Dominic Cummings is replacing the civil service clique with one of his own

The danger of Cummings’ plan is that the neutral civil service could become politicised

“The opposition aren’t really the opposition. They are only the government in exile. The civil service are the opposition in residence.” So spoke Jim Hacker in Yes Minister. But it could just as easily have been Dominic Cummings.

In the most bizarre government recruitment advert ever, Boris Johnson’s most influential adviser has invited “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” to apply to him personally for a job in Downing Street. Sir Humphrey, the all-powerful and very permanent secretary in the BBC comedy, would no doubt regard Cummings as a weirdo and misfit, and describe his ideas as “courageous” – Whitehall mandarin for “mad”. Sir Humphrey would politely strangle Cummings’ attempt to stage a revolution from within by replacing traditional recruitment with hiring and firing at will. “I’ll bin you within weeks if you don’t fit,” Cummings writes. “Don’t complain later because I made it clear now.”

By listing “weirdos and misfits” as one category of applicants, Cummings deliberately grabbed headlines, but also eclipsed his good ideas, such as bringing in outside experts including data scientists, economists, project managers and policy and communications advisers. (Whatever happened to Cummings’ former boss Michael Gove’s declaration that people “have had enough of experts”?).