As a brit, I thought this man was knob, I was glad to see the back of him. But now, actually given the opportunity to hear his views in full, without others saying, what he thinks, its crazy how differently he comes across. if I became prime minister tomorrow, he would be my chief advisor. Btw Iv never listen to this interviewer, and am thoroughly impressed. Subscribed!
Well clearly you're an idiot. He was the one who introduced the lockdowns and then he ran off the county Durham where people were saying goodbye to their loved ones over the phone while dying alone in the hospital. Hes a liar.
I agree with your initial impression and conclusion (interesting how the old media did that, and the new media undid it). You may have to expain _knob_ to non-British readers, but then again, probably not, and don't even try :)
Having spent many years working in Whitehall what Dominic says is an extremely accurate explanation. The whole system is structured to self protect itself. The politicians are extremely weak and have a very poor understanding of their departments. They are quite simply not up for their jobs. The whole system is designed for self protection. Anyone inspired to improve things are moved on - Dominic is a good example of that.
As a Scott and someone who worked with The Scottish Government, I have watched his (Dominic’s) testimony to the joint select committee a total of 12times. It gave me a great insight to the shambles that is the UK Government (and in my experience Scottish Government). I am 100% with what he is saying. If he is ever in Scotland, he would be most welcome at my home. Regards. Joe. PS Dom for PM, seriously!,
Too fucking right. Didn't know anything about Dominic except for media headlines, but everything he says in this interview is incredibly sound. Independent interviewers like Dwarfish Patel who just ask neutral questions are incredibly healthy for our society.
He's a fair way along the spectrum, but his insights are both frightening and invaluable. He's been too quickly written off by the UK press and media talking heads. They hate him because he has no qualms about showing us behind the curtain.
@@kitcat4512 Written off because of his role in Brexit, for being the pantomime Covid villain with his trip to Durham, but most critically for highlighting the ludicrous relationship our politicians have with the media (his own wife being a deputy editor of the Spectator does slightly jar with this criticism).
When you say "written off", you mean initially lauded, heriled as a Rasputin - like genius running everything? He subsequently fell out of favour only after a series of poor decisions, inability to manage, and being politically sidelined. He's clearly a bright guy with interesting insights. However, some of these insights are problems you have with ANY large organisation - they're not especially unique... "imagine if a CEO had to spend time doing xyz". No way? You mean that unelected employees have different pressures to elected political representatives? Strike me down with a spoon. The tl;Dr to most of his points is "I don't like any check and balances, and it'll be fine because I'm an infallible genius". (Remember this guy was also on board with the initial and later debunked herd immunity strategy). Self-eventually he's not as politically astute as he thought he was.
"@stanhope44 "He's a fair way along the spectrum, but" Many autistic people are astute and articulate. And note that the spectrum is not a continuum. The new autism symbol, which replaces its 'jigsaw pieces' predecessor, is a spectrum in the shape of an infinity symbol, representing neurodiversity. But I agree with your assessment.
What a thoroughly interesting insight into the internal workings of the UK government. Seems the UK lost a highly skilled person who was trying to push the country in the right direction when they removed Dominic. My take away from this interview is how is the UK even still functioning with so much incompetence going on in every level?!
I’m at a loss as to why this isn’t being broadcast on mainstream media? At the very least GB News or Talk TV should pick up on this interview. The last 40 years have been a disaster for the West, none more so than that Liberal fake Conservative Johnson, who blew an 80 seat majority and the chance to level up and drive this country forward.
thats what i was thinking he seems straight as fcuk this guy dominic i like him more than any of the parasites currently runninthe clown show .what an insight into this bunch of fools we have in charge no wonder nothing goes right for any of us what chance do we seriously have
I haven't listened to the podcast yet (just downloaded for listening in the car on my way home today), and don't work in government, but due to the amount of bureaucracy involved in the operation of the British government and civil service it in some ways reflects those private sector companies that have been operating for many decades and which can do 'normal' operations in a very stable, reliable ways by following their thousands of established procedures but which are painfully slow to respond to new challenges. In this instance, covid was not business-as-usual and the UK government was unable to respond in a timely manner. I'd expect this was made considerably worse by having the idiot Johnson in charge, but also that the UK was never going to have a good outcome due to the system itself.
The media absolutely hate him because he doesn't give them the respect they want. He knows the relationship between the UK government and UK media is toxic for the country, and is not afraid to say so. Similar to Tommy Robinson, the media hate him because they fear he can undermine their control. Hence, they are demonised.
The appointment of Cummings and his "weirdos and misfits with skills" blog post gave me more optimism, and actual genuine excitement, in our government's direction than anything else possibly in my living memory. Gutted to see a rare original thinker witch-hunted out like this. I wouldn't blame Dom at all for giving up and FOing back to the private sector, but I pray he gives it another go given the right opportunity.
Your government was designed for Victorian times. Now it going interesting because your generation will have say in reforming it. But for the next crisis.
The part I am unsure about with DC is to what extent the ineffectiveness he describes in the Civil Service is down to inability, and to what extent it is down to unwillingness. The Civil Service is almost entirely left-lib-progressive. I suspect it is 80% just systematically incapable, and 20% culturally unwilling.
This should be mandatory viewing for anyone. Love him or hate him, he has efficiency, and getting Sh*t done, at his core. UK PLC is not fit for purpose. Time to drain the swamp.
I'm a Labour member and voter. The only time I've ever genuinely thought 'holy shit, my party might be dead' was in 2019 when Boris won on the policy platform Cummings here lays out. I honestly think if they'd actually leaned into it and actually committed to it (and if Boris could have... well, just not been who he is), my party would be more or less dead right now. I've therefore always taken Cummings very seriously. And I keep being proven right to have done so.
This is spot on. I think so many pundits and strategists misses the point about 2019 and the unprecedented (and subsequently reversed) collapse of the Red Wall. Yes, Brexit was a factor, yes, Corbyn was a factor, but that policy platform - essentially move left on economics and right on "culture" - is a huge vote winner outside the m25 and university city bubble. It should be Labour's home turf but I suspect they have fixed their rudder in the opposite direction
This is a fantastic interview. Focused yet roaming from topic to topic. The Brits never learned to appreciate what a gem they had in Cummings. Hopefully some day there will be a re-evaluation of Cummings' public perception to see how he truly is a radical reformer with big ideas to make the country better. Thanks for having him on.
There is a Dominic fan club out there ( myself included ) - recognising him as a disrupter that’s badly needed. The election of that Argentine president has only confirmed even more that Dominic was right.
It's not the people who don't like him, it's the UK media who hate him, because he dares to point out how toxic they are and how damaging to the country their power over UK politicians. Anybody in the country who fails to do their own research just laps up the vomit spewed by the mainstream media. Like Tommy Robinson, he is demonised.
Great interview and really smart questions. We in Britain need to listen closely to Cummings - pull back the curtain and it is a smouldering wreck which simply cannot be allowed to persist much longer.
This is an absolute masterpiece. The interview set up and questions are amazing and the level of deepness and knowledge Dominic has is just on another level. Thanks for that!
The thing I find interesting is for all of his endless sneering when people call him a fascist, whenever he actually speaks at length it's fairly obvious that he thinks fascism or a form of government not a million miles away from that is just fine (just maybe without the uniforms and harder edges), as long as it has some meritocratic cadre of incredibly effective and efficient people running things, with some imagined responsive system to external pressures. That is great if your life is fairly comfortable (as his is) it's not actually that useful if your not doing so great or you're in an 'out group'. It reminds me a bit when the Soviets in their final days went for a type of data utopianism where they would collect endless reams of statistics to then be fed into an executive making body, with a view that this would turn the tanker around. It's the kind of thing a 13/14 year old would think is a great way of running things. This is not to say that the current paradigm is brilliant just now, it's just an observation that the form of governance system he espouses hasn't exactly worked brilliantly in the past. I also find the endless reference to Singapore as something to aspire to tedious, how many other states are able to have 40 percent of their workforce be comprised of a load of migrant labourers working on the cheap? Or is the idea that this would be internally derived from those who 'are looking for handouts'
In other words British politicians view is "system is broken but too much like hard work to get it sorted" I didn't know they were there for photo ops etc. What a damning indictment of British politics. Cummings should be snapped up by a political party, his insights are revealing!
