London ¨C An awkward question hangs over the COVID-19-shuttered world of Downing Street. At his daily morning meeting, Boris Johnson, back to full duties after suffering a serious bout of the virus, recently asked who was in charge of relaxing Britain¡¯s lockdown plan, with all of the risks and uncertainties that entails for a government. ¡°There was just silence,¡± an insider told the Sunday Times newspaper. ¡°He looked over at Mark Sedwill (his top civil servant) and asked, ¡®Is it you?¡¯ The official replied, ¡®No, I think it¡¯s you, prime minister.¡¯¡±
Sedwill was right. The United Kingdom¡¯s leader enjoys some of the strongest centralized powers in Europe ¡ª and yet, paradoxically, the man who fought so hard to gain control of his party and Britain¡¯s destiny is reluctant to take responsibility.
Before the crisis, Johnson ruled as a near-absolute monarch, often through his eccentric but effective adviser (and key Brexit strategist) Dominic Cummings. In a tale familiar to English court politics down the centuries, the arrogant outsider resented by lesser talents has himself become a hindrance to the man he serves. Cummings, one of the architects of Britain¡¯s lockdown, bent the rules by driving his sick wife and child 400 km to his family¡¯s northern home where he may or may not have breached self-isolation to walk in local beauty spots.
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