Wednesday 14 December 2016

Professor Niall Ferguson admits: "I was wrong on Brexit"

Professor Niall Ferguson now admits that he was wrong in opposing Brexit. Not many academics of his stature are prepared to admit that they erred. Having read Ferguson´s recent column in the Boston Globe, I admire his honesty:

The three words you are least likely to hear from an academic are “I was wrong.” Well, I was wrong to argue against “Brexit,” as I admitted in public last week. By this I do not mean to say “I wish I had backed the winning side.” Rather, I mean “I wish I had stuck to my principles.”
For years I have argued that Europe became the world’s most dynamic civilization after around 1500 partly because of political fragmentation and competition between multiple independent states. I have also argued that the rule of law — and specifically the English common law — was one of the “killer applications” of western civilization.

Read the entire column here.

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