Insanity, the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s a tactic Theresa May demonstrated brilliantly during her three-year tenure as Britain’s prime minister, in which she attempted to push her negotiated Brexit deal setting out the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union three times—only to have it rejected by whopping majorities on each try.
Boris Johnson, who replaced May this week, has pledged to take a different path. Speaking on the steps of Downing Street on Wednesday, he committed to taking Britain out of the EU—“no ifs or buts”—by striking a new and better deal with the EU by the October 31 deadline. Barring that, Johnson said he would take Britain out of the bloc without a deal.
There is, however, a downside to Johnson’s grand plan. Though the occupant of 10 Downing Street has changed, as has much of the British government, the other party in this negotiation, the EU itself, remains almost exactly the same.
