Brexiteers may have blown their big chance, but Remainers have done far worse

Have Leavers just blown their best chance of Brexit in a subconscious sort of way, because deep down, they never really wanted it? Matthew Parris makes this case in a typically eloquent Spectator column this week. He might be right, but they have not blown it quite so badly as Remainers have.

Imagine how events would have turned out this week had the great mythical new political party of the centre actually existed – if it had an organisational structure ready to pounce on its big opportunity, along with a smattering of MPs of other parties ready to jump ship. Imagine if, in the 24 hours between the Brexit vote and the no-confidence vote, it had suddenly risen, serpent-like. It wouldn’t have taken many Tory defectors to tear up their party cards, declare that the Conservatives were under the control of Jacob Rees-Mogg and his demented Brexiteer chums who would do anything to achieve a catastrophic no-deal Brexit, and that the only way forward now was for a new political party of the centre, uniting the likes of Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston with Chuka Umunna and Yvette Cooper.