Haha, no political party wants to snap him up because none of them want to fix the country, and the few that do are removed. Politicians are like his 90s era Russians, just there to trouser as much cash and influence as possible.
Brilliant interview and quite frightening. I think most people know intuitively that that civil service and the media are the conductor of many modern societies, their perverse incentives and the ability to publicly castigate any progressive heterodox thinkers. It reminds me of the "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" scene from the Wizard of Oz" Great interview Dwarkesh Thanks 👏👏👏👏
I always said Dominic Cummings shouldn't have been sacked because he wanted to clear out the civil serpents 🐍, and to me he has proved how right he was
Cummings as an Irish man I find this hard to say but ur honesty..is refreshing..this is the best geo- political interview in quite some time..I think the whole political system is in the same boat...thank you..should be essential watching for everyone
Really enjoyed this interview. I’m a bit surprised and disappointed that he didn’t mention Klaus Swab’s role in uk politics. I’ve now got respect for somebody whose role I didn’t understand before. The media did him an injustice and we lost a good man from the crazy, disjointed political world.
When Dom was in No.10 I actually really wanted to join the civil service. Now he's gone it feels totally pointless. The level of dysfunction and outright disregard for actual government policy is quite unbelievable.
Disregard for government policy? Within days of Boris Johnson winning the election in 2019, Cummings was plotting to remove him. That's a disregard for democracy itself!
The civil service has evolved to prevent the whole country getting whiplash every time we have general election, and for that we are grateful. Their special skill is in ensuring that babies don't get thrown out every time a new government empties the bath water.
After a couple of masterses in forms of psychology, i spent five years writing other people's MBA dissertations for money. I have done around fifty pieces of original research. I am also therapy trained, so i am a half decent listener. What i hear is a man who understands the importance of HRM, diversity, and economic history to name but those that spring to mind readily. I was very impressed.
Very impressed by Dwarkesh's knowledge of and questions about British politics. Very unusual for an American, how did you come to know this? Is this level of transatlantic awareness common in your circles?
Fascinating interview, How he spills the beans with the Official Secrets Act hanging over him is beyond me. Maybe Number 10 is as chaotic as he claims and nobody would have a clue how to implement it. Or maybe they're all just too busy playing TV stars.
Never understood the hate for Dominic. He was a breath of fresh air when it came to governance architecture and really understood the country. Tragic really.
It's quite simple: first he was one of Johnson's enablers and then he thought he was Johnson's proxy and then he went to County Durham for an eye test.
I’m not sure I like him but I do think he would have sorted Civil Service and is more honest than the politicians , think he was made a scapegoat , piñata and diversion. I have to say on balance I wish him well
He's unpopular because of the Barnard Castle incident. Most were unaware of him before that. The initial incident showed him up as the same entitled elite as the rest of them. His follow up interview showed that he thought the public was as thick as mince - no one likes being mugged off. Thinking that excuses an 8yo could see through would fly shows his utter contempt for the public.
He's also unpopular as he supported Johnson and helped get him into No 10, only to try and oust him a few days later as, and I paraphrase, he was so obviously unfit to govern. An awful man.
He's unpopular with some for Brexit, something he says he now has doubts on, also for enabling Boris who as he says doesn't care about anyone. You can think Cumming's insights are incredibly valuable and think he doesn't have the answers. You can see this towards the end of the interview where he struggles on how to build a system that doesn't become again what he's against.
Ignore Dominic Cummings at your peril. It’s not that he’s got all the right answers. It’s that he’s one of the few non private-sector figures who understands *how to get to* the right answers. Broken systems will only ever produce correct answers accidentally
😂 "hes got all the right answers" - like supporting Brexit - the greatest own goal a democratic nation state has scored outside of starting a war (and losing it)
Utter nonsense he was an attack dog for a shadow group of top tories the British public don’t want. Literally a day after winning the biggest election result in 70 years, he(by his own words) tried to get the PM. An absolute rat.
To this point, he stated quite cleverly after Brexit was done, in his interview with Emily Maitliss, that "no one can ever know whether Brexit was the right decision or not" (because it's a complex multi faceted issue) And yet in the very same interview he said it's "obvious or a no brainer that we had to lock down". If you aren't convinced of the contradiction in those two statements by comparing them, bear in mind that to date he hasn't assessed the efficiacy of lockdowns and restrictions nor spoke of them, and he clearly had 'no brain' up until March 13 2020 because he was undecided at best. It all speaks to mrbillythefisherman's comment too actually as regards not actually bothering to look for the right answers at times because he makes undisciplined assumptions. It just looks like he's good in the way you say he is, but he isn't. We must be hard on ourselves, we have to look at the results of the lockdown and mask and jab experiment mercilessly before we even start to go into the realms of critical thinking. We gave power to people who are not only flawed but remarkably flawed, and arguably more powerful than ever (due to either what we'd call panic early and an abandonment and suppression of scientific scrutiny later, or simply the use of the 1984 Public Health Act).
@@MrBillythefishermanIn the sense that he can't get to the right answers because he makes assumptions you're right, and to the point made in the post, he stated quite cleverly after Brexit was done, in his interview with Emily Maitliss, that "no one can ever know whether Brexit was the right decision or not" (because a complex multi faceted issue) And yet in the very same interview he said it's "obvious or a no brainer that we had to lock down". If you aren't convinced of the contradiction in those two statements by comparing them, bear in mind he hasn't assessed the efficiacy of lockdowns restrictions nor spoke of them, and he clearly had 'no brain' up until March 13 2020 because he was undecided at best. It all speaks to your comment, and I say ignore the 'read slowly' retort We must be hard on ourselves, we have to look at the results of the lockdown and mask and jab experiment mercilessly before we even start to go into the realms of critical thinking. We gave power to people who are not only flawed but remarkably flawed, and arguably more powerful than ever (due to either what we'd call panic early and an abandonment of scientific scrutiny later, or simply the use of the 1984 public health act).
I did not vote for Dominic Cummings! Or Dougie Smith/Dr No! Why do elected M.P's have to have Special Advisors telling them what to do? It is outrageous we have a unelected Prime Minister , and Foreign Secretary; and special advisors!
Possibly the best podcast ive ever heard on how things actually work. poor old Dominic learnt everything he needs to know about the PRC from his experiences in Russia but fails to recognise China is a much more pronounced Mafia state. All his hard won lessons apply there too and as such we must contain them - they won't stop in Taiwan, 10/10 Dwarkish - all signal no noise!
He's one clever cookie. Obviously too clever for his own good. Hired by bumbling Boris for his talent, he eventually began to threaten Boris with that talent. He had to go. Can't have a straight talking very clever person in No. 10
He's seems to be a good historian and very good at describing the state we are in but frightening lacking in solutions. Like most of us, a problem can be blindindly obvious, solutions are much much harder to find, even with the threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads. Humans are addicted to anger, power and conflict and that attitude only gets moderated during the aftermath of horrific wars ,when periods of empathy for others starts to emerge. It's a bit like two boxers who have tried to knock each other out for twelve rounds, failed, shake hands and become best friends.The idea of two people trying knock each other out is crazy but it still goes on. I don't know what round the world is in right now.
