Nineteen months after the referendum and ten months from Article 50 being triggered there is still no agreement inside the cabinet about what Brexit means - apart from Brexit. This is clear from Hammond's comments in Davos that we are moving apart only "modestly". His words have been firmly rejected by No 10 (HERE).
This morning, Jeremy Hunt (Jeremy Hunt!) is on Radio 4 trying to explain it - and failing.
Hunt seems to be saying we will move apart from the EU but we will nevertheless not be completely isolated. He was a remainer but is now talking like a Brexiteer, saying after Brexit we will take control of our money, our laws and our borders. We already control 99.3% of our money and we have always controlled our own laws as every other EU nation has. And we are outside Schengen so we have control our own borders now.
What an utter shambles it all is. A huge split is coming in the Conservative party. Their thirty years of argument are coming to a conclusion. We are finally to see the EU question resolved by the Tories in the only possible way. By separating into two, distinct parts, the pro EU section and the loonies on the extreme right who are all tinpot Lord Palmerstons as far as the rest of the world outside these shores are concerned. It will not end well.
When Theresa May launched her bid to become prime minister she seemed pleased that Ken Clarke thought she was a "bloody difficult woman" and told us the next person to discover it would be Jean Claude Juncker. In fact it was the Conservative party itself and the right wing press who have found out she's "bloody difficult". She is absolutely useless but refuses to go
Janet Daley in The Telegraph HERE says Mrs May is incapable of delivering a meaningful speech and says her effort yesterday in Davos was full of platitudes. Ms Daley was lucky there was anything in it at all. After some of her efforts we should be grateful for platitudes.
Nick Boles says she is too timid HERE and Jacob Rees-Mogg is unhappy that she seems to be leaning towards a soft Brexit. The Independent report on a fresh leadership challenge is HERE
There are two clocks ticking for Theresa. The one in Europe and another one in the Tory party.
