Johnson’s risky tactics may be working, according to the polls. But he will come to regret his purge of the moderates
Conviction often has its own contagious energy. When Dominic Cummings was briefly director of strategy for the then party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, in 2002, there were occasional lunches for journalists at what was then still called Conservative Central Office in Smith Square. Cummings would sit at one end of the table in open-necked shirt and jeans, bellowing about the inadequacy of the Conservative party; while IDS, in pinstripe suit, sat meekly, head bowed, at the other end, like a deeply unhappy vicar being berated by an evangelical member of the parish council. It was easy to forget that, technically at least, Duncan Smith was the one in charge.
Even now, after Boris Johnson’s disastrous week – capped by the dramatic resignation of Amber Rudd last night – many are still mesmerised by Cummings and his cunning plans. Not unreasonably, they recall his choreography of Vote Leave’s victory in 2016. Less reasonably, they persuade themselves that the present mayhem is all a necessary prelude to eventual glory, citing the Leninist maxim that “worse is better”.
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