Ruling Out

Brexit has nothing to do with how people vote. We have already seen that once. Did Remain voters abandon either main party for the Lib Dems or whatever in 2017? Well, there you are, then. 

And anyone who talks about a realignment of British politics is probably very young, or else they would have heard it several times before, and certainly not very serious to anyone apart from themselves.

Now, to Theresa May's confirmation of the policy that had already been announced twice in the Daily Mail by a total of six different Ministers, none of whom had been rebuked in even so much as the very mildest terms. 

There is no Commons majority for a No Deal Brexit, in a House which it is worth mentioning does have an overall majority for the Conservatives and the DUP combined. 

So holding a Commons vote on a No Deal Brexit amounts to ruling it out. At that point, Article 50 will be "extended". 

Fully insured ships have already set sail for the ends of the earth on the clear understanding that that "extension" is going to last a very long time. Again, then, we already knew this.

Labour is not in a position to deliver a second referendum, and in any case today's Government announcement has removed the prospect of the circumstances under which it would have sought to have held one.

But the Conservatives are in a position to rule out a No Deal Brexit, and to "extend" Article 50 until there was no possibility of such a thing.

Today, what had already been clear was made official, that the Conservatives had been promising that to their implacably Remain paymasters for months.