I heard one podcast of Cummings talking about combating the civil service and its non action. After that one podcast I was a fan and remain one! The only reason he is not a prime minister is because he is his own man!
He gives the solution. A small team of elites must come forward with the aim to tackle the problems of the country rather that concentrate on what they look like on TV. A small number of figureheads with integrity, skill and eloquence will attract talent and grow. They must somehow navigate the party system, then overthrow the existing civil service priority of job protection while, largely, ignoring the whinging and screaming of the UK media who will not be at all happy about their control over the government being dissolved. If they show integrity, with modern social media and the web, they could get the support of the UK public who are crying out for grown up leadership with integrity.
Not all humans are like this. It is unfortunate that there is a definite correlation between higher-ups in business/politics/etc. and their leanings towards sociopathy and psychopathy
I had a very different view of DC than I now have. We should all be grateful for his frank openness . which is clearly not a concern of the UK government. Do we have a functioning Gov. I don't think so
Please share this episode if you found it interesting! Helps out a ton! And remember that you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dominic-cummings-covid-brexit-fixing-western-governance/id1516093381?i=1000634919285 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6HHku14yskmTwQR0IcYXOw?si=MQcsWkwDTRauk5yp7ZtLZg Transcript: www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/dominic-cummings
Does it matter ? This 3rd enquiry is telling people what they already know. What everyone wants to know, is why Johnson is not behind bars in stead of getting a 10 million pound media deal with the mail, being paid £2600 a week for life this is an insult this sheer waste of taxpayers money has acumplished
“Oh wad som’ pow’r, the giftie gie us, Tae see oorsel’s as ithers see us!” Dominic describes a sclerotic version of the “Thick of it” meets “Yes Minister”; nobody in the country irrespective of their political leaning can possibly argue for such a system, yet here we are. It is illustrative how someone so obviously able and intelligent could not reshape such an awful Gordian knot, let alone cut through it.
What might the credibility be in suggesting on the one hand NATO members will come to the defence of a fellow member coming under attack, but a) if the Russians indeed did blow up Nordstream 2, (as we are encouraged to believe by some quarters) why did they not come to Germany’s (and by extension, the EU’s) defence, and/or b) if it was perpetrated by a fellow NATO member (as seems far more plausible), is NATO therefore an impotent poodle of the aggressor in our midst? If the latter, why are member states deluding themselves that it is in their interests to see Ukraine join, but thereby only further jeopardising peace and business relations with Russia, whose energy and mineral reserves are the ‘more or less’ obvious prize that ‘the aggressor’ is concerned with controlling and exploiting in a post-Putin fantasy outcome?
When the MSM hound someone out of office you know they are talking sense....I've always been intrigued with DC ....he's absolutely hit the spot as always. Boris fell apart when DC stepped out.
Brilliant interview. Made me see Dominic Cummings in a new light... Perhaps he could be the one to start a new political party. I believe both Labour and the Tories are a long time past their sell by date and need replacing. Dwarkesh is one of the best interviewers around. 33.8k subscribers is way too low.
My first response to hearing about the terribleness within the public sector is "well, there are no market incentives, so no amount of reform can really change the system, so the only way is to make the government smaller". But then I remember that many of the most effective countries have very strong governments with huge social programs, and the US and UK are actually among the most hands off. No private entity could've prevented COVID or the Great Recession, etc. So is there no solution? Is the only hope to randomly get stuck with a benevolent dictator like Singapore? Are we just stuck with this until AGI kills us all?
personal best guess is that major governmental reform will take too long to be relevant for AI policy, so whatever happens will be dealt with using more or less the current setup
You could always try investing in a civil service instead of undermining it 😂. This fetishisation of private enterprise being efficient is so odd. I've worked in the public sector, large international financial institutions, US heath care, and startups. All have their issues. Out of all of them the disjointed and fractured nature of US healthcare struck me as the most absurd of any sector I've worked.
@@3charactersforkhandle I never said that private enterprise is always efficient. Corporations are made of people so are subject to same issues of decay and mismanagement as governments, but the important point is that companies that don't make money *dies*. So the companies that still exists must be reasonably good at generating profit. Where as the public sector has no incentive to be good at anything. Governments are basically monopolies. Especially modern governments, which if we allowed to fail catastrophically will bring down the world with it, or at least cause massive amounts of suffering. And it takes so long for a bad government to die that natural selection just doesn't happen. Expecting that if we simply give these entities more tax money, good infrastructure will magically appear and our problems will be solved, is incredibly naive. And regarding why US healthcare is such a shitshow, I think it's basically because 1) our bodily wellbeing is basically priceless, and 2) there's a perpetual shortage of doctors, medication, medical equipment, etc. because of how inherently difficult it is to care for the human body. And from these 2 basic facts we end up with a system where there's a ton of regulations mixed with oligopolies who can sustain infinite amounts of inefficiencies because they can basically charge whatever prices they wanted. As medical technology exists right now, capitalism just doesn't work.
@@benjaminmadden7926 Generating profit is not an "incentive" for people, it is a selective pressure on companies. Most employees do not care if shareholders make money beyond the extent it benefits themselves. People can have all sorts of personal incentives for doing things, obviously. If you think there's some way to just make the all the jobs "meaningful" and "fulfilling" then there would be no need for a free market, you are delusional, and I feel bad for the people who supports the comfy little bubble you must live in to come to this conclusion. If bad work isn't systematically eliminated, bad work proliferates. Just like how if there's no police, there will be crime, no matter how educated and wealthy the populace, it's as simple as that.
the problem with covid was that according to A Spanish study quoted by Professor Dalgleish in his first talk on Dr John Campbell's youtube, it was the lack of vitamin D in the black people who died mostly because their skin was cutting off the sun's vitamin D that caused their deaths , not the virus itself. So if Whitty had had any sense, he shoould have realised that there was a problem with vitamin D which is necessary to build the immune system.
Vitamin D was given to elderly people and immune compromised people in the UK during COVID but the doses were absolutely terrible, doses should be 5000 IUs a day as a robust strong dose but doses were 40IUs or something like that, may as well not take it.
@@zeramokeMy mother is elderly and didn't receive any vitamin D from the NHS. It certainly wasn't routine and was rarely talked about in the mainstream.
For a tech bro it’s surprising he didn’t mention that Taiwan makes the worlds most advance silicon chips, which is why the US are so keen on looking after Taiwan
The British Government is predicated on having a prime minister who is a hard-working, decisive leader. Every minute of this lengthy whine is caused by the fact that Dominic Cummings agreed to work for a prime minister who was lazy, indecisive and dishonest. The whole set-up couldn't function because Cummings thought he could be the proxy prime minister while the real prime minister was too drunk or lazy or ill to do the job. The career civil servants wouldn't take orders from Cummings because he was a poltical 'advisor' and political advisors don't run the government. Democracy is messy, but it's predicated on the fact that you have to be elected if you want to run the government. The British government imploded because Johnson was a lazy liar who wanted the title but not the workload of a prime minister. Cummings is a fool: no-one in their right mind would choose Johnson as a boss.
No fan of Johnson here, and these are only my impressions from an outsiders viewpoint, but I think that if Covid had not happened Cummins may have made some progress in reforming how The State works.
@@UncleMort No, he wouldn't. Because that's a job for a competent leader and he isn't that. He has said himself that someone like him should never have got anywhere near the levers of power. He's like Trump: just wants to blow everything up and reacts like a petulant child when he's thwarted by the grown-ups.
kudos to Dwarkesh for getting such different viewpoints on his show. Basically, the solution to most problems in life is to listen to smart people opinionate on how they see issues and deal with them. You can draw a parallel to almost anything a mere mortal like me faces on a day to day basis. The only thing i cant apply to my life is postponing all my decisions till AGI is a reality ..coz then nothing will really matter 🤣
The most interesting interview I've watched in years. It's so frustrating listening to everything Cummings was trying to do when in government and how it was seemingly all for nout.
