{"id":1915,"date":"2020-05-26T12:50:18","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T11:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2020-05-26T12:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T11:58:46","slug":"dominic-cummings-denying-reality-over-lockdown-and-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/dominic-cummings-denying-reality-over-lockdown-and-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominic Cummings: denying reality over lockdown and Brexit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Dominic Cummings at press conference after trip to Durham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People are rightly angered at Dominic Cummings\u2019 decision to visit family in Durham<\/a> when the rest of us were following the government\u2019s advice to \u201cstay home \u2014 protect the NHS \u2014 save lives\u201d. But this is a fraction of the irresponsibility he\u2019s shown over Brexit. People should be looking at all that he has done \u2014 and they should be angry.<\/p>\n

As I write this [26 May], people are angry at his decision to travel from London to family in Durham during the lockdown. Apparently his uncle died from Covid19 while he was there<\/a> which doesn\u2019t really cut it with people who\u2019ve been unable to visit loved ones dying in hospital from Covid19 or going to their funerals.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer has been right to criticise loudly<\/a>. He says that, in not sacking Cummings, Boris Johnson has \u201ctreated the British people with contempt\u201d. He has a point. The contempt is about more than the lockdown.
\n<\/p>\n

The Brexit angle<\/h2>\n

In January 2017 he wrote a piece in The Spectator<\/i><\/a> on How the Brexit referendum was won<\/em>. At the time people seized on this article as an admission that the Leave campaign \u201cwon because they lied to the public\u201d<\/a> but what shouts to me us that it says so little about why leaving the EU seemed a good idea. <\/p>\n

If I\u2019d been writing an essay on my involvement in that referendum, a big part of it would have been on why campaigned as I did. That\u2019s partly about explaining my convictions, but also because I thought it important that the values aligned with the campaign. This wasn\u2019t about winning for the sake of winning: it was about winning because EU membership is a good thing.<\/p>\n

The same article also refers to Cummings involvement in the referendum that rejected the proposal for an elected assembly for the North East of England, also with little explanation. I can\u2019t help wondering whether proper devolution would have discharged the frustrations which were expressed in the vote for Brexit by people in the North East.<\/p>\n

A post on his blog<\/a> also makes a telling remark:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are young, smart, and interested in politics, think very hard before studying politics\u00a0\/ \u2018political science\u2019 \/\u00a0PPE at university. You will be far better off if you study maths or physics.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What shouts from this \u2014 and the perceptive comments in Chris Wylie\u2019s book Mindf*ck: inside Cambridge Analytica\u2019s plot to break the world<\/em> \u2014 is that the use of data was key. This wasn\u2019t about presenting a rational argument that might enable an informed decision. It was about the manipulative use of data, careful profiling of voters to prey on their anxieties and get them to vote in the way those campaigning for Leave wanted. <\/p>\n

I could describe that as cynical and contemptuous. <\/p>\n

Data provides a model of reality, not reality in itself. I\u2019ve known many programmers who see the world through the way they have modelled in the technology in a way that undermines the contact with reality. Perhaps Cummings isn\u2019t as cynical and contemptuous as that, but has managed to create his own version of reality.<\/p>\n

Denying reality<\/h2>\n

Telling people they can have whatever they want might make sense when it\u2019s about helping people who\u2019ve grown used to exclusion to find another path. But reality can only be denied for a while. Over Brexit what Cummings has done is to say to people \u201cthings don\u2019t have to be like this\u201d and give them a target to kick against. That\u2019s put him in power, but overlooks the reality that things can be worse \u2014 very few of those who voted Leave because the Leave campaign seemed to offer a better life will actually find Brexit improves their lives.<\/p>\n

Some people will support Cummings. We\u2019ve all faced hardship because of the lockdown and some will look to Cummings as a hero. <\/p>\n

Donald Trump provides an interesting parallel. He\u2019s suggested that, if disinfectant helps kill the virus on the outside of the body, it could be injected to kill the virus inside<\/a>. That\u2019s plainly daft, but could also appeal to people who are afraid and think there should be a \u201ccommon sense\u201d solution. He\u2019s trumpted the anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine without medical evidence, and trials of it have been stopped because it was found to be harmful<\/a>, which speaks to people think there must be a cure that\u2019s already available. In the world where \u201cscience\u201d is invincible, there must already be a cure \u2014 just as, in that dystopian world \u2014 climate change can be ignored because science makes humans supreme. There\u2019s even been a survey suggesting that a third of Americans think there already is a vaccine, but that it\u2019s being withheld<\/a>. From a scientific perspective, Trump\u2019s position is nonsense. But people are believing him \u2014 his comments have already lead to deaths from the use of disinfectant<\/a> and Hydroxychloroquine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There will be people who react to a virus that threatens to kill millions of people by denying reality, or by a paranoid attack on \u201cthem\u201d in authority. This is the same mindset as Michael Gove\u2019s notorious \u201cPeople have had enough of experts\u201d. Faced with a scary reality, there is a huge temptation to deny it, and to attack the \u201cexperts\u201d who know enough to spell it out.<\/p>\n

Trump and Cummings are both in the strange position of having their hands on the levers of power, but acting as if they are standing up for people against \u201cthe establishment\u201d \u2014 tainted because it\u2019s associated with people who are speaking unwelcome truths.<\/p>\n

Cummings\u2019 action is not as daft as Trump\u2019s, but, like Trump\u2019s, it will resonate with those who need to deny the reality of what we are facing. I can\u2019t tell whether Trump\u2019s behaviour is crazy, or reflecting an intuitive grasp of what is needed to get people to vote for him, which might be another parallel.<\/p>\n

Realities and the EU<\/h2>\n

Some could argue that there is a design fault in the EU, in that it is reasonable and pragmatic. It doesn\u2019t look at the realities of the emerging power of China or of global warming and go into an emotional storm. It tries to engage with where we are, in a mature, consensual way. The weak link is that this doesn\u2019t cope with irrational attacks on reality. Europe collectively remembers the damage those did in the 1930s. <\/p>\n

In breaking the lockdown and in trying to get his way over Brexit, Cummings has shown scant regard for the needs of society. Seeking to get one\u2019s way regardless isn\u2019t a hallmark of a good leader.<\/p>\n

Contempt<\/h2>\n

Keir Starmer is right that, in this saga, Boris Johnson has \u201ctreated the British people with contempt\u201d. But on 2 April 2019 Cummings was found in Contempt of Parliament for refusing to testify before the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into fake news during the referendum campaign. For Boris Johnson to make him a key adviser a few months later smacks of a wider contempt. Breaking the lockdown is serious, but it\u2019s not the most serious piece of contempt that\u2019s been shown.<\/p>\n

Cummings exposed<\/h2>\n

This story is bigger than the lockdown. Yes, Boris Johnson should sack him. But the contempt for the British people in the lies from the Leave campaign \u2014 including the \u00a3350 million a week for the NHS which would be really handy now \u2014 means questions also need to be asked about his influence. If the Leave vote was about Cummings\u2019 getting his way, rather than doing what was good for the country, then the unwinding of his behaviour has to include a serious discussion of rejoining the EU before there\u2019s been enough divergence to make that hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking the lockdown was bad, but what about the damage Dominic Cummings has done to the country over Brexit?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[72,287,288,2],"tags":[289],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brexit-politics","category-dominic-cummings","category-donald-trump","category-politics","tag-dominic-cummings-breaking-lockdown-donald-trump-denial-of-reality-brexit"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1922,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}