07-06-2017, 12:23 AM
Now, to be fair, Cummings was not saying that leaving the EU is bound to be a disaster: rather, that failure is just one possible future. (I think he was using the word “branches” in the sense of a decision tree, which envisages a series of possible choices and their consequences.) Earlier in the exchange, he explained his view that Brexit alone, while necessary, was not sufficient. For leaving the EU to work, there would also have to be wholesale reform of Whitehall, British education, science and productivity. But even in that context, it’s still a striking statement, given who’s making it. The man who led the drive to pull Britain out of the EU is admitting that it may well not work.