Last night, Theresa May flew to Strasbourg to have a meeting with Juncker, this being the 11th hour so many Brexiters have predicted would be the moment of total EU capitulation. Both May and Juncker emerged triumphant at a press conference late last night, the British prime minister declaring that she’s got the deal now that everyone can unite around.
Has she? Well, that depends, as ever, on the brainpower and collective naivety of the ERG group. She has leaned on this in the past and got what she needed – the best example being in December 2017, when she slid the backstop past them all somehow. Yes, the very same backstop they have been complaining about these last few months, they all declared a shining victory a couple of Christmases ago.
The changes made to the deal, are well, actually, there are no changes to the deal whatsoever. It is the exact same deal that was voted down in the House of Commons by 230 votes. What was agreed between the UK and the EU last night was so minuscule, calling it a codpiece would be glorifying it; declaring it a fig leaf is stretching it.
If the deal passes, it will be one of the funniest things to ever happen in the history of British politics. The ERG will have shown themselves to be like a man who insists he won’t eat the meal a restaurant waiter has brought him because in his own words “everything is wrong with it”, but then decides to tuck in happily once an olive on a toothpick is placed on the top of his food.
It will make a mockery of everything that the ERG supposedly stands for. You can fill in the punchline from here.
No.