Your weekend Brexit

When I'm away, it is harder to keep up with what is happening in Brexitlalaland, but rest assured, that as reality closes in on all sides, the Brexiteers are getting shriller, and doing whatever they can, pulling any trick they can to make them to be the heroes and the EU the enemy.

Latest problem for the Brexiteers is the DExEU impact analysis that was being shown on a one to one basis to ministers who requested being shown. The report was leaked on Monday, and the leak showed that every flavour of Brexit would be bad for the economy. How to tackle this? Well, say that the Treasury is deliberately fixing these reports to show how bad Brexit would be, it is those dastardly civil servants.

And anyway, the analysis are preliminary, first drafts, and not accurate. In which case why show them to ministers in this way, why get so worked up when leaked?

JRM got in the act in using Parliamentary Privilege to slander Charles Grant that the civil service was fixing evidence to kill Brexit, and Brexit Minister Steve Baker confirmed this isn what seemed liked a pre-arranged question in The COmmons. DD was seen to grimace in the background of the TV broadcast.

Elesewhere, May tried to make out saying she would refuse to allow EU citizens to have the same rights they have now, despite she and DD agreeing that they would be the same in the December agreement on the phase 1 negotiations with the EU, which UK needs to put into law very soon or there will be no further "talks". As ever, this is May negotiating not with the EU but with the right wing Brexit headbangers in her cabinet and party, and the right wing press. Truth is, as it has always been, the deal that will be on the table, is the one that the EU lets us have. In fact it is already on the table, and terms are hard. Now the EU has May and UK in a corner, it has what it wants, and Britain cannot weedle out of the deal, once the agreement is in law, there can be no hard Brexit, just regulatory alignment between the EU and UK, until there is an agreement stating otherwise.

May is in an impossible position, navigating between the headbangers in her party, the EU and reality. No PM could do a better job, but some could do much, much worse. Imagine Boris, Gove or JRM as PM?