Now we are fools of the world people . I hope the man and woman in number 10 see this and the papers and wondered if they should be there shame on them.
Herr Cummings ist ein sehr kluger Kopf. Warum überzeugt er nicht auch durch ein Lebenszeugnis? Ich glaube, er hat Covid-Strategien aufgestellt und er hat sich dann selbst nicht daran gehalten. Warum nicht?
Oh if only Dominic formed a new political party. Just what the country is crying out for. Someone with a spine who is unafraid of the media and elites. Bring it on Dominic! 👏🙏
Just read a preview chapter of 'the kill chain' referred to in the interview, what an eye opener. When you thought things were bad, then THIS. Have to download the rest now.
A much more balanced approach would have been to acknowledge the mistakes he made. Non of us are perfect. He is undoubtedly a force to be listened to. He made mistakes, and admitting your mistakes and acknowledging the impact of your mistakes, is a quality that few possess.
The meat starts at 1:52:00. Very intelligent and dangerous man. First he builds story of someone who wants to do something but bad bureaucracy does not allow him. But if you listen carefuly - there are some nice pieces to pick. First looks like he wanted to created Brexit chaos to break political duo-poly and introduce 3rd force but it did not progress as quickly as he hoped. Based on his opinion my bet would be on Reform UK - replacing Conservatives by right-wing populists, building Orban-style oligarchy pretending to be meritocracy. He is praising Bismark (Machiavellic manipulator, kulturkampf, persecutions of Poles) while blaming democracy for NKVD and Gestapo... well... roots of both are in Okhrana and Geheimpolizei were in Bismarck's times. He tells how he focuses on the voter, promising one thing and doing another but still blaming democracy populists who do exactly the same... Scary... He is also clear isolationist - he seems to be glad to give Taiwan to China and Ukraine to Russia. He stresses 1914 but forgets that Chamberlain tried the other approach and the outcome was 60M dead in WWII instead of 17M in WWI.
Cummings mantra can be summed up by saying - democracy is hard and time consuming, where as autocracy and breaking things is much easier. For example - he talks about dismantling the MOD but does not describe the master plan for creating an improved version. Except to say it should be recreated from scratch and automatically it will be a better version. Brexit was the same - they wanted to take the UK out of the EU, where we had the best deal of any member, but there was no delivery upon any tangible benefits from being outside the EU. Ideas are easy - delivery is hard. What a shame we had to leave the EU, bankrupt the country, ruin our world reputation, bring Parliament into disrepute and divide the nation to find this out.
I don't pretend any kind of expertise on the Taiwan thing. But I notice that within around a minute, starting at around 1:59:07 , Cummings twice describes Taiwan as "filled with Chinese". My problem is that, from the very little google searching I have done, I remain unconvinced that Taiwan is filled with people who would agree with his assertion, or would agree that they themselves individually are Chinese. Is Taiwan filled with people who self-identify as Chinese? Is that island filled with people who believe that Taiwan is filled with Chinese? How much do the answers to these questions matter?
They speak and write Chinese and are for the most part 95% descendant from Chinese. For cultural and political purposes, if you ask them on the street are you Chinese? They will answer "no Taiwanese". But if mainland China was a bit more charming and a bit richer, they would certainly identify as Chinese.
@@ulyks As I said, I don't claim regional expertise at all. But based on information I do have, I am highly sceptical of your claim to speak for these people. Your "a bit more charming and a bit richer" is so vague as to make the assertion of your final sentence irrefutable on grounds of virtual meaninglessness. Your starting supposed argument, from spoken and written language, fails in so many other instances around the world that I am surprised you are not embarrassed to write it down.
Yeah, I was vague, let me be more concrete. If China had become democratic in 1989 for example and had a gdp per capita that was higher than Taiwan. I´'m sure that Taiwanese would identify as Chinese. After all, the name of the country is officially the "Republic of China".
As a brit, I thought this man was knob, I was glad to see the back of him. But now, actually given the opportunity to hear his views in full, without others saying, what he thinks, its crazy how differently he comes across. if I became prime minister tomorrow, he would be my chief advisor.
Btw Iv never listen to this interviewer, and am thoroughly impressed. Subscribed!
Same. Very impressed with this interviewer
Stop getting your information from "mainstream media/ legacy media." You'll never have to experience something similar again.
Well clearly you're an idiot. He was the one who introduced the lockdowns and then he ran off the county Durham where people were saying goodbye to their loved ones over the phone while dying alone in the hospital. Hes a liar.
I agree with your initial impression and conclusion
(interesting how the old media did that, and the new media undid it).
You may have to expain _knob_ to non-British readers, but then again, probably not, and don't even try :)
As the ambassador for Tonga-Zwonga, I'm deeply offended.
😂
Would a photo op calm you?
Having spent many years working in Whitehall what Dominic says is an extremely accurate explanation. The whole system is structured to self protect itself. The politicians are extremely weak and have a very poor understanding of their departments. They are quite simply not up for their jobs.
The whole system is designed for self protection. Anyone inspired to improve things are moved on - Dominic is a good example of that.
Because, ironically, for someone who talks about 'communications' every two minutes, he comes across appallingly.
@@nicholassimpson518 It doesn't mean he's not right.
Or maybe people could focus on substance over style?@@nicholassimpson518
who cares how he "comes across"? It's about substance not presentation, this is precisely part of the reason we're in the state we are in
@@jinglyjones1677 Because to get people to listen to you, you need to be at least vaguely likeable and coherent.
As a Scott and someone who worked with The Scottish Government, I have watched his (Dominic’s) testimony to the joint select committee a total of 12times. It gave me a great insight to the shambles that is the UK Government (and in my experience Scottish Government). I am 100% with what he is saying. If he is ever in Scotland, he would be most welcome at my home. Regards. Joe. PS Dom for PM, seriously!,
Scot*
He could drive up to Scotland if he needs to test his eyesight 😅
Just goes to show if the Media tells you to hate someone for irrational things. You should always have a closer listen to what they are really about.
Too fucking right. Didn't know anything about Dominic except for media headlines, but everything he says in this interview is incredibly sound.
Independent interviewers like Dwarfish Patel who just ask neutral questions are incredibly healthy for our society.
He's a fair way along the spectrum, but his insights are both frightening and invaluable. He's been too quickly written off by the UK press and media talking heads. They hate him because he has no qualms about showing us behind the curtain.
Written off for not being a WEF global leader?
@@kitcat4512 Written off because of his role in Brexit, for being the pantomime Covid villain with his trip to Durham, but most critically for highlighting the ludicrous relationship our politicians have with the media (his own wife being a deputy editor of the Spectator does slightly jar with this criticism).
When you say "written off", you mean initially lauded, heriled as a Rasputin - like genius running everything? He subsequently fell out of favour only after a series of poor decisions, inability to manage, and being politically sidelined.
He's clearly a bright guy with interesting insights. However, some of these insights are problems you have with ANY large organisation - they're not especially unique... "imagine if a CEO had to spend time doing xyz". No way? You mean that unelected employees have different pressures to elected political representatives? Strike me down with a spoon.
The tl;Dr to most of his points is "I don't like any check and balances, and it'll be fine because I'm an infallible genius". (Remember this guy was also on board with the initial and later debunked herd immunity strategy).
Self-eventually he's not as politically astute as he thought he was.
"@stanhope44
"He's a fair way along the spectrum, but"
Many autistic people are astute and articulate.
And note that the spectrum is not a continuum. The new autism symbol, which replaces its 'jigsaw pieces' predecessor, is a spectrum in the shape of an infinity symbol, representing neurodiversity.
But I agree with your assessment.
