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Dominic Cummings
11 quotes
“[On arriving at the Department for Education in 2011] Documents were stolen from desks and leaked to papers, there were determined efforts to drive us out. It was beyond parody. Dysfunction was not the word, bedlam was the word.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To begin with, it was a disaster every half hour, then every day, by the time I left it was once a fortnight. All the basic things didn't work — every financial model would be wrong, every bit of legal advice, every set of figures. The system had gone toxic. People had to go, a lot of changes had to be made. [...] It would work a lot better if you got rid of even more. There should be between 500 and 1,000 people, but we still have 4,000-5,000.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The poor buggers are caught between structural dysfunction and politicians running around who don't really know what they're doing all day or what the purpose of their being in power is. Everyone thinks there's some moment, like in a James Bond movie, where you open the door and that's where the really good people are, but there is no door.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[On then education secretary Michael Gove] They could see he was willing to take a lot of flak. He wants to do what he can for schools in five years. If that means being carted off in a bodybag at the end, so be it. They now work with him to screw other people in Whitehall. So if [[Nick Clegg|[Nick] Clegg]] comes along with another mad idea, our officials work with Michael to scupper it.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you’ve got Covid and you kill the queen, you’re finished.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cummings to Boris Johnson in March 2020, according to Cummings.
“[On then deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara] I will personally handcuff her and escort her from the building. I don't care how it is done but that woman must be out of our hair. We cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c***”.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: WhatsApp message ([22] August 2020), as cited in "Dominic Cummings attacks Boris Johnson over pandemic response — as it happened", The Times (31 October 2023).
“[On Boris Johnson] Nobody could find a way around the problem of the prime minister, just like a shopping trolley, smashing from one side of the aisle to the other.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking at a House of Commons hearing inquiring into the government's handling of the COVID pandemic, as cited in Heather Stewart and Peter Walker "Dominic Cummings says Boris Johnson 'unfit for job' of PM amid Covid c…
“It is completely crazy that I should have been in such a senior position, in my personal opinion. I am not smart. I have not built great things in the world.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oral evidence to the Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees of the House of Commons (26 May 2021).
“[Referring to school half-term in February 2020] Your fundamental point is obviously correct, that there was indeed a massive crisis. It was indeed pretty insane that so many of the senior people were away on holiday at that time. It's also important to realise that it's not like the civil contingencies secretariat or the national security council, or any of the organisations in charge of this were beating the drum and saying, "We’ve got to get the PM back, this is a massive crisis" — in fact quite the opposite.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments at the UK's COVID Inquiry (31 October 2023), except as indicated, as cited in "Dominic Cummings attacks Boris Johnson over pandemic response — as it happened", The Times (31 October 2023).
“[Cummings lived in Russia from December 1994 until late 1996] Different places and different times in history are the epicentre of mad energy and in 1994 the epicentre of mad energy in the world was Moscow.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by Jordan Tyldesley, as cited in "Cummings: 'Boris and I saved thousands from Covid – but we won’t talk again'", i (9 May 2024)
“Well, I think there is a very profound question about the nature of our political system that means that we got at the last election a choice between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. I think any system that ends up giving a choice between two people like that as the people to lead is obviously a system that has gone extremely, extremely badly wrong. There are so many thousands and thousands of wonderful people in this country who could provide better leadership than either of those two, and there is obviously something terribly wrong with the political parties if that is the best that they can do.”
Dominic Cummings (born 1971) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oral evidence to the Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees of the House of Commons (26 May 2021).