Yesterday evening, Theresa May achieved what had seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago - she won a vote in the House of Commons on the vexed subject of Brexit.
When the so-called 'Withdrawal Agreement' was put before Parliament on 15th January, it was rejected emphatically; Brexiteers and Remainers were united in dislike of it and threw it out unceremoniously. Mrs May was sent away to think again, talk to colleagues, other Parliamentarians and interested parties and representatives of the European Union, and to come back with something more acceptable. This she did and, yesterday, Parliament voted on a series of amendments to the Agreement; the government supported one of these, a proposal to accept the Agreement subject to there being an alternative mechanism to the 'Irish Backstop', and Mrs May is now about to set off on a new round of discussions with all and sundry in pursuit of this.
In a world populated by decent people, rather than by self-serving, egotistical, entrenched politicians, there would now be a genuine effort on all sides to come up with a revised plan. Sadly, we do not live in such a world.
Shortly after the votes, Jeremy Corbyn magnanimously changed his position and agreed that he would, after all, converse with the Prime Minister; however,, it seemed clear to me that his real aim is to be able to walk out of such talks loudly proclaiming what a waste of time they'd been and thus trying to bolster his own political position.
The pronouncements from Europe have been even more problematic. Rather than welcoming what they'd asked for, a clear statement from the British Parliament as to their wishes, all and sundry have simply fallen back on the tired old European approach of saying "NON !", loudly and repeatedly. These bullies of the European Union have no interest in negotiating, all they want is for things to be done their way. From their viewpoint, they still have time to take advantage of the divisions in the UK Parliament and to try to force either a revocation of Brexit or, at least, another referendum which might produce the desired result of 'Remain'.
While the Eurocrats stand firm, our own Parliament wavers. Rather than meeting fire with fire, many of its members seek to undermine the Prime Minister and Brexit, regardless of the outcome of the 2016 referendum. These 'representatives' of the people continue to do what they can to keep the UK within, or very closely tied to, the EU and one of their principle tacks has been to try to "take no-deal off the table". This course of action effectively removes the UK's strongest bargaining chip and allows the EU to continue to be obstructive to any further discussion. While they are scared witless by the possibility of a 'no-deal' Brexit, they are convinced that the UK Parliament will force the Prime Minister to compromise, on their terms, before such a thing becomes a reality.
With the 'Irish Backstop' as it is currently framed, the Withdrawal Agreement has no chance of being ratified by the UK Parliament. The EU is, so far, emphatic in stating that the Agreement is not open for renegotiation and must stay as it is. The UK Parliament has made it clear that it wants this part of the Agreement renegotiated. Where is there room for manoeuvre ?
The simple answer is that neither side wants 'no-deal' and, the closer we get to 29th March, the more likely the EU is to realise that its position is untenable. No Deal will do them great harm and will have huge repercussions for some of their own political leaders when they are next standing for re-election. If our own parliamentarians could actually grow some backbone and learn to play the game every bit as determinedly as their European counterparts, there'd be a deal, and a reasonable one, in plenty of time.
The trouble is that too many of our own 'representatives' remain of the view that Brexit is a mistake, the we, the ignorant people, simply didn't understand the issues and 'complexities'; we voted for the wrong reasons blah, blah. Our 'representatives' are determined to lead us back to the path of righteousness, kicking and screaming if necessary, and the EU knows this. It will happily wait, doing nothing but saying "NON !" until the UK does as it's told and effectively cancels Brexit.
We must not let this happen.
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