Brexit (2019 TV Movie)

Benedict Cumberbatch: Dominic Cummings

Photos 

Quotes 

• Dominic Cummings : ...as a global society we are entering a series of profound economic, cultural, social and political transitions, the like of which the world has never seen: massive increase in resource requirements, rising tide of religious extremism, the synthesis of the generational inequalities in the West on an historic level.

• Dominic Cummings : Let's take back control!

• Dominic Cummings : Why do people hate me?

• [first lines] 

  Dominic Cummings : Great Britain makes a noise. Did you know that?

• Craig Oliver : I think about it, you know. The kind of country our kids will grow up in.

  Dominic Cummings : What is this? A think of the children appeal? Please, Craig. I'm am trying. The train coming down the tracks - it isn't the one that you expected. It's not the one advertized on the board. Well tough, it isn't even the one that I imagined. But I accept it. And you can't stop it. Because you're right, there is a new politics in town. One that you cannot control.

  Craig Oliver : Well, be careful what you wish for. You won't be able to control it either.

• Dominic Cummings : [scene cuts between the two offices of Vote Leave and Vote Remain as they write out strategy]  We also know that the other side are gonna run a campaign the way that campaigns have been run for pretty much the last 70 years. They're gonna fight from the center, and they're gonna make it about jobs and the economy.

  Andrew Cooper : We focus on the economy and jobs. The message: leaving risks both.

  Craig Oliver : Clinton '92. Best campaign ever. "It's the economy, stupid".

  Andrew Cooper : You define your opponent as the riskier option, and though the change candidate might initially poll well, come election day the nerves kick in. Voters revert back to center. Law of political science - if the status quo are ahead before the campaign begins, which we are, they always win on the day. So...

  Douglas Carswell : So, what's our answer?

  Dominic Cummings : Tzu's "The Art of War". If we fight them on home terrain, they will win. So what we need to do is lead them to the ninth battlefield. The deadly ground where no one expects to find themselves. Outcome? *They* perish.

  Victoria Woodcock : Which means?

  Dominic Cummings : You reverse the proposition. We make *them* the risky option. To stay is to risk losing more of the things we cherish - we're asking voters not to reject the status quo, but to return to it, to independence. How much does it cost us each week to be members of the EU?

  Daniel Hannan : In the region of...

  Dominic Cummings : What's our researcher's name?

  Matthew Elliott : Richard.

  Dominic Cummings : Ricardo, will you get me all the figures up for how much it costs to be members of the EU for a week? Largest one wins.

  Matthew Elliott : Make sure it's verifiable!

• Craig Oliver : We need to be able to appeal to their heads - numbers, projections. We focus on the facts.

  [cut to Vote Leave offices] 

  Dominic Cummings : We need to appeal to their hearts. Emotional resonance - their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, their fears. Their suspicions. Now, these persuadables, we need to learn about them, love them, and lure them to our side. There are more of them out there than we thought.

  [cut to AggregateIQ staff beginning to set up their equipment in Cummings' office] 

  Dominic Cummings : Three million more of them out there than we thought. That's three million potential voters not on any voter database, so Remain have no idea they exist. If we can reach 'em, they're ours for the taking.

  Matthew Elliott : Dom, what on Earth are you talking about?

  [everyone in the Leave offices takes notice as AggregateIQ staff walks in. Cummings closes the door] 

  Dominic Cummings : I want less than 10 people on Earth to know what I'm about to tell you. We're gonna build something.

• Dominic Cummings : We have our message. If you look on the server you'll find copies of the war book. Here's our message in a sheet, here's our message in paragraph, here's our message in a sentence. If you find a potential voter, hit 'em hard and if it looks like they're gonna bend, then you don't just walk away, pat yourself on the back. You double down! Hit 'em again, and again, right? With 350 million pounds, and Turkey. 350 million quid and Turkey!

  [whole room starts joining in the chant] 

  Dominic Cummings : Again - 350 million quid and Turkey! Again - 350 million quid and Turkey! Again and again.

• Dominic Cummings : It's not rocket science, it's simple. There are three types of voter. Those certain to vote to exit, that's one third. Well, they're in the bag, so ignore them. Those certain to vote to stay, that's another third, and we can't touch them so fuck 'em. The last third: "I would like to leave, but I'm worried about what the effect will be to jobs and living standards". *These* are the only people that we need to care about. And trust me, the others will be after exactly the same bunch.

  [cut to Vote Remain offices] 

  Craig Oliver : Now, these are who will decide the result. The "Hearts versus Heads" and the "Disengaged Middle". 34% of the electorate.

• Nigel Farage : Everything you've been briefing on so far, and not one mention of immigration.

  Dominic Cummings : That's on purpose. We don't want to bring...

  Nigel Farage : Oh, don't come over all bleeding bloody hearts, it's bollocks! You know, you turn up for five minutes and you think you know the lot. Well, *I* have been fighting for this my whole life - and I know what lands.

  Dominic Cummings : People already know what they think about immigration. The people we're trying to win over, the people we need to win, extend beyond UKIP.

  Nigel Farage : Oh - so you don't want to make the bien pensants sitting around your London dinner table uncomfortable? We don't need 'em! We need normal people!

  Dominic Cummings : We need 50% of the entire country plus one. Second fundamental of running a successful campaign, build a broad coalition of voters, and for that

  [stares over at Banks] 

  Dominic Cummings : you need to be respectable. No offense.

  Arron Banks : *Excuse* me?

• Dominic Cummings : Let me tell you who we're up against. Who are setting themselves up over the river to destroy us.

  [scene cuts to Vote Remain offices as he continues] 

  Dominic Cummings : Lucy Thomas, ex-producer of BBC's Newsnight program, so she'll know how to handle the press. Director of the campaign, Will Straw, son of Jack. Failed his MP race in 2015, typical establishment thinker: "If it didn't work the first time, try it again". You got Ryan Coetzee, director of strategy, he's Nick Clegg's former special advisor.

  Nigel Farage : Labour and Lib-Dem hate each other post-coalition. That won't work!

  Dominic Cummings : Oh, yeah, no, it's a proper left and center-left love-in. You've got the Greens and the Welsh, but none as interesting as these. The one true enemy they both share...

  Matthew Elliott : Tories.

  Dominic Cummings : The Number Ten machine, headed up by, trumpets please

  [blows raspberry] 

  Dominic Cummings : Craig Oliver!

  Nigel Farage : Cameron's communication director.

  Dominic Cummings : A position held as we know by a long succession of bastards - Campbell, Coulsen. This one's more out of the limelight, ostensibly in control and composed. He's furiously loyal to his boss and I can tell you that we, uh, well we have a little history.

  [cut back to Vote Remain offices] 

  Craig Oliver : Dominic Cummings is basically mental. We had to all but ban him from Number Ten. He's desperate to be seen as this visionary architect of a new world order, but actually, he's just an egotist with a wrecking ball. It does however mean that he's, well, he's unpredictable.

  [cut back to Vote Leave offices] 

  Dominic Cummings : I know how to beat Oliver. Conventional wisdom is a disease that the British are peculiarly susceptible to, and he certainly hasn't been inoculated.