" An unelected advisor surely shouldn't be anywhere near a review of this nature."
Have you seen the people we elected last time round? Pritti? Williamson? Hancock, - and that's just the Tories.
In fact of course the generals and Sea lords aren't elected either, nor are the Civil Service. Problem seems to be that getting any meaningful agreement out of them all has proven almost impossible - we finish up with cutting a bit here, extending the time frame there and underestimating costs everywhere
Cummings is very very bright I understand and can be quite pleasant personally - he does CARE about the country - which is why he seems to think it needs some big changes. My personal issue with him is it's all very well to go around kicking everything over but I'm not sure he has a fully developed idea of what will replace the current structures - saying "it'll be alright on the night" doesn't hack it IMHO