Beyond Brexit

This week Brexit reached its Somme. The government has been bogged down in votes on amendments inserted into its Brexit bill by the House of Lords. Theresa May saw off the threat of cabinet resignations only to have a more junior minister resign, as he put it, in order to voice the concerns of his constituents (although, as has been pointed out, a majority of them actually voted to leave the EU).

It all looks a mess. The Brexit process would have been unpleasant enough with the small majority which the Prime Minister inherited from David Cameron. After losing even that, it has become a game of internal pork-barrel politics — Downing Street has had to offer potential rebels just enough to satisfy their eager snouts without undermining the whole purpose: to leave the EU, the single market and the customs union.

Conservative rebels like to point out that only the first of those things was included on the referendum paper faced by voters two years ago, and that there is room for interpretation on the latter two.