GROUNDHOG DAY IN No 10

The prime minister seems to have thrown herself on the mercy of the EU27 according to this extraordinary report by Peter Foster at The Telegraph (behind a paywall but read it HERE). He claims Mrs May has stunned  European leaders into disbelief by ringing round in the last few days and asking for exactly the same things she asked for at the December summit and which they had refused.

She is said to be demanding "a legally binding time-limit for the Irish backstop; a right for the UK to withdraw unilaterally, or a hard commitment to finalising a trade deal before 2021 to avoid the backstop coming into force". All of which the EU have already rejected.

Before the meaningful vote it was being suggested that if the vote was close, 'close' being described as a defeat of less than 70, she would try again at some later date.  In fact the defeat was 230, one might say it was a world record distance away, but she carries on anyway.

Most commentators and it seems now EU leaders, thought she would revise her plan but no, in spite of a massive rejection she is making exactly the same demands as she did last month, as if nothing has changed.

Foster reports:

"But her decision to plough on, apparently undeterred by the rejection, has now led EU diplomats to conclude that Mrs May is still “playing for time” and believes a version of her deal - with a concession on the backstop - will eventually go through Parliament".

It's hard to know whether to admire her tenacity and single minded determination or shake your head at the sheer pathetic, bull-headed stubbornness.

More amazingly, at least to me, the German foreign minister has apparently given an interview where he says the EU should think about reopening the Withdrawal Agreement to see if anything might be done. The anonymous diplomat who provides the basis for Foster's report says this is still unlikely but not quite as impossible as before. I cannot see this happening. It would certainly need an extension to Article 50 and would open up other demands from Spain (over Gibraltar), France and Denmark (on fishing rights). It might take months.

Her demands appear to focus on the backstop but I don't even believe this is the only problem anyway. Many MPs are concerned about the role of the ECJ while others object to paying £39 billion without knowing what the future trade deal will be.

The Guardian seems to think she is tacking towards the hard-line ERG (HERE) but after the meetings with other parties at the end of last week she was said to be in classic ‘listening mode’ which I assume means nobody knows what she's thinking. The phone calls to other EU leaders seem to show 'nothing has changed'.

I wonder what passes through her mind. She is trying to force onto the nation a deal that MPs have already rejected decisively and which has only about 20-30% support among the people. She is acting more like a medieval monarch than the prime minister of a minority government. Unless the Brexit settlement has substantial majority support among the electorate of 60% +  it is hard to see how it will unite the leave and remain sides and provide a durable long term solution. If she does manage to force her version of the deal through it will never provide a lasting settlement.

After she lost her majority at the 2017 election she is said to have told a meeting of MPs that she had got the party into the mess and she would get them out. They believed her, which shows what a gullible bunch of simpletons they are. Instead she has simply made the mess worse.

Note this report on PoliticsHome (HERE) about splits appearing in cabinet. The final paragraphs:

But one Cabinet minister told PoliticsHome that whatever option Mrs May chose to break the deadlock, the Tory Party would split. 

They said: "There is nothing that won’t (split the party). To her credit the PM has tried to avoid it, but it’s not possible any more."

Bring - it - on.