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The idea of a clean break from Europe is a dangerous dream, but remainers who say as much are not believed. The grownup leavers must now speak out

It is difficult to choose the worst of Theresa May’s decisions on the path that has led to our predicament this week: her government is now suspended like Boris Johnson on a zip wire, blustering, ludicrous, still waving the union flag, and quite unable to reach the other side without help. Perhaps her most serious blunder was to adopt the slogan “No deal is better than a bad deal”. This was untrue on a very fundamental level: it suggests a choice where in fact there is none. “No deal” is not an alternative to “a bad deal”. Crashing out of the EU without an agreement could only be the precursor to weeks, then months, and finally years of smaller, very bad deals, all much worse than those we could have negotiated as a member of the EU.

The threat of this catastrophe appears to be receding thanks to the intervention of sensible onlookers. Parliament has made clear that it wants to avoid it, even if it remains incapable of deciding how. The EU, motivated by self-interest as well as charity, is also doing its best to lower the end of the zip wire so that Mrs May can descend in good order. But there is no guarantee that these efforts will succeed. The baffled and entitled rage of Conservative ultras reflects their delusive dream of a clean break after which Britannia will be free to sail the oceans in the manner of Admiral Hornblower all through the Napoleonic wars, when he and his country defied the “continental tyrant”.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2D0PDGH