Cummings and Goings

So, if we are to believe the press, Dominic Scummings left Downing Street after his relationship with the Prime Minister broke down over messages in which Johnson's fiance was referred to as 'Princess Nut Nuts'.  You really can't make this stuff up can you?  Or perhaps you can.  As ever with this sort of thing, the press reports as to what actually happened to precipitate Scummings' departure from government are hugely contradictory according to the outlet in question's attitude toward the special advisor.  If pro-Scummings, or more generally pro right-wing, then it it was all something planned in advance, a smooth transition, with the advisor's job done.  If anti-Scummings, anti-Johnson or more left-wing, then there was a 'blazing row' and the advisor and his cronies ordered to leave and never darken Number Ten's door again.  The spin carries on.  So, what is the truth?  Will we ever know?  Perhaps, in the fullness of time.  I suspect that, under mounting pressure from his own party, Johnson was looking for a pretext under which he could dispense with Scummings' services without losing too much face, or appearing to be caving in to his own back benchers.  Having failed to act decisively over Scummings following the Barnard Castle debacle - which clearly weakened public support for the first lockdown - he really had no choice to do so now, in the face of back bench unease over Scummings' influence. Despite the efforts of this so called 'genius', the government is faring badly in the polls, with the pandemic apparently out of control and Brexit unraveling.

Whatever the real reasons behind Scummings' departure, the end of his pernicious influence can only be a good thing.  If nothing else, without him, Johnson is pretty much devoid of an actual strategy and, once the pandemic is over and Brexit is done, will find himself out on his ear, courtesy of his party, which can then blame him for the mess left behind.  The question then, is who would they replace him with?  To me, it doesn't really matter: I think that they are all bastards.  But I suppose that some are less psychopathic than others.  Still, we might not have to wait for the Tories to ditch Johnson after the glorious news that he is self-isolating after being exposed to coronavirus again.  Yay!  Covid gets a second crack at finishing off the fat bastard!  Come on you virus!  I know, I know - it is very uncharitable of me to be cheering on a virus, but, believe me, I only have the welfare of the nation at heart.  I mean, it isn't just the mismanagement of this epidemic due to Johnson's incompetence which is a problem, but also the accompanying corruption, with the letting of billions of pounds worth of pandemic-related contracts, without competitive tender, to companies owned by friends and relatives of Tory MPs.  If nothing else, I suppose, Johnson can stand as a test case as to whether or not it is possible to catch Covid twice, or whether the first dose gives you long-standing immunity.  You know, November is the month that just keeps on giving: Trump defeated, Scummings gone, not one, but two, effective Covid vaccines almost ready to roll and now Johnson possibly Covid-stricken again.  And we're only half-way through the month!  What other joys can it bring?