@@3charactersforkhandle‘doesn’t like any checks and balances’ is unfettered nonsense. Try listening to the bit where he quotes General Groves again
What a thoroughly interesting insight into the internal workings of the UK government. Seems the UK lost a highly skilled person who was trying to push the country in the right direction when they removed Dominic. My take away from this interview is how is the UK even still functioning with so much incompetence going on in every level?!
Same as the white house he said
I’m at a loss as to why this isn’t being broadcast on mainstream media? At the very least GB News or Talk TV should pick up on this interview. The last 40 years have been a disaster for the West, none more so than that Liberal fake Conservative Johnson, who blew an 80 seat majority and the chance to level up and drive this country forward.
thats what i was thinking he seems straight as fcuk this guy dominic i like him more than any of the parasites currently runninthe clown show .what an insight into this bunch of fools we have in charge no wonder nothing goes right for any of us what chance do we seriously have
I haven't listened to the podcast yet (just downloaded for listening in the car on my way home today), and don't work in government, but due to the amount of bureaucracy involved in the operation of the British government and civil service it in some ways reflects those private sector companies that have been operating for many decades and which can do 'normal' operations in a very stable, reliable ways by following their thousands of established procedures but which are painfully slow to respond to new challenges. In this instance, covid was not business-as-usual and the UK government was unable to respond in a timely manner. I'd expect this was made considerably worse by having the idiot Johnson in charge, but also that the UK was never going to have a good outcome due to the system itself.
Love you D.C .
Completely changed my view on Dominic Cummings. Fantastic interview as always
@XvonPocalypseExactly. All we saw of him during his time in No.10 was via the mainstream media
They should all be in jail for putting us thru that in 2020 plus those 'vaccines'. It was a plandemic.
@@mvashton hope things go well for other celebrities suing the mail Prince Harry etc
Read “The Plot” and your opinion will change again.
The media absolutely hate him because he doesn't give them the respect they want. He knows the relationship between the UK government and UK media is toxic for the country, and is not afraid to say so. Similar to Tommy Robinson, the media hate him because they fear he can undermine their control. Hence, they are demonised.
The appointment of Cummings and his "weirdos and misfits with skills" blog post gave me more optimism, and actual genuine excitement, in our government's direction than anything else possibly in my living memory.
Gutted to see a rare original thinker witch-hunted out like this. I wouldn't blame Dom at all for giving up and FOing back to the private sector, but I pray he gives it another go given the right opportunity.
No thanks, keep him well away.
@@destro1989care to elaborate on why?
Your government was designed for Victorian times. Now it going interesting because your generation will have say in reforming it. But for the next crisis.
@@destro1989⬅️ Civil Service
The part I am unsure about with DC is to what extent the ineffectiveness he describes in the Civil Service is down to inability, and to what extent it is down to unwillingness. The Civil Service is almost entirely left-lib-progressive.
I suspect it is 80% just systematically incapable, and 20% culturally unwilling.
This should be mandatory viewing for anyone. Love him or hate him, he has efficiency, and getting Sh*t done, at his core. UK PLC is not fit for purpose. Time to drain the swamp.
So many people vote for someone they like 🙄 I keep saying it's nothing to do with it, what are his / her policies ?
People just don't get it.
I'm a Labour member and voter. The only time I've ever genuinely thought 'holy shit, my party might be dead' was in 2019 when Boris won on the policy platform Cummings here lays out. I honestly think if they'd actually leaned into it and actually committed to it (and if Boris could have... well, just not been who he is), my party would be more or less dead right now. I've therefore always taken Cummings very seriously. And I keep being proven right to have done so.
This is spot on. I think so many pundits and strategists misses the point about 2019 and the unprecedented (and subsequently reversed) collapse of the Red Wall. Yes, Brexit was a factor, yes, Corbyn was a factor, but that policy platform - essentially move left on economics and right on "culture" - is a huge vote winner outside the m25 and university city bubble. It should be Labour's home turf but I suspect they have fixed their rudder in the opposite direction
This is a fantastic interview. Focused yet roaming from topic to topic. The Brits never learned to appreciate what a gem they had in Cummings. Hopefully some day there will be a re-evaluation of Cummings' public perception to see how he truly is a radical reformer with big ideas to make the country better. Thanks for having him on.
I like him
He played a big part in the Covid scandal, though. He's got a lot to answer for too.
There is a Dominic fan club out there ( myself included ) - recognising him as a disrupter that’s badly needed.
The election of that Argentine president has only confirmed even more that Dominic was right.
😂😂
It's not the people who don't like him, it's the UK media who hate him, because he dares to point out how toxic they are and how damaging to the country their power over UK politicians. Anybody in the country who fails to do their own research just laps up the vomit spewed by the mainstream media. Like Tommy Robinson, he is demonised.
Great interview and really smart questions. We in Britain need to listen closely to Cummings - pull back the curtain and it is a smouldering wreck which simply cannot be allowed to persist much longer.
It will collapse very soon from self inflicted sabotage. If that doesn’t get islamification will.
This is an absolute masterpiece. The interview set up and questions are amazing and the level of deepness and knowledge Dominic has is just on another level. Thanks for that!
it really is
The thing I find interesting is for all of his endless sneering when people call him a fascist, whenever he actually speaks at length it's fairly obvious that he thinks fascism or a form of government not a million miles away from that is just fine (just maybe without the uniforms and harder edges), as long as it has some meritocratic cadre of incredibly effective and efficient people running things, with some imagined responsive system to external pressures. That is great if your life is fairly comfortable (as his is) it's not actually that useful if your not doing so great or you're in an 'out group'. It reminds me a bit when the Soviets in their final days went for a type of data utopianism where they would collect endless reams of statistics to then be fed into an executive making body, with a view that this would turn the tanker around. It's the kind of thing a 13/14 year old would think is a great way of running things. This is not to say that the current paradigm is brilliant just now, it's just an observation that the form of governance system he espouses hasn't exactly worked brilliantly in the past.
I also find the endless reference to Singapore as something to aspire to tedious, how many other states are able to have 40 percent of their workforce be comprised of a load of migrant labourers working on the cheap? Or is the idea that this would be internally derived from those who 'are looking for handouts'
Fascinating. Basically the bureaucracy of the United Kingdom is stuck in the past. It is inflexible, inefficient and ancient.
Only a neo-communist system headed by the WHO can save us from all the terrible things we are told are happening to us.
That's the nature of all bureaucracies. They always multiply
It's how the UK has existed for many years
And is self protecting, why do you think they got rid of Liz Truss, she knows and had seen the deep state in action and felt its wrath !
In other words British politicians view is "system is broken but too much like hard work to get it sorted" I didn't know they were there for photo ops etc. What a damning indictment of British politics. Cummings should be snapped up by a political party, his insights are revealing!
Haha, no political party wants to snap him up because none of them want to fix the country, and the few that do are removed. Politicians are like his 90s era Russians, just there to trouser as much cash and influence as possible.
His best hope is the next crop of Conservatives have somebody who likes him.
Yes Prime Minister TV series revealed the same issues in the 1980's...
All MPs and Government officials should be compelled to watch this lecture given by Dominic Cummings.
Brilliant interview and quite frightening. I think most people know intuitively that that civil service and the media are the conductor of many modern societies, their perverse incentives and the ability to publicly castigate any progressive heterodox thinkers. It reminds me of the "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" scene from the Wizard of Oz" Great interview Dwarkesh Thanks 👏👏👏👏
You nailed it.
Really awesome interview full of great insight. One of my favorite interviews so far.
Tbf following the media you would think this man was a nutter he's actually very intelligent
He is far from being a nutter.
