My university pal Dominic Cummings should never have been in a position of power

Cummings was tossing his imaginary hand grenades left, right and centre at the select committee, like a Quentin Tarantino character out for revenge

This week, I had the surreal experience of watching my former boss, Jeremy Hunt, grill my old Oxford University friend, Dominic Cummings, about the handling of the Covid-19 crisis that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

It should have been a nightmare, but sadly for the UK, this select committee meeting was all too real. Knowing them as I do, I’m still bemused that either of these mediocre middle-aged white men have made it into positions of power. But after watching, I couldn’t help thinking it was a shame that Hunt hadn’t remained health secretary instead of Matt Hancock. From the sounds of things, Dom agrees.

Hunt came across as the grown-up elder statesman we desperately needed in the pandemic and he refused to let Cummings off the hook. Yes, Dom admitted under pressure, it was “crazy” he’d been in charge. There were mistakes, and he was “frightened” and pushed the panic button too late.

It was some mea culpa, and to give Dom some credit, at least he’s done what so many others in power have failed to do: give a sincere apology to the families who’ve lost loved ones.

In fact, the occasion revealed Dom is not the monster many have made him out to be, but nor is he the evil genius.

No, as my friends and I knew all along, he’s a flawed individual massively unsuited to the task that was put before him. When he made a reference to Independence Day, it took me back to the first day he sauntered into Downing Street, when our Exeter college WhatsApp group, Dom Watch, lit up with messages. It was all a bit Dr Strangelove for us.

Well, that was kind of Dom’s point at the select committee. No 10 was in the grip of indecision, paranoia and procrastination all along.

A year after his disastrous and mood-defining Downing Street Rose Garden press conference following a trip up north with a carful of people suffering from coronavirus, Dom finally conceded openness would have been a better policy.

But it’s all too little, too late for those who are still grieving loved ones and rueing missed chances of earlier lockdowns.

Dom – always a movie buff – loves a cultural reference, and, if Boris Johnson sees himself as the Amity Island mayor in Jaws, there’s no doubt Dom views himself as Roy Scheider’s character, Martin Brody, desperately trying to make people see sense before disaster strikes.

But actually, I think it’s darker than that. It’s worse than Jaws, because Dom knows he created the monster himself. He is part of the reason Johnson is in charge, having laid the foundations for the prime minister’s election campaign. He’s Dr Frankenstein, and I got the feeling watching him that this knowledge is going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

It’s for this reason that Dom was tossing his imaginary hand grenades left, right and centre at the select committee, like a Quentin Tarantino character out for revenge.

Deep down he feels responsible, and it was tragic to watch him try to explain why he didn’t resign even when he knew he should. “I thought I could appoint the right people” was his simplistic explanation for trying to hold onto power.

It sounds like I feel sorry for him. I do, a bit. I knew from the start that his appointment would be a disaster, and now the whole country can see why. Dom’s an expert in pontificating and pondering from afar, or upsetting the established status quo, but not much cop at actually doing things. He can blame a dysfunctional system he’d already derided, but in the end he had to work with that system to help solve the problem of the pandemic, and he couldn’t do it.

But let’s not let sympathy spiral out of control, as much as we’d relish Dom bringing this bunch of hopeless and shameless charlatans down along with himself.

As we avid Dom Watchers know – and don’t forget, we’ve been tracking his bizarre career for 25 years now – you can never write Dom off. One politician – Rishi Sunak – came off particularly lightly. It could be that Dom, eyeing up his comeback, has already switched his affections to No 11 instead.

Revenge of the Nerds, anyone?