Dominic cummings

Michael Gove has this afternoon replied to Labour's questions about Dominic Cumming's access to the Education department since finishing as a special adviser. Coffee House has got hold of the letter first. Labour became oddly fixated on whether or not Cummings was still visiting the department, rather than on his stinging criticisms of David Cameron and the Number 10 operation as 'bumbling' and a stumbling block for reform. So Gove's reply to Kevin Brennan's letter demanding more details is quite easy. He says he doesn't know how often Cummings has visited the department. And that's that, save for a gratuitous and teasing reference to the long-term economic plan... Here's the letter in full: Thank you for your letter of 17 June about my former special adviser, Dominic Cummings.

It's a row that won't go away, after Mr S revealed yesterday that the PM had labelled Dominic Cummings a 'career psychopath', Michael Gove's former special adviser has hit back, blogging: "At the PolEx party (18/6), Cameron said that I am a ‘career psychopath’. A) No10′s first reaction was to decide not to react to my interview, then one of his friends pleaded with me to ‘leave him alone because Miliband would be even worse’ and another threatened me (incompetently). The fact that Cameron then blurts out an insult reviving the story four days later is an example of my point about the lack of focus in No10. If they can’t decide a consistent line on me, what chance on ISIS?!

There must be an election in the offing because the PM was out and about last night looking for a manifesto. He addressed Policy Exchange’s (PX) annual summer bash in Westminster College Gardens. It was a gag a minute. He cracked rotten jokes about pig semen, and claimed that he was one of the founders of PX — adding that he only sat around eating pizza while the brainboxes came up with ideas which he then stole. How the people stared. He thanked Policy Exchange for providing his government with most of its backroom brains and spinners.

It doesn't really matter whether Dominic Cummings' Times interview was unhelpful to Michael Gove. Labour has just been about as helpful to the Education Secretary as it possibly could be without announcing that it supports everything he does, right down to the detail of the history curriculum. Education questions this afternoon was the perfect opportunity to exploit the gift of an interview in which Gove's trusted former adviser attacked David Cameron and the Number 10 operation. But the attack never really came. Kevin Brennan asked about Cummings' line that he signed into government departments and Number 10 as 'Osama bin Laden'. Gove's reply was, as predicted, ornate and beautifully defensive.

I am beginning to think that Dominic Cummings has driven Nick Clegg round the bend. The Lib Dem leader should want this row over universal free school meals to go away; it is a massive distraction with elections only six days away. But he can't help himself from keeping it going. So, today we have a joint Gove Laws op-ed in The Times declaring that they are not at loggerheads over the policy. This is accompanied by a news story which reveals that Clegg demanded that Gove write the piece. The piece also reveals, rather unhelpfully, that some schools are not on track to deliver the policy in time for September. Not content with this, Clegg has been busy stoking the row in his morning interviews. He doesn't seem to realise that he has a lot to lose while Cummings has nothing to lose.

For those who missed Dominic Cummings, recently departed Michael Gove adviser, on BBC Radio 4's World At One, here's the extraordinary transcript which confirms what Coffee Housers will have feared. He didn't give an interview, but responded to the BBC's questions (below) about Nick Clegg's plan to give free school meals to all school pupils - even the offspring of millionaires. And to me, this sums up why coalitions are a bad idea. The junior partner gets desperate for a jazzy-sounding idea to call their own, so ambush their senior partner. An announcement is made, for reasons of spin and nothing else. No policy work is done. The expectations of millions of parents are raised, schools without kitchens are plunged into chaos, and unaffordable promises made.