Mrs May’s hope to please Leavers... and Remainers

NOTHING that Mrs May did was going to please everybody. That’s a given in politics and it is even more of an inevitability when it comes to Brexit, the most divisive issue of all.

Arch Remainers complain that we have merely hung on to the benefits of the EU which we had anyway but now have to pay billions of euros for the privilege. Arch Brexiteers complain that we have gained none of the freedoms that Leavers voted for in the referendum and yet still we have to pay billions of euros.

Both are right to some extent but also wrong. Catchy phrases such as “no deal is better than a bad deal” have been batted around over the months but everyone with any sense knew that some sort of deal had to be done and that financial obligations would have to be met.

The drama has been ramped up, the stand-offs, the insults, the bartering, the haggling, the huffs.

Most ordinary people will be glad that at least this stage is over and that Mrs May can say that it is now possible for Britain to suspend its membership of the European Union in a “smooth and orderly way”.

This she told the House of Commons is her “mission” adding that the deal was good news both for the people who voted Leave and for those who voted Remain.

The Prime Minister has attempted to square the circle and has made a pretty good job of it all things considered. It points at least to a future when we will not have to talk about Brexit all the time.

That can’t come soon enough.