EUROPEAN UNION OFFERS THE U.K. A SHORT REPRIEVE AS FEARS OF NO-DEAL BREXIT BUILD, AND BRITISH GOVERNMENT SET TO IMPLEMENT EMERGENCY CONTINGENCY PLANS, DUBBED OPERATION YELLOWHAMMER.

British troops on standby as no-deal exit nears

The British government is preparing to implement its emergency contingency plans as Brexit mayhem continues to grip the country.

The plans — dubbed Operation Yellowhammer — involve putting 3,500 troops on standby, ensuring ferries are allocated to move essential medical supplies, as well as implementing changes on roads and highways around the all-important port of Dover to keep traffic moving.

In a letter to cabinet ministers, Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said, “Operation Yellowhammer command and control structures will be enacted fully on March 25 — unless a new exit date has been agreed between the U.K. and the EU.”

Britain was due to leave Europe next Friday, March

29. However, a so-called divorce deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU has not been approved by the British House of Commons, raising the spectre that the country could crash out on March 29 with no deal.

Following emergency talks between European leaders Thursday night, the EU agreed to give Britain an unconditional two-week deadline extension to April

12.

And if May can get her deal back before parliament next week, and lawmakers decide to approve it, then the EU will grant an extension until May 22.

But members of parliament have twice already overwhelmingly rejected the deal.

And opposition to the agreement appeared to be hardening, rather than softening, after May blamed parliament for the Brexit impasse.

In a televised address Wednesday night, May accused lawmakers of “infighting,” “political games” and “arcane procedural rows,” but acknowledged no personal error in creating the deadlock.

A lawmaker from May’s Conservative Party called the speech “toxic.” Anna Soubry, of the breakaway Independent Group, described it as the “most dishonest and divisive statement from any prime minister.”

Pressure is also growing from within her party for May to quit.

Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, the group of backbench Tory lawmakers, visited May this week to say a number of Conservative MPS wanted her to stand down.

On Thursday, Euroskeptic Tory MPS confronted the prime minister and directly called for her to quit. Nigel Evans, executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, told May: “It’s not that people don’t believe what you say, it’s that people don’t believe you can deliver.”

In response, May called on lawmakers to back her agreement and refused to rule out a no-deal exit if they did not back her.

Meanwhile, Britain’s military has set up a command-and-control centre under the ministry of defence, called Operation Redfold, designed to minimize disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The country’s health department was due to activate emergency supply chain operations involving booking space on ferries to get vital medical supplies.

The Guardian also reported that minister had instructed hospitals run by the government not to publish risk assessments of the potential damage to the health service under a no-deal scenario because it might “put public wellbeing at risk.”

Kent, the local council that covers roads around Dover, has also implemented changes to highways and signs because of fears that 10,000 lorries could be “parked” on the roads leading to the port.

Europe minister Alan Duncan said a Foreign Office “nerve centre” had been set up to help U.K. citizens in Europe should no deal happen.

Such is the toxic atmosphere in Britain over Brexit that Lindsay Hoyle, a deputy speaker in the Commons, told members of parliament to take basic safety precautions because of concern they could be attacked by the public.

Hoyle emailed all MPS to advise them to take “simple steps” such as travelling home by taxi or making sure they were accompanied by colleagues.

Acknowledging that most MPS had already taken security measures at home such as installing panic buttons, he said the Metropolitan Police had been “left in no doubt” it had to ensure that “members of parliament can vote in parliament without fear.”

“Personally, I have never felt this level of tension during my time in the House and I am aware that other colleagues feel the same,” Hoyle wrote.

And Max Hill, the director of public prosecutions, warned that those who sought to “destroy or reduce” politicians’ freedoms would not escape prosecution by claiming a right to freedom of speech.

He set out the Crown Prosecution Service’s position in a letter to Harriet Harman, chairman of the human rights committee, amid claims that May has encouraged a public backlash against MPS by blaming them for blocking Brexit.

The codename Operation Yellowhammer was chosen by a computer at random, but is perhaps a little unfortunate in the circumstances. It refers to a bird in England that is also known as The Devil’s Bird.

Legend has it that the bird was an agent of Satan and the scratchings on its eggs was a letter to the devil.