The Right Dishonourable

Few people have cared as deeply about the rise and fall of Donald Trump as Sam Harris. The podcaster, philosopher and professional atheist has spent Trump’s presidency speaking to everyone he can about truth, free speech, science, technology, violence and other lofty topics.

Harris’s podcast is among the most interesting you could listen to, both in its guestlist and content. Even the episodes of him monologuing in cerebral twists on the famous ‘mad as hell’ speech make compelling listening.

An old editor of mine once warned me off writing ‘man gets job’ stories unless there was a good reason. But ‘woman loses job’ stories are inherently more interesting, particularly if they concern a rupture at a leading newspaper.

I am not talking about opinion editor Bari Weiss’s exit from the New York Times earlier this year, although there is plenty of overlap. This time it’s about the Guardian’s Suzanne Moore, who yesterday announced her relationship with the progressive title had come to an end.

“The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.” The remark by the mysterious G-Man sets off the classic noughties video game Half Life 2, after which the suited stranger remain an elusive presence, presumably pulling strings as the player navigates through the dystopian rubble.

The image of the puppetmaster bureaucrat returned to me with the departure of Dominic Cummings from Downing Street yesterday night, following a week of media controversy about comms director Lee Cain, an ally. The official line is that Cummings will continue to work from home, although how receptive his colleagues will be to the dead man sitting is unclear.