An open letter to Maria Miller.

I have often thought that Special Advisers are the physical embodiment of the inner-self of the Minister who is their master/mistress. Some are knowledgeable, hard-working, realistic and rarely seen in public. Others are bombastic, arrogant, unorthodox, ego-centric and out of touch with reality. Small wonder, then, that Mr Cummings gets on so well with the Prime Minister.

Good Ministers – ie. those on top of their briefs - do not need Special Advisers. SpAds are invaluable to Ministers who are unsure of their policies and lack confidence in driving policies and ideas through cabinet or similar gatherings. Special Advisers were unheard of at Departmental level in the Thatcher era; they sprouted under John Major; took root, blossomed and went to seed under Blair and Brown (you’ll remember “a good day to bury bad news” – 11 September 2001) and have become rampant weeds across the garden of Government since 2010.

The Prime Minister says that Mr Cummings did not act illegally in taking his son to Durham. No doubt that is true in the legalistic sense: but was it right? The rest of the population has suffered enormously under the restrictions that the Government – advised by Mr Cummings – has imposed. People are dying surrounded by strangers; their funerals are pathetic affairs; marriages and family events are banned; people are unable to see their nearest and dearest. Yet Mr Cummings believes that all this is for the great unwashed, not him.

The inability to differentiate right from wrong has been a hallmark of the Prime Minister’s life thus far. From appalling personal morality to supporting the insupportable politically.

I hope that the Conservative arrogancy has the backbone to tell Mr Johnson that enough is enough and that Mr Cummings should depart forthwith. If the Prime Minister is unwilling to do this he should remember that the British public are not to be taken for fools and that they have long memories. Both the Prime Minister and Mr Cummings may then find themselves on the same departure bus – hand in hand, of course.

Dr Ian Harrison, Kestrel Road, Kempshott