Mr. Cummings in 2001. The son of an oil rig project manager and a special-needs teacher, he attended Oxford, like so many protagonists of the Brexit saga. Credit David Levenson/Getty Images.

“Mr. Cummings is a bashi-bazouk,” said [Dominic] Grieve, citing the Ottoman Empire’s shock troops, who were renowned for their ferocity. “It is going to be a very difficult period because Cummings doesn’t respect any rule at all.”
(Benjamin Mueller and Stephen Castle, “Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s Rasputin, Is Feeling the Heat of Brexit,” NYTimes, 9-8-19)

(c) 2019 JMN