Will Theresa May’s Brexit deal end up in the dustbin?

Because Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been so long in the coming – almost two and a half years – and has been so comprehensively trailed and leaked, yesterday’s formal ratification of the terms of our departure from the EU and the shape of our possible future relationship with the EU feels like the mother of all anti-climaxes. But cynicism and lethargy are to be resisted: that ratification really matters. Because because – at last we have THE DEAL.

Until yesterday, everything about Brexit was presumption, speculation, rumour and hypothesis. Finally we know what Brexit means to a Prime Minister who had no other job but to find out what it means. Her deal has a decent number of known knowns: the €42bn divorce bill, that EU migrants living here and British migrants living in the EU can stay where they are without detriment, that free movement to the UK from the rest of the EU will end, inter alia.