Trying to sell a future no one wants to buy

WHAT a tumultuous week it has been in politics as the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement continues to cause ructions in the cabinet and across the entire country.

Prime Minister Theresa May continues to stoically defend the deal negotiated, despite the resignations of both the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Brexit Minister Suella Braverman, and others, following the much earlier departure of the first Brexit Secretary David Davis.

The fact the people entrusted to get the best deal for the United Kingdom leaving the European Union cannot support the result of their own negotiations should send shivers down the spines of us all.

Neither Leavers nor Remainers are happy with the conditions suggested for leaving the EU as all the while angry senior Conservatives gather support for yet another bid to mount a leadership challenge.

Whether Mrs May can con- tinue as Prime Minister remains to be seen, but she has shown remarkable doggedness in carrying out what she believes is the will of the people in trying to get some sort of a sensible Brexit deal.

It is a thankless task. That the deal, by its nature hamstrung by compromises, pleases hardly anyone, comes as no surprise.

At the moment it would seem that the chances of it being approved by Parliament are slim, but times change quickly in politics.

How the next 128 days until the UK’s scheduled departure on March 29 will play out is anyone’s guess, but if ever there was a time for bipartisanship and good old common sense in the national interest, surely this is it.

This is perhaps the most important decision, both politically and socially, for the United Kingdom as a whole in the past 50 years. If no one wants this deal perhaps it might be in the national interest to rip it up and go back to the drawing board.