Can be both
Far too intelligent for a inept media… Who love to demean the truth…
@@Land-of-reasonhe worked for the nutters.😡
I always said Dominic Cummings shouldn't have been sacked because he wanted to clear out the civil serpents 🐍, and to me he has proved how right he was
You simply need to look at the state of the country, both locally and nationally to see that politics in this country is not fit for purpose
Cummings as an Irish man I find this hard to say but ur honesty..is refreshing..this is the best geo- political interview in quite some time..I think the whole political system is in the same boat...thank you..should be essential watching for everyone
Why would his honesty not be refreshing? Thought irish people liked to be plain speaking
A very intelligent interviewer. Rare that we see someone so humble and educated on US media.
Really enjoyed this interview. I’m a bit surprised and disappointed that he didn’t mention Klaus Swab’s role in uk politics. I’ve now got respect for somebody whose role I didn’t understand before. The media did him an injustice and we lost a good man from the crazy, disjointed political world.
100%
Spot on....
When Dom was in No.10 I actually really wanted to join the civil service. Now he's gone it feels totally pointless. The level of dysfunction and outright disregard for actual government policy is quite unbelievable.
Disregard for government policy? Within days of Boris Johnson winning the election in 2019, Cummings was plotting to remove him. That's a disregard for democracy itself!
The civil service has evolved to prevent the whole country getting whiplash every time we have general election, and for that we are grateful. Their special skill is in ensuring that babies don't get thrown out every time a new government empties the bath water.
@@kathydent2116the civil service has not evolved, it has grown. It is more like a cancer than a useful lifeform.
I’ve been waiting for the day I could sit down and see an interview with Cummings like this one, bravo for hosting this
Anecdotally, I worked for the government throughout covid and agree 100 percent with Dominic on his low opinion of these subjects
I hate this new technique of cutting and editing out any pauses etc…
Great interview, but I found it very annoying too
After a couple of masterses in forms of psychology, i spent five years writing other people's MBA dissertations for money. I have done around fifty pieces of original research. I am also therapy trained, so i am a half decent listener.
What i hear is a man who understands the importance of HRM, diversity, and economic history to name but those that spring to mind readily.
I was very impressed.
A fascinating interview! A great start to understanding how, when levers get pulled in government, it turns out they're not attached to anything.
Very impressed by Dwarkesh's knowledge of and questions about British politics. Very unusual for an American, how did you come to know this? Is this level of transatlantic awareness common in your circles?
He’s not clever, you’re uninformed.
Washington is constipated by its corruption.
Fascinating interview, How he spills the beans with the Official Secrets Act hanging over him is beyond me.
Maybe Number 10 is as chaotic as he claims and nobody would have a clue how to implement it.
Or maybe they're all just too busy playing TV stars.
Never understood the hate for Dominic. He was a breath of fresh air when it came to governance architecture and really understood the country. Tragic really.
It's quite simple: first he was one of Johnson's enablers and then he thought he was Johnson's proxy and then he went to County Durham for an eye test.
@@kathydent2116 So what if he went to Durham for an eye test? That was not an interesting or important event that was enhanced to damage Cummings.
@@kathydent2116he missed out on the cake .
I’m not sure I like him but I do think he would have sorted Civil Service and is more honest than the politicians , think he was made a scapegoat , piñata and diversion. I have to say on balance I wish him well
I think this was your best episode yet.
Thank you both. This was probably one of the most informative genuine enlightening conversations i have ever sat through. GOOD LUCK TO YOU BOTH, NJOY.
Good interview but theres a lot of mini cuts which takes away some of the flow
Thank you Sir for letting the UK know how London works shame on them.
Damn, this is one of the best conversations so far! Very fascinating stuff
Fantastic interview, we lost a very highly intelligent man in Dominic , our loss people
Totally planned from 2019, 1000s dying everyday from the clot shots why not mention that😂
Incorrect
Thanks for this interview. He is unpopular in the UK because he tells the truth we all know but the blob has turned on him en masse!
He's unpopular because of the Barnard Castle incident. Most were unaware of him before that. The initial incident showed him up as the same entitled elite as the rest of them.
His follow up interview showed that he thought the public was as thick as mince - no one likes being mugged off. Thinking that excuses an 8yo could see through would fly shows his utter contempt for the public.
He's also unpopular as he supported Johnson and helped get him into No 10, only to try and oust him a few days later as, and I paraphrase, he was so obviously unfit to govern. An awful man.
He is not unpopular.
He's unpopular with some for Brexit, something he says he now has doubts on, also for enabling Boris who as he says doesn't care about anyone. You can think Cumming's insights are incredibly valuable and think he doesn't have the answers. You can see this towards the end of the interview where he struggles on how to build a system that doesn't become again what he's against.
Ignore Dominic Cummings at your peril. It’s not that he’s got all the right answers. It’s that he’s one of the few non private-sector figures who understands *how to get to* the right answers. Broken systems will only ever produce correct answers accidentally
😂 "hes got all the right answers" - like supporting Brexit - the greatest own goal a democratic nation state has scored outside of starting a war (and losing it)
@@MrBillythefishermanread what I said again, slower
Utter nonsense he was an attack dog for a shadow group of top tories the British public don’t want. Literally a day after winning the biggest election result in 70 years, he(by his own words) tried to get the PM. An absolute rat.
To this point, he stated quite cleverly after Brexit was done, in his interview with Emily Maitliss, that "no one can ever know whether Brexit was the right decision or not" (because it's a complex multi faceted issue) And yet in the very same interview he said it's "obvious or a no brainer that we had to lock down". If you aren't convinced of the contradiction in those two statements by comparing them, bear in mind that to date he hasn't assessed the efficiacy of lockdowns and restrictions nor spoke of them, and he clearly had 'no brain' up until March 13 2020 because he was undecided at best. It all speaks to mrbillythefisherman's comment too actually as regards not actually bothering to look for the right answers at times because he makes undisciplined assumptions. It just looks like he's good in the way you say he is, but he isn't.
We must be hard on ourselves, we have to look at the results of the lockdown and mask and jab experiment mercilessly before we even start to go into the realms of critical thinking. We gave power to people who are not only flawed but remarkably flawed, and arguably more powerful than ever (due to either what we'd call panic early and an abandonment and suppression of scientific scrutiny later, or simply the use of the 1984 Public Health Act).
@@MrBillythefishermanIn the sense that he can't get to the right answers because he makes assumptions you're right, and to the point made in the post, he stated quite cleverly after Brexit was done, in his interview with Emily Maitliss, that "no one can ever know whether Brexit was the right decision or not" (because a complex multi faceted issue) And yet in the very same interview he said it's "obvious or a no brainer that we had to lock down". If you aren't convinced of the contradiction in those two statements by comparing them, bear in mind he hasn't assessed the efficiacy of lockdowns restrictions nor spoke of them, and he clearly had 'no brain' up until March 13 2020 because he was undecided at best. It all speaks to your comment, and I say ignore the 'read slowly' retort
We must be hard on ourselves, we have to look at the results of the lockdown and mask and jab experiment mercilessly before we even start to go into the realms of critical thinking. We gave power to people who are not only flawed but remarkably flawed, and arguably more powerful than ever (due to either what we'd call panic early and an abandonment of scientific scrutiny later, or simply the use of the 1984 public health act).
Dominic is insightful as ever
I did not vote for Dominic Cummings!
Or Dougie Smith/Dr No! Why do elected M.P's have to have Special Advisors telling them what to do?
It is outrageous we have a unelected Prime Minister , and Foreign Secretary;
and special advisors!
Because MP''s are literally the last and worst people you want running a country.
Do you know what the word 'advice' means?
Bet they wouldnt put this on TV. I'm waiting for the hit pieces now on Cummings.
Possibly the best podcast ive ever heard on how things actually work. poor old Dominic learnt everything he needs to know about the PRC from his experiences in Russia but fails to recognise China is a much more pronounced Mafia state. All his hard won lessons apply there too and as such we must contain them - they won't stop in Taiwan, 10/10 Dwarkish - all signal no noise!
