The corridors of power …

The corridors of power ...

Not everyone in the corridors of power is famous. Indeed it is two people you may not have heard of that are playing increasingly influential roles in the single currency debate.

Danny Alexander and Dominic Cummings are, respectively, head of communications at Britain in Europe and campaign director of Business for Sterling. And you wouldn’t want to meet a nicer couple of people. But they are, not to put too fine a point on it, opposing spin doctors in the euro debate.

Business for Sterling can hardly launch an initiative, bring out research or announce a backer, without Britain in Europe responding, and vice versa.

It was Cummings who distanced his organisation from William Hague’s claim that the general election was a referendum on the euro. Meanwhile Alexander thought Hague was shooting their horse for party politics.

It was Alexander who stood at the back of the hall at the launch of the City in Europe, one of the offshoots Britain in Europe will launch as part of a referendum campaign.

For all their differences both Alexander and Cummings are rather similar, both are around 30 with good degrees from Oxford.

Alexander, a Scot from Fort William, joined Britain in Europe after spending two years as chief press officer for the Scottish Lib Dems. Cummings joined Business for Sterling after spending three years working as a consultant in Russia.

Both are going to be on the fringes of TV shots as the great and the good fight their corner in the next couple of years. Alexander has, I think, the slightly easier task. He knows the government is unlikely to hold a referendum it doesn’t think it can win and if it does hold one will throw everything it has into the fight. Cummings has a defeated Tory party as his main political backers and despite a massive lead in the polls he knows that the price of keeping the pound is eternal vigilance.

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