Johnson and Cummings are up to their old tricks: sleight of hand and scapegoating | Martin Kettle

Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill is the latest fall guy in the pair’s ruthless coronavirus blame game

Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage

There are many reasons, some of them good and more of them bad, why Sir Mark Sedwill is quitting as Britain’s senior civil servant. Together they tell us a lot of important things about Boris Johnson’s government. Perhaps Sedwill himself will cast more light on his own exit at a Commons committee hearing next week. But the strange thing is that what looks to me like the principal reason for his departure has barely been mentioned at all, even though it is standing there in plain sight.

Related: Mark Sedwill v Dominic Cummings is a Whitehall call to arms | Jane Dudman

Related: Sedwill's exit seen as just the start of Whitehall revolution

Continue reading...