It’s official, we’re a laughing stock

YOU could call it déjà vu if it wasn’t so obviously a nightmare from which we cannot awake.

Another “meaningful vote”, another humiliating defeat for the Government.

Britain is once again an international laughing stock, our politics broken, our politicians unable to rise to the occasion.

Theresa May’s deal is finally dead, the last life wrung out of it by the abhorrent combination of the DUP and the ERG.

But the Prime Minister has nobody to blame for this mess but herself.

After a shambolic negotiation with Brussels, she wasted vital months after it became clear this was not a deal that could pass the Commons.

The UK is now 17 days away from being spat out of the European Union without a deal and falling off a cliff edge that will devastate the economy.

May’s approach towards securing a deal has been appalling from the start.

At a time when consensus was needed, she paid no attention to anyone but a small coterie of advisers.

It is an unforgivable failure that generations of Brits could have to pay the price for.

Common sense now dictates the only way out of this mess is a general election or a second EU referendum.

But first MPs must today vote conclusively against a damaging no-deal Brexit. An extension to the Article 50 process is also required.

The Brexit negotiations should have been a damage limitation exercise for the UK.

We are in danger of turning a serious mistake into a national catastrophe.