From despair to where for UK politics?

The Voice of the North

It was one of the most important lastminute political team talks in history, but without the Churchillian magic to move hearts and minds or make the hairs stand on end.

MPs were left instead where they began – still pulling their hair out over Mrs May’s Brexit deal.

The prime minister’s best shot was to remind MPs that history would judge if they had let the country down by not giving the public what the majority of the UK had voted for in the Brexit referendum.

There are a momentous seven days ahead which will shake our form of constitutional government to the core and write a new chapter over who governs

Great Britain and – more to the point regarding the Irish backstop – Northern

Ireland.

Like her or loathe her, surely nobody can have anything else other than a grudging respect for her dogged determination in the face of unprecedented venom, even although many MPs might not have changed their view about her deal. The task was always destined to be horrendous for any leader.

From the depths of despair, hope can emerge – but from where?

The relationship between MPs and the government, and with the ordinary people they represent, is on a democratic cliff edge with talk of a parliamentary “coup” in the air. How far can brinksmanship go before they all go over the edge?

“There are a momentous seven days ahead which will shake our form of government to the core”