in BIS and not the NHS.This had a strategy of coordinationg private sector, universities, govt and nhs.This got things rolling and right, we have alot to be grateful for this little known Office.

Post edited at 11:58
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Gone for good 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Harry Jarvis:

> It seems we have Cummings confirming a) Brexit was a nightmare and b) Tory stewardship of the NHS was incompetent. 

> No great surprises there, but perhaps odd to hear it from the mouth of one so close to the PM. 

He was/is talking about the department of health rather than the NHS and it seems that its Whitehall bureaucracy that's being criticised rather than the NHS.

2 things to note. 

The creation of the vaccine task force that appears to have been very effective in planning and preparing for the mass rollout we are currently seeing.

The creation of Aria and the mind boggling sum of more than £10 billion towards UK scientific research and innovation. 

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 Robert Durran 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Harry Jarvis:

> It seems we have Cummings confirming a) Brexit was a nightmare and b) Tory stewardship of the NHS was incompetent. 

I don't think he confirms either (it is pretty clear he meant getting Brexit done, not Brexit itself, and it is about the department of health, not the NHS).

Post edited at 13:24
 Michael Hood 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Greenbanks:

WTF he's not even wearing glasses!!!

OP Greenbanks 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Robert Durran:

Many (especially given the rather tenuous grasp of the way we are governed and the role of ministries and those agencies that work under them demonstrated by a lot of people) will conflate the DoH and the NHS, if only by inference

 Tyler 17 Mar 2021
In reply to Greenbanks:

Sickening as it is predictable that the media are giving coverage to this discredited shyster. With the pandemic he had the opportunity to put his words into action about the importance of science and data etc and he came up with nothing. He had his hand on the tiller throughout and we ended up with the most calamitous of death rates and economic impact. He is a f*cking charlatan, he and his band of futurists got pretty much every call wrong and he is now using the media to rewrite history in the same way he rewrote his blog. 

Post edited at 17:12
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 andyman666999 18 Mar 2021
In reply to Greenbanks:

Lol " smoking ruin in terms of procurement". Yeh it would be its been underfunded for 10 years what do you expect?

Think this a crappy attempt to set a narrative for the pandemic. Those, like I, that work in healthcare know that the government failed in pretty much every area except vaccination. So many examples:

PM failing to attend the early COBRA meetings regarding the impending crisis 

Late to close borders to travel

Late to stop mass gatherings. 

This is a prelude/excuse, as already said, to do something to the NHS. 

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 neilh 18 Mar 2021
In reply to andyman666999:

You are behind the times. U.K. gov had already said it’s going to bring the NHS back under direct control and scrap the Lansley reforms.  At least keep upto date. 

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 felt 18 Mar 2021
In reply to Tyler:

> With the pandemic he had the opportunity to put his words into action about the importance of science and data etc and he came up with nothing. He had his hand on the tiller throughout and we ended up with the most calamitous of death rates and economic impact. He is a f*cking charlatan, he and his band of futurists got pretty much every call wrong and he is now using the media to rewrite history in the same way he rewrote his blog. 

I dislike the guy as much as the next person,  but that's not quite true.

See Failures of State, p. 363 (the authors of this damning account can hardly be called apologists for Tories of any stripe):

"Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings had become a strong believer in the necessity of swift and decisive lockdowns during the first wave of the pandemic following his ‘Domoscene conversion’. Sources in No. 10 say he strongly backed the government’s scientists in the argument over the September circuit breaker. Relations between the two men would sour from that point onwards."

 Tyler 18 Mar 2021

In reply to Tyler:

> following his ‘Domoscene conversion’. Sources in No. 10 say he strongly backed the government’s scientists in the argument over the September circuit breaker. Relations between the two men would sour from that point onwards."

What about Jan, Feb and March? Deciding 6months into a pandemic that lockdowns are good is scant evidence to support DC’s own view of himself and as a futurist and unique thinker. Contrast his (lack of) comments on the issue at the time with Rory Stewart. 
And then we come to his reflections, which seem to consist of no original thought, instead he’s using the opportunity to continue his old war against the civil service. 

