Remainers and Brexiteers alike must recognise the politicians are stuck in an ever-decreasing circle of fervour, hyperbole and hysteria.
What is needed is professional, third party review and analysis of expenditure, department by department, cutting out duplication and waste.
They mustn’t let Downing Street bounce them into agreeing a 500-plus page deal that they won’t have had time to study properly.
We have a habit of looking back at policy platforms pursued by previous Conservative Governments, and attempting to bring back popular policies like a poor Hollywood remake.
Cox’s intervention at May’s meeting of senior Cabinet ministers last week to discuss Brexit plans turned out to be crucial.
Scrap HS2. Integrate social care. Abolish NI. Reverse police cuts. Consider a new Bill of Rights. And much, much more.
Ideas and vision are necessary, but they are not sufficient. People need to see results and to achieve them they need to take part.
My new report for the Centre for Policy Studies suggests ways in which government can be made more accountable.
Is the Witney MP’s decision a one-off, or part of a co-ordinated plan – with more to come? Downing Street and the Whips will be searching for an answer.
And: One Greg Clark. Two Vince Cables. Eleven Germans going home. 100,000 Remain protesters. 17 million Leave voters. Plus: Meanwhile, Javid gets on with his job.
May’s appeal next week at Chequers will be founded in grinding detail, not Churchillian rhetoric. Key to agreement will be taking Ministers with her and springing no untoward surprises.
The combination of crucial Brexit votes, crumbling ministerial discipline, growing grassroots discontent and a rail crisis serves to intensify pressure on Downing Street.
Its failures begins with the machinery of Government – the core civil service itself. This must be fixed.
So much of the Government’s strategy is predicated on the belief that this is impossible. But what if that’s wrong?
Speculation about pressure on Williamson, or calculation about Cabinet numbers, misses a key point: May must keep Davis and Fox onside.