So much to say about the Cummings story. Feels like a turning point - in this crisis, maybe in the life in of this government.

A few observations... [thread, 1/n]

Cummings is the recent master of focused, sound bite, slogan communication. The response to C19 (“stay at home, save the NHS”) is essentially a rehash of 2016 EU ref campaign. [2/n].

This is why his defence on small technical aspects of the rules is laughable. Millions of people have absorbed “stay at home” (and by extension: don’t see you family or friends). [3/n]

It is not a smart move to now explain that one interpretation of a paragraph buried somewhere most people have never heard of meant what Cummings did was fine [4/n].

It is an open question whether Cummings’ argument offers any kind of defence of his actions. One question that I suspect will come to the fore in next few days is role of Durham Police. Did they accept Cumming’s explanation when they visited him? [5/n]

If they didn’t is that because Cummings was wrong or police did not understand guidelines?

This all comes backs to guidelines that were badly written and explained, including to the Police (as we have seen on numerous occasions in past few weeks). [6/n] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-police-essential-items-shops-supermarket-stock-lockdown-a9459346.html

So what is a Cummings’ issues becomes a broader question of government competence pretty quickly. [7/n]

There is another problem: Cummings is currently failing at his job. @campbellclaret used to argue that an adviser being the story was a major problem. Cummings is probably the most prominent adviser in government since New Lab era. [8/n]

But now his situation is actively undermining government policy goals.

Look for example at the shit show of comments under this tweet. [9/n] https://twitter.com/govuk/status/1264179319695388673

If you are going to ask public to do difficult things you need moral legitimacy to do it. At this moment Cummings presence (and now perhaps more importantly ministers defending him) undermine that. [10/n]

One other final political observation: the cabinet has looked truly pathetic bunch of lightweights.

Put differently, it is remarkable that for a figure as controversial and divisive Cummings, no one has taken the opportunity to wield the knife. [11/n]

At the very least it is bizarre that no cabinet minister seems to disagree with @10DowningStreet’s analysis, and thinks cutting Cummings lose at this point is in the best interests of the government.[12/n]