He's one clever cookie. Obviously too clever for his own good. Hired by bumbling Boris for his talent, he eventually began to threaten Boris with that talent. He had to go. Can't have a straight talking very clever person in No. 10
Correct, he cuts out the BS
This man's talks and lectures were there to be listened to before he was in the public spotlight.
Then of course they went after him.
Intelligent and capable person....
He's seems to be a good historian and very good at describing the state we are in but frightening lacking in solutions. Like most of us, a problem can be blindindly obvious, solutions are much much harder to find, even with the threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads. Humans are addicted to anger, power and conflict and that attitude only gets moderated during the aftermath of horrific wars ,when periods of empathy for others starts to emerge. It's a bit like two boxers who have tried to knock each other out for twelve rounds, failed, shake hands and become best friends.The idea of two people trying knock each other out is crazy but it still goes on. I don't know what round the world is in right now.
I heard one podcast of Cummings talking about combating the civil service and its non action. After that one podcast I was a fan and remain one! The only reason he is not a prime minister is because he is his own man!
He gives the solution. A small team of elites must come forward with the aim to tackle the problems of the country rather that concentrate on what they look like on TV. A small number of figureheads with integrity, skill and eloquence will attract talent and grow. They must somehow navigate the party system, then overthrow the existing civil service priority of job protection while, largely, ignoring the whinging and screaming of the UK media who will not be at all happy about their control over the government being dissolved. If they show integrity, with modern social media and the web, they could get the support of the UK public who are crying out for grown up leadership with integrity.
Not all humans are like this. It is unfortunate that there is a definite correlation between higher-ups in business/politics/etc. and their leanings towards sociopathy and psychopathy
I had a very different view of DC than I now have. We should all be grateful for his frank openness . which is clearly not a concern of the UK government. Do we have a functioning Gov. I don't think so
Sewage in waters , literal and symbolic show of how shameful is downfall of U.K.
Not surprising. Nice to have thoughts confirmed from years ago why nothing happens for the benefit of the UK people.
Please share this episode if you found it interesting! Helps out a ton!
And remember that you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc:
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dominic-cummings-covid-brexit-fixing-western-governance/id1516093381?i=1000634919285
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6HHku14yskmTwQR0IcYXOw?si=MQcsWkwDTRauk5yp7ZtLZg
Transcript: www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/dominic-cummings
Does it matter ? This 3rd enquiry is telling people what they already know. What everyone wants to know, is why Johnson is not behind bars in stead of getting a 10 million pound media deal with the mail, being paid £2600 a week for life this is an insult this sheer waste of taxpayers money has acumplished
You can hardly spell or form sentences and you think you can judge people obviously smarter than you 😂😂
“Oh wad som’ pow’r, the giftie gie us,
Tae see oorsel’s as ithers see us!”
Dominic describes a sclerotic version of the “Thick of it” meets “Yes Minister”; nobody in the country irrespective of their political leaning can possibly argue for such a system, yet here we are. It is illustrative how someone so obviously able and intelligent could not reshape such an awful Gordian knot, let alone cut through it.
What might the credibility be in suggesting on the one hand NATO members will come to the defence of a fellow member coming under attack, but a) if the Russians indeed did blow up Nordstream 2, (as we are encouraged to believe by some quarters) why did they not come to Germany’s (and by extension, the EU’s) defence, and/or b) if it was perpetrated by a fellow NATO member (as seems far more plausible), is NATO therefore an impotent poodle of the aggressor in our midst? If the latter, why are member states deluding themselves that it is in their interests to see Ukraine join, but thereby only further jeopardising peace and business relations with Russia, whose energy and mineral reserves are the ‘more or less’ obvious prize that ‘the aggressor’ is concerned with controlling and exploiting in a post-Putin fantasy outcome?
When the MSM hound someone out of office you know they are talking sense....I've always been intrigued with DC ....he's absolutely hit the spot as always. Boris fell apart when DC stepped out.
Brilliant interview. Made me see Dominic Cummings in a new light... Perhaps he could be the one to start a new political party. I believe both Labour and the Tories are a long time past their sell by date and need replacing. Dwarkesh is one of the best interviewers around. 33.8k subscribers is way too low.
This is bloody fascinating !
My first response to hearing about the terribleness within the public sector is "well, there are no market incentives, so no amount of reform can really change the system, so the only way is to make the government smaller". But then I remember that many of the most effective countries have very strong governments with huge social programs, and the US and UK are actually among the most hands off. No private entity could've prevented COVID or the Great Recession, etc. So is there no solution? Is the only hope to randomly get stuck with a benevolent dictator like Singapore? Are we just stuck with this until AGI kills us all?
personal best guess is that major governmental reform will take too long to be relevant for AI policy, so whatever happens will be dealt with using more or less the current setup
You could always try investing in a civil service instead of undermining it 😂. This fetishisation of private enterprise being efficient is so odd. I've worked in the public sector, large international financial institutions, US heath care, and startups. All have their issues. Out of all of them the disjointed and fractured nature of US healthcare struck me as the most absurd of any sector I've worked.
@@3charactersforkhandle I never said that private enterprise is always efficient. Corporations are made of people so are subject to same issues of decay and mismanagement as governments, but the important point is that companies that don't make money *dies*. So the companies that still exists must be reasonably good at generating profit. Where as the public sector has no incentive to be good at anything.
Governments are basically monopolies. Especially modern governments, which if we allowed to fail catastrophically will bring down the world with it, or at least cause massive amounts of suffering. And it takes so long for a bad government to die that natural selection just doesn't happen.
Expecting that if we simply give these entities more tax money, good infrastructure will magically appear and our problems will be solved, is incredibly naive.
And regarding why US healthcare is such a shitshow, I think it's basically because 1) our bodily wellbeing is basically priceless, and 2) there's a perpetual shortage of doctors, medication, medical equipment, etc. because of how inherently difficult it is to care for the human body. And from these 2 basic facts we end up with a system where there's a ton of regulations mixed with oligopolies who can sustain infinite amounts of inefficiencies because they can basically charge whatever prices they wanted. As medical technology exists right now, capitalism just doesn't work.
@@d0tz_ How sad that you think generating profit is the only possible incentive for people to do good work.
@@benjaminmadden7926 Generating profit is not an "incentive" for people, it is a selective pressure on companies. Most employees do not care if shareholders make money beyond the extent it benefits themselves.
People can have all sorts of personal incentives for doing things, obviously. If you think there's some way to just make the all the jobs "meaningful" and "fulfilling" then there would be no need for a free market, you are delusional, and I feel bad for the people who supports the comfy little bubble you must live in to come to this conclusion.
If bad work isn't systematically eliminated, bad work proliferates. Just like how if there's no police, there will be crime, no matter how educated and wealthy the populace, it's as simple as that.
Can listen to dominic for hours...so thanks
This has to be one of the most monumental interviews of all time.
It's almost like Curtis had a point saying run govs like corps.
the problem with covid was that according to A Spanish study quoted by Professor Dalgleish in his first talk on Dr John Campbell's youtube, it was the lack of vitamin D in the black people who died mostly because their skin was cutting off the sun's vitamin D that caused their deaths , not the virus itself. So if Whitty had had any sense, he shoould have realised that there was a problem with vitamin D which is necessary to build the immune system.
Vitamin D was given to elderly people and immune compromised people in the UK during COVID but the doses were absolutely terrible, doses should be 5000 IUs a day as a robust strong dose but doses were 40IUs or something like that, may as well not take it.
@@zeramokeMy mother is elderly and didn't receive any vitamin D from the NHS. It certainly wasn't routine and was rarely talked about in the mainstream.
