Kmflett's Blog

The Stupid Stunts of Oliver Dowden: there’s no success like failure

Oliver Dowden is currently the acting Prime Minister with Rishi Sunak on holiday in America. On Thursday he condemned Greenpeace for ‘stupid stunts’ after they protested about the Government’s energy policies at Sunak’s empty North Yorkshire house.

Dowden himself is something of a master of stunts

When he was Culture Minister (February 2020-September 2021 Oliver Dowden opined on his then favourite subject-culture wars. He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph (16.5.21) that he was not a Maoist but a Moreist.

By this he meant (he claimed) that he was in favour of more statues not less and more history. Dowden’s statements are invariably amusing. There seem to have been very few (if any)statues erected on his watch any more than, despite his insistence, there was any great move to take statues down. Further the ‘more history’ Dowden wants most definitely does not include any more detail about British imperial activities.

Dowden also noted that he believed that museums and cultural institutions should be free of Government meddling and to make sure he set up a committee to, er, well meddle. Its primary purpose was to promote Dowden’s Moreist perspective.

He purged the wrong kind of person from Trustee Boards. Indeed so blatant was he that Charles Dunstone, who is believed to be not unfavourable to the Tory Party, resigned as Chair of the Royal Museums, Greenwich in protest.

In one of many Tory re-shuffles Dowden was replaced as Culture Minister by Nadine Dorries and he then became Chair of the Tory Party (September 2021-June 2022) In this role he produced a range of baffling waffle although in context this was during the latter days of the Johnson Premiership.

He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 25^th October 2022. He has certainly cultivated the Tory Hard Right particularly when he was Culture Minister but his Ministerial career suggests someone promoted far beyond his competence who can only last for a limited period before the sack occurs.

With luck and determination current industrial disputes may mean he has to look for his next job outside of Parliament even though his Hertsmere seat appears a safe one