Is mild man Dowden up to the threat of China’s cyber campaign? | Zoe Williams

Deputy PM, who didn’t really sign up for this, seemed reluctant to declare war on a superpower

The deputy prime minister’s statement on cybersecurity and China-backed attempts to undermine UK democracy had been briefed far enough in advance that MPs had had time to sharpen their insults. Iain Duncan Smith said Oliver Dowden’s announcement was like watching an elephant giving birth to a mouse. The SNP member Stuart C McDonald accused Dowden of taking a wooden spoon to a gunfight. Labour’s Chris Bryant called him “wilfully blind, and therefore dangerous”.

The inattentive observer might come away from the statement unclear on who posed the greater threat to our national security, Oliver Dowden or the Chinese.