@@flumpaustin1994 really? My nan got a vit d script, we are in West Devon area
I had the family on 8000 iu a day @@zeramoke
For a tech bro it’s surprising he didn’t mention that Taiwan makes the worlds most advance silicon chips, which is why the US are so keen on looking after Taiwan
"looking after" just like Ukraine
This guy single handedly red pilled Britain
Dominic Cummings is a great loss to political establishments, please join REFORM 😊
Crikey you think Farage isn’t the establishment lol , he smokes the establishment using lackeys like you
The British Government is predicated on having a prime minister who is a hard-working, decisive leader. Every minute of this lengthy whine is caused by the fact that Dominic Cummings agreed to work for a prime minister who was lazy, indecisive and dishonest. The whole set-up couldn't function because Cummings thought he could be the proxy prime minister while the real prime minister was too drunk or lazy or ill to do the job. The career civil servants wouldn't take orders from Cummings because he was a poltical 'advisor' and political advisors don't run the government. Democracy is messy, but it's predicated on the fact that you have to be elected if you want to run the government. The British government imploded because Johnson was a lazy liar who wanted the title but not the workload of a prime minister. Cummings is a fool: no-one in their right mind would choose Johnson as a boss.
No fan of Johnson here, and these are only my impressions from an outsiders viewpoint, but I think that if Covid had not happened Cummins may have made some progress in reforming how The State works.
@@UncleMort He never stood a chance because he was up against Johnson's gf who really wanted to run things
@@UncleMort No, he wouldn't. Because that's a job for a competent leader and he isn't that. He has said himself that someone like him should never have got anywhere near the levers of power. He's like Trump: just wants to blow everything up and reacts like a petulant child when he's thwarted by the grown-ups.
@@kathydent2116 Interesting, name 5 things Trump "blew up" that should not have been blown up.
Absolutely fascinating. What a scoop
Fascinating, yes, but this man has caused chaos, unelected and damaged the UK for generations, and made us look like a banana republic. Shame,
kudos to Dwarkesh for getting such different viewpoints on his show. Basically, the solution to most problems in life is to listen to smart people opinionate on how they see issues and deal with them. You can draw a parallel to almost anything a mere mortal like me faces on a day to day basis. The only thing i cant apply to my life is postponing all my decisions till AGI is a reality ..coz then nothing will really matter 🤣
The most interesting interview I've watched in years. It's so frustrating listening to everything Cummings was trying to do when in government and how it was seemingly all for nout.
lots of time for Dom. Think his downfall is he says things bluntly and as they are.
People don't like straight talk,
BS is the oder of the day
For God sake, when are they ALL going to JAIL 😱💩👎 for good !
Now we are fools of the world people . I hope the man and woman in number 10 see this and the papers and wondered if they should be there shame on them.
Herr Cummings ist ein sehr kluger Kopf. Warum überzeugt er nicht auch durch ein Lebenszeugnis? Ich glaube, er hat Covid-Strategien aufgestellt und er hat sich dann selbst nicht daran gehalten. Warum nicht?
he literally talks of deception. why dont you see through his character people. lmao
Oh if only Dominic formed a new political party. Just what the country is crying out for. Someone with a spine who is unafraid of the media and elites. Bring it on Dominic! 👏🙏
This explains why the government that ran the greatest empire ever is now a basket case.
It is hardly the same government.
@@htimsidnor is it the same world.
Just read a preview chapter of 'the kill chain' referred to in the interview, what an eye opener. When you thought things were bad, then THIS. Have to download the rest now.
The Sqaure mile of London is in charge. Most important position in government is that of the Remembrancer...
👍
A much more balanced approach would have been to acknowledge the mistakes he made. Non of us are perfect.
He is undoubtedly a force to be listened to.
He made mistakes, and admitting your mistakes and acknowledging the impact of your mistakes, is a quality that few possess.
This is awesome!
so who exactly is running the show the back room boys or the prats in parliament?
Great interview, fabulously researched for a yank!
Fascinating, thank you.
They were partying in no 10 while the country were isolating. Now really think hard about what that tells you. Think hard.
This is the most interesting and depressing video I have watched in a while. 😂
So, The Thick of It and, Yes Minister we’re pretty much on the mark then?
The meat starts at 1:52:00. Very intelligent and dangerous man. First he builds story of someone who wants to do something but bad bureaucracy does not allow him. But if you listen carefuly - there are some nice pieces to pick. First looks like he wanted to created Brexit chaos to break political duo-poly and introduce 3rd force but it did not progress as quickly as he hoped. Based on his opinion my bet would be on Reform UK - replacing Conservatives by right-wing populists, building Orban-style oligarchy pretending to be meritocracy. He is praising Bismark (Machiavellic manipulator, kulturkampf, persecutions of Poles) while blaming democracy for NKVD and Gestapo... well... roots of both are in Okhrana and Geheimpolizei were in Bismarck's times. He tells how he focuses on the voter, promising one thing and doing another but still blaming democracy populists who do exactly the same... Scary... He is also clear isolationist - he seems to be glad to give Taiwan to China and Ukraine to Russia. He stresses 1914 but forgets that Chamberlain tried the other approach and the outcome was 60M dead in WWII instead of 17M in WWI.
Good comment
Farage and Cummings would be a force to be reckoned with to sort things
Cummings doesn't like farage
Do you have the unedited interview somewhere? Why the edits? TH-cam censorship or other?
bro stop scratching and playing with your face or nose when asking a question. apart from that good interview.
Ha ha
Is Cabinet, and it's ministers, not more like a Board of Directors in a business?
Cummings mantra can be summed up by saying - democracy is hard and time consuming, where as autocracy and breaking things is much easier.
For example - he talks about dismantling the MOD but does not describe the master plan for creating an improved version. Except to say it should be recreated from scratch and automatically it will be a better version.
Brexit was the same - they wanted to take the UK out of the EU, where we had the best deal of any member, but there was no delivery upon any tangible benefits from being outside the EU.
Ideas are easy - delivery is hard. What a shame we had to leave the EU, bankrupt the country, ruin our world reputation, bring Parliament into disrepute and divide the nation to find this out.
would like to see more content from dominic, interesting guy.
He writes on Substack
I wish Dominic Cummings joined up with REFORM UK 🇬🇧 😊
I don't pretend any kind of expertise on the Taiwan thing. But I notice that within around a minute, starting at around 1:59:07 , Cummings twice describes Taiwan as "filled with Chinese". My problem is that, from the very little google searching I have done, I remain unconvinced that Taiwan is filled with people who would agree with his assertion, or would agree that they themselves individually are Chinese. Is Taiwan filled with people who self-identify as Chinese? Is that island filled with people who believe that Taiwan is filled with Chinese? How much do the answers to these questions matter?
They speak and write Chinese and are for the most part 95% descendant from Chinese. For cultural and political purposes, if you ask them on the street are you Chinese? They will answer "no Taiwanese". But if mainland China was a bit more charming and a bit richer, they would certainly identify as Chinese.
Taiwan is governed by the former (and some would say current) De Jure government of all of China
@@ulyks As I said, I don't claim regional expertise at all. But based on information I do have, I am highly sceptical of your claim to speak for these people. Your "a bit more charming and a bit richer" is so vague as to make the assertion of your final sentence irrefutable on grounds of virtual meaninglessness. Your starting supposed argument, from spoken and written language, fails in so many other instances around the world that I am surprised you are not embarrassed to write it down.
Yeah, I was vague, let me be more concrete. If China had become democratic in 1989 for example and had a gdp per capita that was higher than Taiwan. I´'m sure that Taiwanese would identify as Chinese. After all, the name of the country is officially the "Republic of China".
@@ulyks OK, thanks. (I had not expected that my last response would be read, after all this time.)
Dude how do you manage to interview these high profile people all the time?