Parliament in paralysis. Public trust in pieces. But MPs have one last chance to stop this being the day Brexit — and faith in our democracy — dies

THIS was meant to be the day Britain regained its proud status as a free sovereign nation.

Still closely linked to Europe both in culture and commerce, but unshackled from the stultifying bureaucracy of the Brussels machine, we would ‘take back control’.

Eleven pm on March 29, 2019 would go down in the annals of these islands as the moment we reclaimed our historic position as an outwardlooking country, in charge of its own destiny and reaching out to the wider world.

How vanishingly distant that dream seems today. Perhaps even on the brink of being crushed forever.

The Palace of Westminster is in a state of chronic, seemingly incurable paralysis and our very democracy, once revered across the globe, has become a laughing stock.

It has failed at almost every conceivable level. Like Bunyan’s pilgrim, we are sinking in the slough of despond, but with no help in sight to extricate us.

The Prime Minister did her level best but, after a valiant effort to deliver a good Brexit, has been shunted off to the departure lounge.

Of alternative leadership, there is no sign and no immediate prospect.

The Tory Party is at war with itself, while Jeremy Corbyn is nothing more than a poundshop Marxist heading a gimcrack alliance of cranks and classwar throwbacks.

Public trust is in pieces. The people are exasperated and angry. Very, very angry.

They gave their representatives a clear instruction and they flunked it, lost in their own vanity and incompetence.

And this failure reverberates far beyond Brexit. It shows the profound disrespect in which MPs hold the electorate.

Why on earth should people vote again in any election if their wishes are going to be disregarded by a political elite that thinks it knows best?

It is no exaggeration to say the integrity of our whole Parliamentary system is on the brink.

And who can say what demons would be released if it isn’t dragged back?

There is, of course, a way through this crisis, one which could get us out of the EU in an orderly fashion and also honour the referendum result. But our myopic and self-obsessed MPs can’t, or won’t, see it.

The reality is that Mrs May’s deal offers a pragmatic compromise that both sides of this argument could accept.

For the Leavers, it provides a clean enough exit and allows us to take back control of our borders and laws.

For the Remainers, it promises close alignment with EU trading rules and 21 months in which nothing would change.

That they fail to recognise this is simply mystifying.

Fanatical Brexiteers, like swaggering drunks, rant and rave against imagined betrayal. Their language would shame a sailors’ saloon bar.

Tory rebel Mark Francois says he wouldn’t back the deal even if someone ‘put a shotgun in my mouth’. His colleague Steve Baker spoke of tearing Parliament down and ‘bulldozing it into the river’.

Thankfully, these irreconcilables don’t speak for the whole of the Tory European Research Group. More sensible members are already coming over to the deal, including many of the leading lights. Writing in this paper this week, Jacob Rees- Mogg recognised that while he doesn’t like many aspects of the agreement, he had to back it because it was now the only viable way out of the EU.

All the other avaliable options would lead to Brexit in name only.

Also in the Mail today, ArchEurosceptic Iain Duncan Smith tells how he has come round to the same view, and even Boris Johnson, once Mrs May’s nemesis, says he will vote for the deal as a last resort.

However, with Mr Johnson, we have learned to take what he says with a pinch of salt. His real interest is becoming Tory leader. Everything else is secondary.

But the diehard Remainers are no better. Nearly all of them stood on a 2017 manifesto promise to honour the referendum result, yet they have done nothing but try to overturn it.

Driven by the belief that all Leavevoters were either racist or stupid or both, they have tried every Parliamentary trick to sabotage Brexit. It has been hypocrisy at its most grotesque.

Then we have the opposition parties. The Scottish Nationalists, led in Westminster by the absurdly pompous Ian Blackford, don’t require much consideration. They want Scotland to leave the UK any way it can, so will never be persuaded.

It might be interesting if Scotland did succeed in breaking away, losing its handsome annual Barnett subsidy from England and ending up shackled to the single currency.

With the oil price in decline and gas running out, they could soon become the Greece of the North.

But at least Scotland voted decisively to Remain. Labour has no such excuse.

Two thirds of its MPs represent Leave-voting constituencies, yet the leadership — browbeaten by Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer — has swung behind a second referendum, permanent customs union and close alignment with the single market.

These MPs know this does not represent the wishes of their constituents, and they are increasingly nervous about it.

Now is the time for them to be brave and follow their consciences.

Nearly 30 defied their party whip on Wednesday by refusing to support another referendum.

If the same number backed the May deal, along with a handful of independents, it would almost certainly pass — with or without the Democratic Unionist Party.

To make it easier to cross that Rubicon, the Government is asking them to vote for the withdrawal agreement alone, having hived off the political declaration.

This would take us out by May 22, obviating the need to hold European parliamentary elections, allowing Parliament to decide the nature of our future relationship with the EU over the 21-month implementation period.

Labour’s high command once said it had no problem supporting the withdrawal agreement. Now, of course, they say they will not support this motion. What a bunch of naked opportunists they are!

But the DUP, too, should seriously consider the dangers in holding out over the fine print of the backstop.

Unless they come to their senses, they could be ushering Mr Corbyn and his chief henchman John McDonnell into Downing Street — men from whom they can expect nothing but contempt.

As lifelong Republicans, they despise Unionism, lionise IRA terrorists and yearn for a united Ireland. Is that really what the DUP wants?

So this is it. The final curtain. High Noon. The last chance saloon.

Haul the withdrawal deal over the line today and we may just be back on the road to sanity.

We could leave on May 22 and all get on with our lives.

Spurn this chance and we move into a deep, dark place. We could end up leaving on April 12 without a deal, be forced to go through the farce of holding European elections, be marooned half-in, half-out of the EU with no resolution in sight, or be stuck in a permanent customs union.

Any or all of these options would damage and diminish us beyond measure, with nothing on the horizon but more chaos and confusion.

To all MPs, the Mail says this: Put your country and your constituents first. Rebuild public trust in Parliament. Defy the cynics and wreckers. Defend democracy.

March 29, 2019 was supposed to be the day we left the EU. Don’t let it be the day Brexit — and faith in our political system — died.