Tory split means Brexit goes from bad to worse

From Bloomberg View:

Political dysfunction is unquestionably aggravating the U.K.’s Brexit nightmare. But the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May, as some in her own party are calling for, would only make matters worse.

The Tories will never agree about the European Union. What they need to do is get their divisions under some kind of control.

At the moment, the increasingly assertive anti-EU wing of the party is making the country ungovernable.

Indeed, those who regret the Brexit decision might be tempted to cheer the most reckless Euro-skeptics on. But bringing order out of anarchy isn’t so easy. The enormous further uncertainty of a leadership contest, perhaps a general election (leading to who knows what), and maybe even a second referendum (no more likely to establish consensus than the first) would only add to the crippling burden of uncertainty holding the U.K. economy back.

The sad truth is that a bitterly divided country, dealing with an increasingly exasperated EU, cannot make the problems it has created for itself go away by means of outright political breakdown.

May has failed to articulate and defend a vision of Britain’s post-Brexit future. Her political position is weak, thanks partly to the self-inflicted blow of last year’s botched general election.

That said, any Tory leader would struggle with Brexit, with so much of the parliamentary Conservative party intent on failure.

Yes, May needs to get a grip — but above all her party needs to start acting with some particle of intelligence and self-control.

If that doesn’t happen, Brexit and its collateral damage will be an even bigger disaster than its critics predict.