Will Tory ants pull crucial weight?
AS I write, the Brexit “burach” continues to unfold in the Commons chamber.
The Tory Brexiteers are on their high horses and Remainers are crying in their cups, though Labour’s Keir Starmer is making a good fist of running rings around David Davis.
Then there’s EU negotiator Michel Barnier casting doubt on the “stability” of Britain’s Brexit negotiator, the Cabinet in chaos, the PM floundering.
Come this winter, one of the big British employers, or maybe many of them, will tell Theresa May to get tariff-free access to the European market or they move out.
Across the water in Dublin, they are rubbing their hands, though they ought to be careful what they wish for.
Ireland reckons to have played a blinder in Brussels by being one of the three red lines of negotiation, but the island is also being played by Brussels itself.
Because how do you solve a problem like Northern Ireland without establishing a hard border? It cannot be done, unless there is a special deal for Northern Ireland. What does “Brexit means Brexit” mean then?
In the absence of another referendum, the kind of Brexit we get becomes a Commons numbers game.
Even if Tory Remain rebels are determined enough to push their Government into the ditch, they are almost cancelled out by Labour MPs who are in the Leave camp.
Labour and the SNP, if they can put aside differences, and the Lib Dems are not enough. Brexit still scrapes through on DUP votes.
Enter the dragon. Ruth Davidson’s intervention, raising her fears that “Britain won’t bounce back from the Brexit hit” is a marker of intent.
Not all of Scotland’s Tory MPs are Remainers, but they are all answerable to her.
In nature, ants can lift incredible weights. It might sound fanciful just now but the puny muscle of Davidson’s disciples, should it be exercised, could be the difference between a Brexit disaster and remaining in the single market.
Wasn’t it a Tory prime minister who said Scotland should be leading the UK?