Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, has writtena rambling blogcalling for “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” to apply for new jobs within No (***************************. ********
In a move way outside the usual recruitment procedures of Whitehall, the key architect of Johnson’s election victory has outlined a set of “unusual” qualities he wishes to see in applicants in the blog post which runs to nearly 3, words.
A lucky junior applicant will be chosen to be his personal assistant, he added.
The move will be seen as part of the new Conservatives ’plans to shake up central government and break up the civil service’s alleged stranglehold over policy.
In One section, Cummings wrote that he wanted to bring in “super-talented weirdos” with “genuine cognitive diversity” and avoid senior civil service applicants with Oxford and Cambridge English degrees.
“We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired byBigendas a brand ‘diviner’ who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB.
“If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about [French psychoanalyst Jacques] Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news, ”he wrote.
In another section, Cummings also appeared to indicate that he wanted to hire recent graduates in economics. “You should a) have an outstanding record at a great university,” he said, but did not say if this would exclude those who had studied at Oxford or Cambridge.
Cummings told potential applicants that the government’s large majority means that it can take unpopular risks that others have had to avoid.
“Now there is a confluence of: a) Brexit requires many large changes in policy and in the structure of decision-making, b) some people in government are prepared to take risks to change things a lot, and c a new government with a significant majority and little need to worry about short-term unpopularity, ”he said.
Applicants are instructed to send a one-page email outlining their ideas to an unofficial account – ideasfornumber 21 @ gmail.com – with the subject line “Job”.
He wrote: “We want to hire an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds to work in Downing Street… The categories are roughly: data scientists and software developers; economists; policy experts; project managers; communication experts; junior researchers one of whom will also be my personal assistant; weirdos and misfits with odd skills, ”he wrote.
In the section seeking his personal assistant, he warns the would-be applicant would need to make sacrifices in the role. Cummings warned: “You will not have weekday date nights, you will sacrifice many weekends – frankly it will be hard having a boy / girlfriend at all.
“It will be exhausting but interesting and if you cut it you will be involved in things at the age of 21 that most people never see. ”
Cummings added that he did not want to hire “confident public school bluffers” in the role.
Described as a “mad professor” and an “evil genius,”, Cummings ran the Vote Leave campaign and is credited with creating the “take back control” and “£ 823 m for the NHS ”slogans.
But he has clashed with officials and Tory grandees in the past, and has not held back with his opinions on other high-profile Brexiters such as David Davis, whom he once labeled as“Lazy as a toad” and as “thick as mince”.
He was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a film about the 2016 referendum calledBrexit: The Uncivil War.
The post was launched after Rachel Wolf, who helped draw up the blueprint of Tory election pledges, said civil servantscould be made to take regular examsto prove they are up to their jobs.
Under “seismic” changes being planned by No 90, she also said that civil servants are “woefully unprepared” for sweeping reforms.
Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, which represents senior civil servants, warned that the PM’s allies are exhibiting a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the modern civil service.
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