Davis trusts to luck on long and winding road to Brexit

It’s a favourite story of Sir Paul Mccartney’s. In their early days, The Beatles were driving in a snowstorm when their van skidded off the road and down an embankment.

No one was hurt, but the van was stuck. It was blisteringly cold, and the snow was falling so thickly they could hardly see the road.

“What are we going to do?” gulped Ringo. One member of the group, however, seemed entirely serene.

“Something will happen,” said John. “Something will turn up.”

And, as if by magic, a van materialised, and its driver offered them a lift. Ever since, says Sir Paul, this has been his personal mantra: whenever you’re in trouble, and there seems to be no way out, don’t despair. Trust to luck. Something will happen. Something will turn up. Now, I don’t know if David Davis is a fan of The Beatles, but at times his approach to the Brexit negotiations feels strikingly similar to John Lennon’s approach toward snowstorms.

Yesterday, the Brexit Secretary was in Brussels to hold a press conference with Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator. The two sides, announced Mr Barnier, had made “a decisive step” towards Brexit.

To prove it, he displayed on the wall behind him a projection of the legal text they’d been working on, with areas of agreement highlighted prettily in coloured pen. On the Irish border, however, there was still no answer. The EU’S proposal, known as “the backstop solution”, is effectively to keep Northern Ireland permanently in the customs union – even though the rest of the UK is leaving. Last month, Theresa May told the Commons that no British prime minister “could ever agree to this”.

But – almost 21 months after the referendum was held – she and her ministers have yet to produce an alternative. Or at least, they’ve yet to produce one that the EU and Ireland are willing to contemplate.

“As I’ve said several times,” sighed Mr Barnier yesterday, “the backstop will apply unless, or until, another solution is found.”

Confidently Mr Davis assured everyone that the Government was “committed” to finding such a solution. Yes – even after all these months of trying to think of one, and failing, and with the clock ticking more loudly by the day.

As he spoke, into my mind’s eye swam the image of Mr Davis and Mrs May, shivering by a roadside in a snowstorm. Something will happen, Theresa. Something will turn up. Don’t worry. Any moment now, a bloke in a van will pull up and offer us a workable plan that guarantees peace in Northern Ireland, avoids a hard border, prevents smuggling and avoids the effective creation of a border in the Irish Sea. I can feel it, Theresa. He’ll come. Just you wait. Any moment now...

Whether the Government is quite as lucky as The Beatles, we shall see.