Hopes of a reversal on Brexit were left dashed last night after Theresa May defiantly battled ministerial resignations and calls for her to quit in order to deliver her exit plan.
With a raft of firms already set to leave the country and Britain’s future prospects looking worse off under ever scenario this was a “Brexit at all costs” moment for the PM, who displayed a Churchillian resistance to the challenges ahead.
But unlike the Second World War these bruises have been self-inflicted, and to carry on with a course known to be more treacherous feels like negligence on the behalf of the PM.
It was like when Walter, from the film The Big Lebowski, appeared to defend the Nazis by declaring: “Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos”, as if to discount their awful and misguided ways because at least they had a way.
Which is the only credible card May has left to play. As things stand, her exit plans are the only ones on the table, and so she can say things like “the British people just want us to get on with it” in her defence because, say what you like about the tenets of the deal, it is the only one available if we are to take the results of the referendum in 2016 at face value.
Does her deal mean a brighter future for Britain? No. Does it mean a more prosperous future? No. Does it deliver on the many promises set forth by the Leave campaign before the referendum? No. But it does present a means of exiting the European Union at all costs.
So strap in, dudes, Theresa May is about to take a bowling ball to the future of the country.