The lawyers are taking back control of Brexit

Should the UK’s decision to leave the UK be settled in an argument between seven male white middle-aged Tory lawyers plus one woman of Indian ancestry and – on the other side – a single white middle-aged male Tory lawyer?

Because arguably that is what’s happening, in the current off-stage conversation over a possible reform to the Northern Ireland backstop between the Tory Brexit European Research Group’s “star chamber” of eight lawyers, on the one hand, and the attorney general Geoffrey Cox – whose outcome could well decide whether Theresa May’s Brexit deal, with all its massive implications for this nation’s future, is approved in the coming nine days.

Because if Cox can satisfy the star chamber that the backstop is not forever – and personally I feel it is highly improbable that he will – then most of the rebel ERG Brexiter MPs will be converted to May loyalism at the very last, and her deal will pass.