COMMENT

THE logic is inescapable. If MPs spend the next two days ignoring the noisy fanatics of both sides, and seek the true feelings of their ordinary, patriotic and thoughtful voters, they will find strong support for Mrs May’s levelheaded, realistic compromise.

The alternative is several different kinds of chaos, bad for us all and very bad for the economy and our prosperity.

The absolute foundation and duty of Conservatism is the protection of the livelihoods and prosperity of the people, so that they can live harmoniously in freedom. Those who plan to defy the Prime Minister on Tuesday are betraying the very core of their party’s beliefs. Yet it is not too late for reason to triumph over fanaticism. The Mail on Sunday urges MPs to end the chaos and indecision, recover their good sense, and support the Prime Minister. Loyalty has never been so important.

UNLESS there is a last-minute postponement, Tuesday will be one of the most decisive moments in modern British history. All the arguments for and against Brexit will be considered in one place and will be resolved in our elected sovereign parliament.

In theory this should mean reasonable men and women using facts and logic to reach a decision which is the best possible one for this country and its people. This is what the House of Commons is supposed to be for, a place where the real divisions of the country can be reflected, expressed and decided.

But all the signs suggest that overheated fanaticism, combined with a delusional inability to study or accept hard facts, will instead lead to a dangerous rejection of the Prime Minister’s hard-bought deal, by people who offer no realistic alternative.

Worse, those who refuse to act reasonably are wilfully courting great danger. Historians will be amazed at the determination of so many Tories to destroy their own party and Government, and to propel a dedicated Marxist into Downing Street.

For this must be the most likely outcome of their desire to reject Mrs May’s compromise. The widespread belief among Brexit hardliners is that, the heavier her defeat, the more likely Brussels is to make more concessions. This is a delusional fantasy. The EU’s chiefs will relish seeing us punished by events, so as to discourage any other escapers from their rule. They have no interest in rescuing us now.

For all their admirable passion and patriotism, the all-or-nothing Tory Brexiteers are in peril of making the best the enemy of the good, rejecting a tolerable bargain in a hopeless search for some sort of miracle.

But they are not the only culprits. Speaker John Bercow, who has disgraced his impartial office by publicly parading his antiBrexit bias, has shown open contempt for the Prime Minister, handing over the Commons to a succession of her critics and opponents for long hours before eventually allowing her to speak, too late for many news bulletins.

The stiff-necked Remainer Dominic Grieve, epitomising the snobbishness and elitist scorn of so many of his faction, has used his undoubted legal skills to tie Mrs May up in dangerous procedural knots, weakening her bargaining position and stealing her power. Other Remainers have dishonestly adopted the language of Brexit, when all they really want to do is to stop it.

The Democratic Unionists seem to have let their brief taste of power go to their heads. It is quite true that they can bring Mrs May down. But if they do, they will bring themselves down with her, and expose their supporters in Northern Ireland to a worrying future. What do they think Corbynite Labour, crammed with IRA apologists, and the SNP, with problems of its own, will care for their concerns?

The unreality of these positions is the most astonishing thing about them. It is as if we had a Parliament of Toddlers, rather than of adults. The Prime Minister’s deal with the EU is not what she would have wanted. No serious negotiation ever produces total satisfaction for both sides. But nor is it what the EU would have wanted. It is the outcome of two strong opponents, testing their power against each other and finding a compromise that both can bear.

It takes us legally out of the EU. It avoids the economic perils of a No Deal Brexit. Above all, it restores the control of our borders that was such a decisive issue in the Referendum, and which is still a major concern with huge numbers of Leave voters. This is perhaps Mrs May’s most significant achievement and was very hard won.

Voters are not fools. They understand that you cannot always get everything you want. They know what is important and what can be negotiated away. They view the continuing quibbling of MPs with growing contempt and impatience, as those MPs will discover if they precipitate the Election they seem so keen on bringing about.

If these hardliners of all sorts block the May plan on Tuesday, what will they bring about? A disastrously heavy defeat for the Prime Minister must lead to her own resignation, and to a period of political chaos which the country absolutely does not want or need.

It is very difficult to see how the Tory party could survive such a crisis, let alone win the General Election which would follow. A smooth and well-handled exit from the EU would boost Tory fortunes. A descent into internal warfare, at this moment of national trial, would wreck those fortunes, probably for years to come.

The appalling possibility of a Corbyn government cannot be stated too often, or too emphatically. The likelihood that he would govern with the help of the SNP, and Mr Corbyn’s personal sympathy for Irish Republicanism, make this even more alarming. There would be a real danger of a wholesale break-up of the Union.

Then there is the question of what might happen on the very issue which these MPs claim to be so concerned about, if they vote down the Prime Minister on Tuesday. The worst possible outcome would be that Parliament runs away from a choice and votes for a second referendum.

Even the wiser Remainers grasp that this would be a disaster. The fury of those who voted, in good faith, in the first referendum, would be great and potentially uncontrollable. They were offered the chance to influence the future of their own country directly, and told their choice would be respected.

Another poll would shatter the vital trust between people and politicians, quite possibly for good. It could easily produce the same result as the first. But any result would be dismissed by millions, with reason, as a cheat and a fix. This is not just playing with fire. It is playing with TNT.

Then there is some sort of ultrasoft Brexit, perhaps the ‘Norway Plus’ which Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has so unwisely backed this weekend. For all its apparent charms this simply does not deal with the immigration problem which Mrs May’s plan addresses.

Or there is the danger of a total loss of momentum by a paralysed Government, putting off Tuesday’s vote to a far distant day, accompanied by the postponement of the March 29 leaving date. This could end with us not exiting the EU at all, an outcome as dangerous to our stability and democracy as a second referendum.

All of these possibilities are appalling. All would damage the country. Only one, Norway Plus, even comes close to honouring the result of the referendum but will be rejected by many Leavers as Brexit in Name Only.

The logic is inescapable. If MPs spend the next two days ignoring the noisy fanatics of both sides, and seek the true feelings of their ordinary, patriotic and thoughtful voters, they will find strong support for Mrs May’s level-headed, realistic compromise.

The alternative is several different kinds of chaos, bad for us all and very bad for the economy and our prosperity. The absolute foundation and duty of Conservatism is the protection of the livelihoods and prosperity of the people, so that they can live harmoniously in freedom. Those who plan to defy the Prime Minister on Tuesday are betraying the very core of their party’s beliefs.

Yet it is not too late for reason to triumph over fanaticism. The Mail on Sunday urges MPs to end the chaos and indecision, recover their good sense, and support the Prime Minister.

Loyalty has never been so important.

Historians will be amazed at the hunger of so many Tories to destroy their party