32 Comments

Great article as usual. Thanks.. have you given any thought on my previous comment asking if you can help Facebook do something about their current algorithms? Keep up the good work,

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Arguing over custom checks in Northern Irish ports when there are thousands of third world illegals invading other British ports every. Single. Day 🤦‍♂️

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Afternoon, who are the Deep State? Thanks

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Frightening for us ordinary folk.

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Fascinating read and deeply disturbing.

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Was there even a back of an envelope plan for the Irish border back in 2016, or was it just deemed too messy to contemplate?

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I sincerely hope Art16 isn’t triggered. I know Commission/ European politicians have been expecting it and are prepped — and Horizon Europe association status would most likely go under the bus at this stage. That in turn would be disastrous for UK science… not in the straight ££ economics terms, but rather in talent attraction, UK reputation, UK’s now traditional leadership/coordination of multinational projects, and UK unis diversifying their physical presences to put footholds around Europe (latter not bad per se - but diversification of collab activity away from UK soil is).

I also can’t see any win for UK govt triggering such wreckage with EU & US and science. It just looks hostile for the sake of it… and weirdly puritanical about ECJ rather than actual business concerns.

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Dom, q about 2019. Do you believe that other Tory candidates could have won a similar landslide, I.e. would anyone who said I will finish this Brexit mess have won the same? It’s often said only boris can reach those seats that were won in ‘19

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Brilliant. PLEASE come back!

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DC is missing the key point: it's not 'violence' that Frost needs to be most worried about. It's the clear and present danger of the political withdrawal of Unionism from the Belfast Agreement that he needs to obviate. And, to be fair to Frost, this is exactly what he is currently seeking to do.

Another point to note is that Johnson is giving Frost full latitude of decision making in the present talks, primarily because Johnson knows that his political fate and future place in history are tied far more closely to Frost than to anyone else in his present or former circles, including Carrie and DC.

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Hypothetically, if I had one of those fake pound coins on a key ring, where might I insert it to release the trolley and ride it down the High St. proclaiming myself Lady Godiva? Asking for a friend.

Anyway, I hope you are well DC.

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Fascinating.

I must say we’d never read this sort of thing in America, no one would believe it - although I believe you.

3 questions.

Any answers are welcome.

Sir (DC) why do you think you’ll get a better PM via elections?

Why don’t you think you’ll get a colorless cipher functionary who will simply surrender to the EU?

What does the other DC, the one in Washington think of Brexit. I doubt they’re on your side. Its not advertised but the EU was always a key globalist project, a man named George Ball had a lot to do with the original EEC after WW2.

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I read this blog and I consider myself a sensible person and I consider you Dom to be lucid and forthcoming. But my god… I’m always left thinking “I hope that’s not true”.

Halfway down the page I begin to hope that maybe one of us is a madman. Maybe Dominic Cummings is a fantasist, or maybe I’m just extremely gullible. But I have no evidence of either, only hope.

Anyway…

Are British institutions so strong that we can survive and muddle by even in the absence of strategic vision and competent leadership?

Where is the country even going? Are we really just blowing in the wind? Rudderless, mapless, no oars.

More fundamentally, in a modern democracy can technocrats actually achieve meaningful organisational change? Isn’t there too much inert political capital to carry?

In a startup the founder has special authoritative powers that a subsequent CEO can never replicate. A founder gets to author the lore of the organisation (the origin story), a hired CEO does not have that power and can be resisted and ousted by incumbent staff / boards. Tim Cook could never make a company breaking strategic bet with Apple, in the way that Steve Jobs could and did.

For nation states, you need an extremely dominant and popular leader before you can think about recasting institutions. Someone as big as Putin, Thatcher, de Gaulle, Roosevelt, etc.

Alternatively it has been done with special emergency powers like President Draghi, or GW Bush.

But Boris can’t carry the political capital to get this done. Not even close. And not COVID nor Brexit gave the kind of emergency powers necessary to recast institutions.

That’s why you had so much resistance at every turn, people think Boris won’t last, that they can hang on, sit it out, survive. To modernise Whitehall you need a landslide super majority and a messianic leader or a 9/11 scale emergency (which COVID was not).

Did the window for change ever really open?

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My big concern while we hold out on bot triggering A16 is that east <~~> west trade that doesn't happen becomes north <~~> south, weakening our links. I'd love to see a solution without A16 being triggered but given the length of time it's already taken to negotiate a lot of hot air, I don't have high hopes...

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I found this article intriguing which is why I have decided to subscribe,so thanks for posting it for 'free'. Politically I always voted Labour until Corbyn became leader, voted 'leave' and then Tory in the last two elections. The PM was the hook, he was different to all other politicians. I think for many new voters that was the case, rather than the party and their policies. My concerns are in respect of our 'public sectors' particularly Health and Social Care both of which I have worked in all of my working life as a clinician and in management. I am dismayed that Sajid Javid was appointed Health Minister he is clearly out of his depth. Review and reform is vital, millions are wasted every year, the level of incompetence amongst senior people working in it is frightening. In fact that together with Whitehall, the endless stream of immigrants across the channel, our education system, our political systems leaves me feeling very afraid for the future of the UK. Who will I vote for at the next election? I have no idea.

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Compulsiveness, the need for attention and gratification, the need to run away from problems…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immature_personality_disorder

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