Dominic Cummings’ meme-generating media outrage strategy is working
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Version 0 of 1. After another week of parliamentary shenanigans, the weekend’s papers were once again full of ruminations about the show’s main actor, the prime minister. It is with increasing exasperation that I follow this self-satisfied reporting about one or other transgression, public embarrassment or high-jinks riposte on the part of Boris Johnson. Yet, at the same time, reading them makes me feel better, as my anger is vented by proxy: what a rebuttal, what ridiculing of populism, what acerbic, humorous deconstruction – see Marina Hyde’s latest column (Johnson heads into the twilight zone – with a police escort, 7 September))! And thus the media and I fall into a trap that has been set for us and that recent history should have taught us to recognise: the logic of the entire Brexit saga is that of a reality show in which the trick is to garner popularity by counterfeiting anything that once was a fact. Think of parliament as celebrities in the jungle, with the difference that a part of the house and the media still think they are footage in a news broadcast. Jacob Rees-Mogg reclining on the frontbench? Mr Johnson bungling it wilfully to the backdrop of police cadets? Make no mistake: this is meme-generating behaviour for a vast section of the population who have long given up on what once was politics but enjoy the frisson of public embarrassment and transgression and a show of demagogic anger that offers a catalyst for their own very justified frustrations. Every reporting of Mr Johnson’s studied ineptitude inflates populism with the oxygen of publicity and creates the narrative that services that misled anger. We will have to do better than to do the bidding to Dominic Cummings’ media strategy. Ursula BöserEdinburgh • Those who think Boris Johnson’s and Dominic Cummings’ outrageous behaviour mean the end of them have learned nothing from Trump. Like him, Johnson is rewriting the rules, and remaking the right. The latest poll has the (New) Tories’ lead over Labour increasing to a staggering 10%. His strategy is working. Against this, a weak, divided opposition, led by a man who simply has no idea what leadership involves, and whose endless triangulations on Brexit hold no appeal for a weary public – making them easy prey for Johnson’s promise that he can end it all at a blow – stands no chance in the election. The centre-left are about to win a battle, then massively lose the war. Julian Le VayOxford • Boris Johnson’s use of “girly swot” as an insult (Report, 7 September) reveals: (a) his contempt for women, (b) his contempt for academic study and for those who do their homework, and (c) that he has not yet left the school playground. And what does it also tell us about the values learned from an Eton education?Mary SmithBearsted, Kent • Johnson was clearly imagining “any fule would kno” he was channelling Nigel Molesworth. Though now he looks more like Just William after he dismantled the clock and didn’t know how to put it together again.Patrick WallaceLondon • Can we be sure Dominic Cummings is not a super-skilled deep-cover operative funded by, for instance, Momentum, and inserted into the heart of Boris Johnson’s regime to destroy the Conservative party from within? That explanation currently looks a lot more plausible than the increasingly discredited theory that he’s a genius electoral svengali.Sarah WalkerNorwich Dominic Cummings Boris Johnson Jacob Rees-Mogg Conservatives Brexit European Union Foreign policy letters Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Reuse this content |