A polity coming apart at the seams…

In a way, compared to the proroguing of Westminster this is small potatoes – and yet… and yet… the story that Dominic Cummings had a hand in the sacking of Sajid Javid’s media adviser – a sacking that Javid was not involved in and which saw the unfortunate ‘was escorted from No 10 by an armed police officer after a meeting with Johnson’s top strategist, Dominic Cummings, in which she was accused of being dishonest about her contact with the former chancellor Philip Hammond and one of his ex-advisers, who have been trying to block a no-deal Brexit’ is more than passing strange.

And it’s not entirely unprecedented in the new dispensation, but add in a strange gender aspect and it becomes even more curious:

Khan is the second adviser working for Javid to be sacked by No 10. She is also the fourth young woman in a month to be axed from the prime minister’s network of advisers and senior staffers.

On Friday evening a furious Cummings was reported to have told special advisers that he was “pissed off” about “bullshit briefings” on pay and gender balance.

Some of the (self-perceived) great and the good in the Irish media have been tut-tutting about analyses suggesting that the British polity is in deep trouble but looking at stuff like this what other rational conclusion could one arrive at? For Javid is – of course – Chancellor.