Question his credibility and integrity we may, but Dominic Cummings has, at times, crafted a compelling message.
However, that was not the case last week when the man behind the message which propelled Vote Leave in 2016 and the Conservative Party in 2019 to victory, took centre stage.
Ironically, it is the very idea he unearthed from the fringes of political discourse and supplanted in the mainstream that may be the one thing he has lost – control, in this case, over his future.
The notion of control is an emotive one, especially when you feel you do not possess it.
Sir Michael Marmot, a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College in London, carried out research with civil servants in the 1970s in a period of time riven by strikes, power cuts and the three-day week.
The research revealed many things, including the finding that the higher level of control you have in your work, the less likely you are to become depressed or seriously physically ill.
When Mr Cummings led the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, the democratic clarion call was about taking back control.
More recently, the UK Government’s segue from its original message returned again to control, on this occasion, over the virus.
Many are conspiratorial about why Boris Johnson has not dispensed with Cummings but, aside from the rights and wrongs, Mr Cummings has made himself indispensable as the concept of control he constructed is more crucial to the Conservatives than ever.
Unemployment currently stands at 2.1 million but the Resolution Foundation projects a second wave reaching as high as 3.5 million following the winding down of the job retention scheme in October, upon which seven million furloughed workers currently rely.
This spike would return us to the unemployment levels in the 1980s and, the foundation believes, could cost £175 billion in lost taxes and higher benefit spending over the next five years.
I applaud the furlough scheme but with job vacancies at a record low it can only delay the inevitable, which the Bank of England chief economist called a forthcoming “scourge of unemployment”.
Having also funded the furlough scheme by borrowing, which was higher in one month than projected for the whole of 2020-21, it is like handing our children a stick of economic dynamite for the next century.
Think of Tony Blair, who only paid the final debt on borrowing from the Second World War in 2006.
An invisible enemy cannot be controlled but what does lie within our collective grasp is the extent to which we restring the safety net and resurface the road to recovery.
Achieving that requires every one of us to flex our muscles, not for revolution but with the intent to rebuild.
Politics is too important to leave to politicians when the salvation of our country is at stake.
It’s why we – collectively – need to take back control.
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