Post edited at 09:43
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 felt 18 Mar 2021
In reply to felt:

You said 'he got pretty much every call wrong'. I'm saying that when it came to listening to and supporting the Whitty/Valance/Sage position he got a call right.

 Offwidth 18 Mar 2021
In reply to felt:

I agree he likely called that September position right. However not much evidence as yet of much else.... pretty disappointing for a self appointed mega brain.

John Crace is a stinging as ever as the subject:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/17/dominic-cummings-plays-all...

 andyman666999 18 Mar 2021
In reply to neilh:

I'm not talking about scrapping the lansley reforms. That's old news. I'll try to keep up to date if you try to grow some manners how's that ?

As for Cummings. Regardless of my opinion of him. He is divisive. His entire strategy is to divide alienate and then succeed. Whatever he sticks his oars into will create argument and divide opinion.   Therefore he will be coubterproductive in any form following this crisis. 

Well that's by pennies worth. So I will bow out here. Cheers. 

Post edited at 12:12
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 Tyler 18 Mar 2021
In reply to felt:

> You said 'he got pretty much every call wrong'. I'm saying that when it came to listening to and supporting the Whitty/Valance/Sage position he got a call right.

Even if that were not the case Cummings gets no credit from me for getting on board with Whitty in September and even this claim I'd take with a pinch of salt. As late as November Cummings was at odds with Whitty about halving the quarantining time. Before the second wave Whitty et al made it be known they wanted stricter measures sooner, I don't recall hearing whispers from 'Downing Street sources' to that effect? 

Up to that point Cummings was around while we were late into first lock down, did not implement any boarder checks, stopped test and trace early, did not come up with *any* solutions to any of the issues faced over PPE or the subsequent test and trace fiasco. The latter is particularly egregious for him as this is a technology led issue which is meant to be right in his wheelhouse, he backed the wrong horse.

You may say he was not in a position to influence decisions but this seems at odds with how hard PM fought to keep him (q.v. Barnard Castle and pay rise). The pandemic is obviously something he feels he ought to have seen coming as otherwise he would not have retrospectively edited his blogs.

I'd be keen to see tangible evidence from his time in govt, or prior, that points to him being anything other than a shit blogger with a grievance and a huge ego. He got to where he is because he claimed to have ideas to a clueless govt completely bereft of them.

Post edited at 12:37
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OP Greenbanks 18 Mar 2021
In reply to andyman666999:

Thanks for your contribution...it is worth noting, when equating evidence, proof and 'the truth', that Cummings's own recruitment blog states that "There are some very interesting possibilities in the intersection of technology and story telling — if you’ve done something weird, this may be the place for you"

https://dominiccummings.com/category/decisions/the-sphinx-of-psychology-per...

 Richard J 18 Mar 2021
In reply to neilh:

I'm delighted to see Mr Cummings' late conversion to seeing the benefits of parliamentary scrutiny, and I look forward greatly to his next promised appearance to give his side of the story about the government's covid response.  It goes without saying that his account will be self-serving, but I think it's much better that the whole sorry history gets discussed, than the government gets its wish, that we just forget about the whole nightmare and move on.

On the specific questions he was discussing yesterday, on science funding and bureaucracy, I don't think he's entirely wrong, but much of the problem has been inflicted by governments in the last ten years.  In the 2000's, the research councils were largely left to get on with things, with a great deal of institutional autonomy and an obscure location in Swindon away from the attention of Whitehall.  

That began to change in the Coalition years, when the research councils ended up beginning to accept what turned out to be a Faustian bargain,  receiving some cash injections at the price of much more direct political influence, especially from Osborne's Treasury.  Then the 2015 Conservative government introduced the Higher Education and Research Act, which rolled up the research councils into a single organisation, UKRI, much more directly under government control, and subjected to much more Treasury-driven process.

A big element of the story of Cummings' time in government was his attempt to assert on behalf of no 10 more power over the Treasury (beginning with the sacking of Savid Javid and the installation of the joint No 10/Treasury SPAD team).  But he lost.


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