I wondered where he'd been. Disappeared from public sight, but certainly not from pulling the levers behind the scenes. Boris doesn't do decision making. Cummings wants nothing but to make big, huge, life changing decisions. Just read his blogs. So maybe he didn't use those exact words, but I find his brand of evangelism just as frightening as every other kind.
Both Buzzfeed and the Sunday Times have run very similar stories about a lack of leadership and Cummings central role in decision making, over and above many of the scientific voices.
www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/10-days-that-changed-britains-coronavirus-approach?__twitter_impression=true
10 Days That Changed Britain: "Heated" Debate Between Scientists Forced Boris Johnson To Act On Coronavirus
“This is going to get much, much worse, very quickly, both in terms of deaths and the economy,” a cabinet minister told BuzzFeed News. “It will not be long before we are getting numbers like Italy. I don’t think people realise that yet.”
Alex Wickham
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-ten-days-that-shook-britain-and-changed-the-nation-for-ever-spz6sc9vb
Coronavirus: ten days that shook Britain — and changed the nation for ever
How Boris Johnson changed his priorities: save lives first, and then salvage the economy
Tim Shipman and Caroline Wheeler
Wickham and Shipman have very good sources in the current government.
Them both running stories like this does make me think there is real concern over how the crisis is being handled by very senior insiders. I also think that its possible that in realising they've dropped a bollock of epic proportions and they are about to be found out for it, there is a sense of political panic going on as well as one about the health crisis.
There will be a reckoning. Someone has to get the blame.