Move on. Nothing to see here.

+This is the beginning of a story from the i (24/11/23). It appeared on the very same day that it was revealed that net migration to the UK had reached a new record—something like three quarters of a million. So Brexit took care of that then! The vast majority of immigrants get here legitimately and I therefore feel it safe to assume that they will be net contributors rather than takers vis-à-vis the UK economic cake. The majority of them will be young so stand some chance of helping to pay our pensions (although to digress, the pension triple lock will cease to exist after the 2024 election, dispatched in a flurry of mealy-mouthed obfuscations). Anyway, I am pleased I can identify with people who have sufficient cognitive skills not least to master ‘fluid reasoning,’ which hopefully speaks of a good taste in wine some of which may even be from the EU.
 
+It would be oxymoronic to suggest that people who get involved in politics generally don’t want to make a difference—towards what they think is better. Yes, there could be a very few who see political careers as purely self-serving (but even here let’s remember the likes of the corrupt architect Poulson’s friend, T. Dan Smith. I don’t have any reason to doubt T. Dan originally thought Poulson’s high rise housing might be the bees knees solution for slum clearance, even if the whole enterprise was lubricated with bribes). But listening this evening to Nick Robinson’s BBC ’Political Thinking’ interview with erstwhile Tory Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace I thought how for some making a political difference is really a rather academic (in this case, over-thought) exercise no matter how much supposed political influence you yield. I’m not thinking of Wallace himself, but am provoked by his remarks about Dominic Cummings, the man who in all probability envisioned but changed bugger all, whilst nevertheless attracting an aura of sophisticated political wisdom which clearly entranced others— albeit for a relatively short period. Did I say changed nothing? Well, if you saw the Brexit film starring Benedict Cumberbatch playing our beloved deep thinker Dom, you might come away believing that the invention of the catchphrase ‘Take Back Control,’ which came to Dom in a moment of unencumbered orgiastic bliss, miraculously convinced one third of the electorate (+1) to translate their innate anti-immigration sentiments into a triumphant economic argument (with hints of self-sustaining Britannic collectivism, like £350 million a week returned to the NHS from the evil maw of Brussels). In retrospect, I am inclined to think ‘bollocks.’ A slogan doesn’t change an opinion, it merely captures it (on this basis the Socialist Workers Party is cram-packed with impotent geniuses).
 
Anyway, anyway Ben Wallace, who sounded perfectly normal couldn't resist sticking his heel into Dom’s overgrown forehead, focussing on his malign cranium a Downing Street locus of bile and shit-mongering. Even for an ex-army officer who had served in Tony Blair’s wars Wallace couldn’t disguise his disgust, which made it clear that metaphorically speaking our Dom was a sort of one person Talibanic cancer at the heart of government. Now, in the Covid Inquiry we are also hearing how some of the rudest, crudest judgements emanated from Dom, and now we know that whilst Dom’s actual achievement record was close to less than zero for some reason he has acquired a residual fame for being at the heart of everything that went on. (All bad, as we now know.) Politically he must be the nearest thing we have today to an animal sacrifice. I wonder, however, if laying into him does anything for the reputations of those who lingered long enough to put up with him?
 
There’s a book in this which might be called ‘The Power Behind The Throne,’ tracing the careers of those who steered Prime Ministers, at least for a while. The only other example I can think of offhand at the moment is Harold Wilson’s Marcia Falkender. Many people might think Blair/Campbell but I’m not so sure about that one. All PMs will have had their advisors primus inter pares and whilst some may have successfully avoided much exposure, in the light of the Bad Dom experience perhaps they should get more attention. This I think will be particularly true of our next (predicted) PM.