The Cummings/ @BorisJohnson revolution continues. But when you seek to actively break down the civil service (and media, judiciary) you need to be very clear how and why you are trying to remake it. Because revolution is easy, reform is not. 1/Thread

Thus far, this government and the people behind it have shown themselves very adept at revolution - starting in 2016 with the #brexit vote - and continuing with last year's election victory that ultimately completed what 2016 began. /2

If you want the high-minded version of this, then read @michaelgove speech on Saturday to the annual Ditchley Park lecture...where the revolution is cloaked in noble aspiration. But judgment will be on results. /3

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/896041/Ditchley_lecture.pdf

Gove's diagnosis of what ails us as a society is hard to dispute - indeed it is pretty commonplace - the failure of technocratic government to rising incomes; the dissonance of tech and the 4th industrial revolution; the over-reach of supercilious western liberal democracy/4

The social contract needs re-writing - everyone can see that, and the rise of populism across the western world is testament to it. But if the revolution doesn't deliver results, then it's all just humbug. The people they profess to represent are being taken for a ride./5

And if you foment a low culture war in the name of a higher cause - the £350m on the bus, the attacks on and the civil service 'the blob', the assault on the judiciary and the drip-drip of attacks on the BBC and the very notion of a fact-based conversations - be careful /6

Because as other have pointed out, the project quickly starts to collapse under the weight of its own internal contradictions.

Mr Gove cries out for external expertise, Mr Johnson appoints Mr Frost - clearly a political placeman - as the National Security adviser. /7

Mr Gove calls for more rigorous data evaluation, while - as @anandMenon1 points out - ignoring all the data that the version of #Brexit that the revolution has hitched itself to is not data-based. And will make everyone poorer /8

That's not a partisan point, believe it or not.

"Brexit means Brexit". But Brexit came to mean what the Revolution demanded of it to oust @theresa_may from office. The Revolution has hitched itself to an economic fallacy...building barriers that make no sense. (see chart) /9

Mr Gove calls for radical innovation and embracing the culture of failure...but what's so ironic is how these are arts grads understanding of innovation (Cummings too). Hence the Ventilator Challenge or the homegrown #Coronavirus App - reckless, not brave or smart /10

One of the problems with fomenting the culture war is that it very difficult to take at face-value all these noble intentions - the civil service does need fixing, productivity does need to rise, education needs to spread, wage and wealth distribution needs to shift - but.../11

In the current climate how is any this 'reforming zeal' anything more than simple political advantage-taking?

Because I'm for reform. All is not well in the State of Albion, but without any notion of truth the project will be rotten at its core. A political confidence trick/12

To be clear, the jury is still out.

We'll see if the visceral thrill of revolution gives way to effective reform. Whether the campaigning stops and governing begins.

In the end the results - measurable, as Mr Gove says - must speak for themselves. ENDS