[This article originally appeared on our Facebook page]
THE Saga of Dominic Cummings could yet prove to be a win-win for Welsh Independence.
On one level, the whole story shows how tribal and emotional politics has become today.
The left shriek for his head on a platter, whilst the right insist that Boris Johnson stands firm whatever.
Of course many people all over the UK are furious with what seems to be a clear flouting of lockdown rules in Cummings’s case.
It seems an open and shut case of one rule for them and another rule for us.
And it further gives the impression of a totally incompetent Tory Government stumbling from one crisis to the next in the corona virus saga. Good for the Welsh Indy case obviously.
But, on a more personal level, it should be remembered that Cummings’s 4-year-old little boy is autistic.
Government guidelines clearly stipulate that children with learning difficulties can be taken to another area for care purposes in exceptional circumstances.
When two parents are sick and panicking about the welfare of a 4yr old at the height of all the apocalyptic warnings about the virus – a 200 mile plus car drive to seek alternative care for the boy by means of a sister, would seem to fall within those ‘exceptional circumstances’ guidelines.
Maybe not so open and shut after all.
There’s also another context to this whole story which is not being reported at all i.e the fact that there is a clear media agenda at work here.
The Remain establishment (BBC, Channel 4, Guardian, Sky) hate Cummings with a vengeance as he is seen as the brains behind the Leave vote in 2016.
They obviously believe that claiming Cummings’s scalp could somehow salvage their Remain dreams. Which goes some way to explain the sheer vitriol on display in the media coverage of this story.
At present, Cummings has Boris Johnson’s support, and it appears that he will keep his position as his chief advisor.
If Cummings survives this media storm, his reformist agenda will surely go into overdrive.
What’s interesting about him is that he is a Northumberland lad at heart, who despises the liberal metropolitan clique who have ruled the roost for so long here.
He’s a disruptor, who has vowed to destroy ‘Whitehall knows best’ mentality – the dead hand of the civil service and centralized bureaucracy – and decentralize powers beyond London and Westminster.
Dominic Cummings is the kind of guy who would say’ Welsh Indy? Mm, yes that sounds disruptive. That sounds like real change. That would be one sure way to destroy Whitehall’s grip on things – go for it guys’!
Taken at face value, this whole story is a further sign of the crumbling authority of Westminster. Which will only galvanise the case for Welsh Independence.
Alternatively, should Cummings manage to survive the media storm, the kind of wholesale changes he wants to introduce to reform centralized government, can also only but help the case for an Indy Wales.
What’s that but a win-win situation?!