The Cummings drama in Downing Street has totally occupied the media during the past week. Even the much-publicised 90-minute grilling of the Prime Minister by Members of the House of Commons on Wednesday was dominated by the Cummings affair. Newspapers, radio and TV news have been obsessed with the issue, relentlessly pursuing every angle of whether or not Mr Cummings was justified in taking his sick wife and child to his family home up north, instead of remaining in London where he had no relatives to care for the child.
What lies behind this frenzied obsession when there are so many more urgent issues facing the nation? I spread it before the Lord in prayer and to my astonishment I felt the answer was – it’s nothing to do with Cummings! It is all to do with BREXIT. Of course, Mr Cummings should have apologised to the nation and taken a leave of absence until the matter was resolved with the relevant authorities, so as not to appear to consider himself above the law. But that is not the big issue.
The Battle for Brexit
Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, leaders of the anti-Brexit campaign in the House of Commons last year, are also leading the calls for Cummings’ resignation and the attacks upon the Prime Minister. The anti-Brexit brigade that dominated Parliament last year and filled the news media day after day have never really given up. Their demonstrations in the streets of London, inside and outside Parliament, the naked anger and rage of their attempts to keep Britain in the European Union have only been hidden by the Coronavirus pandemic – not stopped altogether.
There is now only one month for those opposing Brexit to make changes that would keep us locked into the EU’s regulations – hence the fury around Cummings and the attempts to foil the Prime Minister’s intentions of a clean break with Europe.
The anti-Brexit brigade that dominated Parliament last year and filled the news media day after day have never really given up.
My colleague David Noakes sent me the following note:
Whatever one may think of Cummings' personality and his unwise behaviour, his counsel is shrewd and strategic, and has proved to be so in the matter of Brexit. He has been a key player in the matter of Brexit so far and it is vital that Boris gets it right, for the sake of getting Britain completely free from the shackles of Europe.
The Lord has turned my thinking upside down. I have a sense of conviction that whatever the errors of judgment he has made, Cummings is an essential support to Boris and remains necessary to play a key role in the matter of our complete exit from the EU. Without him and his political savvy, Boris probably cannot succeed against the forces which want to thwart Brexit and keep us under the control of the European Union.
I believe that for the sake of the Lord's purposes and of the nation, we should pray that Boris has the moral and political strength to keep Cummings in his advisory position, against all opposition. They may neither of them know the Lord, at present anyway, but together they can play a key part in his purposes of separating us from the disaster which lies ahead for Europe.
Crucial Month Ahead
The month of June is crucial for the British nation, as it was in 1940, as we recovered from the shock of Dunkirk and resolved to fight the war to a successful conclusion. The firm resolve of the whole nation is needed now, not only in the fight against the pandemic, but in securing the future of the nation outside Europe.
We know we are a nation thoroughly deserving judgment, not least for the nine million babies whose tiny bodies we have burned since 1967 in the incinerators outside our hospitals and clinics. God hates the shedding of innocent blood, and the many other things we have done that are directly against his word.
If Bible-believing Christians confess these things and petition him for mercy, we could see a spirit of repentance poured out in the nation, to which God would undoubtedly respond. This would change the course of history, bringing peace and prosperity to post-Brexit Britain.
