Deal or no deal? It’s not really up to Dominic Cummings | Martin Kettle

Boris Johnson’s top adviser may be making all the headlines, but he’s not calling the shots on Brexit

Media obsession with powerful advisers is not new. The influence of Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson was the stuff of hysteria in the Tony Blair years. Bernard Ingham and Marcia Williams were accused of having undue power during the eras of Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson. Right back to the original éminence grise in 17th century France, Père Joseph, and probably beyond, the mystique of the all-seeing adviser behind the throne has been a constant theme.

But how well grounded is this in reality? What we do know is that those who work in the shadows are catnip to journalists who know less than they pretend about the workings of government. This is especially true in an embittered political era with a taste for conspiracy theories that seem to offer partisan observers simple explanations of complicated events. Sometimes the credulity can be abject.

Dominic Cummings, the son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher, was born in Durham in 1971. He attended a state primary school followed by the fee-paying Durham school and, in 1994, Oxford University, where he studied ancient and modern history. 

Related: The only way to stop the catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit? Revoke article 50 | Jonathan Lis

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