Never Land

+Dominic Cummings. What a laugh. I feel sorry for anybody who felt compelled to listen to seven hours of this man’s testimony before parliamentary select committees yesterday. What substance he had to say could have been condensed to half an hour, leading off with the self-exculpatory comment that he clearly wasn’t qualified to be in government, along with his erstwhile pupil/master Boris Johnson. In fact, I think that’s the only worthwhile thing he said, so that wouldn’t have even taken half an hour. His fate now is (I hope) to sink into quiet obscurity, unlike an earlier incarnation Rasputin, who after defying poison and bullets was eventually sunk in the Malaya Nevka river in St Petersburg. Ras Putin. Not related.
 
+However, it has to be said listening to Health Secretary Matt Hancock tonight rebutting  Cummings’ tales, he couldn’t answer a straight question with a straight answer. Game 1-0 to Cummings. I’ve drawn up a list of things politicians must never do:
 
10 ‘Don’ts’ for a modern politician
 
Never admit to failings whilst in power
Never properly apologise for anything until you want to rehabilitate yourself for posterity
Never admit there are incontestable truths if they are inconvenient
Never admit that you will always put ‘your own’ first
Never reveal a personal failing
Never waste an opportunity to exaggerate successes
Never concede good ideas which may not have originated from you
Never acknowledge or even pretend that there’s such a thing as hubris
Never acknowledge that the other side might be right (occasionally) 
Always keep you options open – never say never