Massive Shake-Up in U.K.—Johnson Calls for ‘Rooseveltian Approach’

June 29, 2020 (EIRNS)—A major shake-up of politics and policy in the U.K. was unleashed over the past 48 hours by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in league with his two closest advisors, Michael Gove, his Cabinet Secretary, and Dominic Cummings. On Sunday, Mark Sedwill, the head of the civil service (one of the most powerful positions in the U.K.), who is also National Security Advisor to Johnson, was fired (or “resigned”). Sedwill and the civil service, which is deeply connected into British intelligence (in fact, British intelligence agents are part of the civil service), have been under attack by Cummings from the beginning. The Guardian, a leading voice for British intelligence, whined in its headline: “Mark Sedwill v. Dominic Cummings Is a Whitehall Call to Arms—Civil servants Are Braced for a Fierce Attack from Their Own Government after Cabinet Secretary Agrees To Quit.”

Also on June 28, Gove gave a speech denouncing the civil service for holding back innovation, calling for a policy on the model of Franklin Roosevelt, emphasizing the Forgotten Man, taking risks with big programs in science and development. He referenced the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a model—a regular theme of Cummings’s polemics.

Then, today, Johnson granted an interview to TimesRadio, which will air in its June 30 “Times Radio Breakfast” program, where he will lay out his plans in detail in a speech. In a promo for the interview, Johnson says that the recovery from the disaster of the pandemic can not and will not be “a return to austerity.... This is a moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the U.K.”

It is hoped that President Donald Trump is listening and will add his voice to this call. It is of note also that President Vladimir Putin, who has often expressed his deep admiration for FDR, noted in his June 18 article on World War II that “Mr. Xi Jinping, Mr. Macron, Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson supported the Russian initiative to hold a meeting of the leaders.” Johnson’s Rooseveltian call suggests the necessary subject matter of that crucial proposed meeting, as Lyndon LaRouche intended: a return to Roosevelt’s Bretton Woods paradigm.

EIR will continue coverage of Prime Minister Johnson’s interview and the Empire’s concomitant hysteria.