The ‘backstop’. The fucking Irish backstop. It’ll be the death of us all. Death by boredom. Death by endless repetition. Death by… death. And certainly the death of Theresa May’s political career (doomed from day 1 anyway, even she could have been under no illusions otherwise). And tonight its ‘The Vote’ redo. The first one was lost by over 200 votes, so ‘success’ could be seen as losing this one by just 199, or 187 votes. Either way, it ain’t gonna win. Half her party are opposed, Labour is opposed, the Irish probably won’t accept the revised, re-worked, re-done, latest, beta-test version of the backstop, so its all doomed. And Brexit day is just over 2 weeks away. Or ‘not-Brexit Day’ as it may come to be known if the inevitable happens.

May can’t possibly get her ‘deal’ through, however much tweakage she’s managed with the immovable Euro-trash (Barnier, Junkers et al) but it won’t be enough. It’s never enough. Though apparently they have time-limited the backstop. Which is a start. If that had happened a year ago it would be grounds for possible optimism. But now, as a last-gasp, desperate measure, it will be pitifully insufficient.

And then we enter, as from tomorrow, new, uncharted levels of uncertainty. Because we’d have to leave without a deal. Which, depending on who you speak to, is either “ECONOMIC SUICIDE FOR THE ENTIRE NATION”, or, ‘the best possible outcome’ for Nigel Farage, Rees Mogg and the merry band of outers. Or we could opt for a ‘delay’, a postponement, an extension to article 50, and spend the next 6 months going round and round in the same old circles and ending up in the same place, which is basically in a river of shit with the Eiffel Tower up our collective arse.

Theresa May’s selling point is that voting for her ‘deal’ is the only way to actually leave Europe NOW. Unless we leave without the deal which nobody wants. Or we have another vote which has merits but is essentially morally and democratically wrong. Insultingly so. Because it says: ‘you had no idea what you were thinking the last time so we’ll give you one last chance to do it properly’. It leads to a kind of “Ok; how about best of 5?” ethos of cheating.

May’s hoping that if the deal is rejected Europe will be forced into more dramatic changes than just kind of putting an extra P on the word ‘backstopp’. Or that in the panic to avoid ‘no deal’ all the MPs will rally round.

It’s all shit.

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx