Anyone who has followed Brexit with any degree of interest would have heard about Boris Johnson’s appointment of Dominic Cummings. Rampant Brexiters would have celebrated with a slow fist pump. Remainers and those trying to find a path to common sense, would have said ‘Oh no…now we are fucked’.

Academic Genius

The son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher, Cummings was something of an academic genius. Without the standard elitist path that makes up the Conservative party, he went to Exeter College, Oxford. He cruised to a first-class degree in Ancient and Modern History.  

Thereafter he has been something of an enigma. He appears happy to be in the background pulling the strings for those who are in awe of his talents. He has worked in politics since he fought against the Euro but claims to have no party allegiance.

Cummings has often shown disdain for his employers (chiefly Tories). He left the Conservative Party in the early noughties because he could not work with Ian Duncan-Smith, whom he described as utterly inept (It’s hard to argue with that). He hates the Civil Service, seeing it as inflexible and conservative with a small ‘c’ and adverse to change; he would like to smash it to pieces.

I have been doing quite a lot of reading about Cummings. Political writers across the spectrum find it difficult to work him out. In what I have read, he has been described as a psychopathic genius, dangerous, combative, blunt and explosive. A box office character for last years Channel 4 Drama, ‘Brexit: An Uncivil War’, played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Simplistic Targeting

It’s odd that genius is often, in hindsight, so simplistic. Cummings knew that the plebiscite was in general, ignorant of what Brexit meant. There are many reasons for this. Cummings would simply see them as thick as mince and easily manipulated. He was right of course and with access to data via Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, they were populist putty in his idealist hands.

Cummings would now be in control of the people he hated.

‘Take Back Control’ was a slogan that has widely been regarded as a work of political art. It is because it is simple to understand. It allows those ignorant of our standing in the EU to imagine that something that is rightfully ours, has been taken away. Brexit would be the only chance to take it back.

Turkey and the NHS were also emotive subjects that Cummings utilised with great skill. With predictive and detailed data in place, this allowed his team to pummel the fertile ground. That ground was people who had little or no knowledge of the EU. The game was to make them impulsive by creating a longing for the past and a fear of the future (memes with gigantic arrows pointing from Turkey to Britain, for example).

Why Employ Him?

Johnson has employed Cummings to drive home the Brexit bus. He will allow Cummings to take control (excuse the pun) and radicalise government and Whitehall. It’s a throw of a dice for Johnson but he certainly has the man who delivers. Watch this space for targeted emotive and populist campaigning that will stop just short of racism.

Ultimately, taking back control is about Johnson and his right-wing cabinet taking back control for themselves, not anyone else. I am totally unapologetic in saying that the irony in all this is that those affected the worse will be the most ignorant. Once their rights and access to free public services are slowly eradicated, it will be too late to do anything about.

Cummings himself openly said that the Conservative Party don’t care about common people and the NHS. It is down to him to convince the masses otherwise. He will do this by utilising his contempt for their ignorance to manipulate the future. As far as we know, with Cambridge Analytica conveniently going bust and destroying all their illegal data, he doesn’t have the ability to hit people through Twitter or social media. What we don’t know is whether he has another source for data attacks. I wouldn’t bet against it.

You won’t see his face, but the next 12 weeks are going to be Cummings with the after burners on full throttle. His opportunity to smash the system he hates is here and now. He knows it, Johnson knows it, and the members of the ERG know it. Many political analysts are saying that Johnson is not even sure what his own vision for the future is and that is why he has got Cummings in. How tragic is that?

Prepare yourself for easily to follow messages. Promises of money for the NHS, the Police, the Armed Services and the elderly as well as former industrial heartlands in the depths of poverty. None of it will arrive but that doesn’t matter.

This is their chance to take back control and have it all to themselves. I can’t see anyone with the wit, charisma and ideology to stop them and the psychotic genius that is Dominic Cummings.

I hope I am wrong.