There is currently much vitriol about Dominic Cummings. Also jeering about the failure of his strategy and the mess he has gotten Boris into. But he won't see it this way.
I do not at all want what is happening. But I do see method and here's an explanation.
I have read quite a bit of what Cummings has written over the past few years. Which is a lot. And I talked with him, briefly, in 2014.
He is not a member of the Conservative party. Or a supporter of any party as far as I know. I don't believe he even has very strong views about Europe.
He does believe that government is failing. He is acidic about the behaviours of the players - stuck in a box they are unaware of, much less capable of getting out of. He sees no end to the circus. And I find it hard to disagree with him.
He is livid and, because he's an activist, is bent on doing something about it.
Government is a highly resilient organism - self-healing and self-perpetuating - in some respects a Japanese Knotweed.
I think Cummings believes it cannot change from within. And to make a substantive difference there is need for a massive shock from the outside. An asteroid impact.
And this is what he is doing. He is creating a massive shock. Where the point is the shock not some particular outcome. (He and Johnson have different goals.)
There will be disruption; and it will be damaging to some, possibly many. But in the desperate work to pick up the pieces - however they have fallen - perhaps a new, better order will emerge. And maybe he is right.
The question is whether it is a right thing to do.