It would be fun to write a Westminster column that wasn’t about Brexit. I’m afraid I can’t. Brexit is Britain, to a large extent, these days, at least as far as the news is concerned. It has made the political and media classes go mad. Normal people, those who don’t spend their lives reading the Internet, are more immune to what’s been called “Brexosis”—which should by now be a recognized medical condition—but the world can’t help noticing that Britain is now horribly stuck.
So if this article reads a bit like the last, I’m sorry. But mind-numbing repetition sums up what Brexit has become. It is the shambles story that never ends, a political joke with no punch line, a great national embarrassment, an existential challenge for the country. Who are we? How do we leave the European Union? May we? Please? Is it just less tedious to roll over and let those ghastly unelected men in Brussels win? Anything for an easy life. But hang on, why can’t we leave? Who are we? On and on it goes.
We keep seeming to hit crunch points, Westminster dramas that promise to resolve the impasse. Prime Minister May’s leadership challenged! May’s deal defeated! A no-confidence vote! May’s Plan B! The news cycles spin wildly. ...