Its been a while since i posted here but i have been following the Brexit debate both on here and in general with some interest for a while now from the relative safety of Canada. So here’s my take on the current situation, for what its worth.
Elizabeth May tried for 3 years to get a deal and the best she could manage was a deal that was roundly defeated by this same parliament several times. Her biggest failing was not that she couldnt get a deal but that she went into the negotiations as a former remainer and at best a soft brexiter. The EU could tell that she didnt have the nerve to leave without a deal and so bullied her into an unacceptable deal. She made the mistake of bargaining from a position of weakness instead of from a position of strength because the EU knew there was no realistic threat from her that she would just walk away without a deal and so she got the result you would expect.
She then resigns and Johnson steps in, very much the hard line brexiter. Everyone knows he has the nerve, and some would say the desire, to leave without a deal. That put him in a much better negotiating position to actually get a decent deal. So what does parliament do? It deliberately takes away the only real bargaining chip he has by ordering him to get a deal at any cost. The stupidity of that order is only superseded by the fact that everyone who voted for that seems to have forgotten that there is actually another party to this negotiation who might have something to say about the terms of this deal that he is supposed to now magically get and have continually said the May deal is the best you can get and no more extensions are allowed.
So here comes the football analogy: Suppose the Board of directors of this fine old club voted on whether we are going to beat Fulham next Saturday. The result of the vote was that 8-6 in favour of a 3-0 victory. It then delivers the result of that vote to mr. Bilic along with the requirements that he achieve the result the Board has mandated, that the Board must pick the team it wants him to play, that he is not allowed to play any of our forwards in case they get hurt, and that he must play a six year old girl in goal. And he had better not try to resign over this because he has a contract he must honour.
If you add in the obvious fact that Fulham FC might have a bit to say about the result, you would clearly never run a football club like that.
When the team inevitably loses 7-0 to Fulham and it turns out that the 8 directors who voted in favour are all Fulham supporters, would you want to be in the shoes of those 8 directors???