Robert Peston (HERE) has spoken to some (unnamed) cabinet ministers following May's article in The Telegraph at the weekend where she once again promised to deliver Brexit "on time". It has been clear to me for months that leaving an March 29th is simply out of the question, deal or no deal. For us to leave on schedule would require several miracles and an ending like a cheap Sci-Fi movie where a lot of incredibly complex and far-fetched things come together in the last seconds to save the world, all working perfectly without ever being tested.
In a country that cannot even change a railway timetable without chaos this is never going to happen. At the moment we have politicians of rare stupidity but I don't believe any of them are quite that stupid.
Anyway, Peston must have been surprised to read Theresa May's piece and so he went and asked some members of the cabinet what they made of it:
"Farcical" said one. "Total delusion" said another. "Verifiably untrue" said a third.
It's not that they doubt Theresa May is working to take the UK out of the EU. It's just they cannot see how it is remotely possible that departure can be achieved in the less-than eight weeks remaining before the official leaving day.
Either Mrs May is either dafter than anybody realises or she's telling a lie. I lean towards the lie.
She simply cannot take it to the wire and I expect in the next couple of weeks she will have to announce a delay or at the very least drop hints that she is going to ask for an extension. It beggars belief that more than two and a half years after the referendum and her becoming leader we still have no clear idea what Brexit means - beyond Brexit that is. It's hard to think of any other modern nation that could have got itself into such an unholy mess.
And if Peston's cabinet contacts were sceptical about March 29th they were equally incredulous about the Home Secretary's claim on TV at the weekend about 'alternative arrangements' for the backstop:
"And to digress briefly, Sajid Javid's statement on Sunday on The Andrew Marr Show that alternative technological arrangements to the backstop 'can be done' was described as 'laughably absurd' by one of his close colleagues with knowledge of the latest thinking of HMRC and the Border Force".
This is the problem in cabinet. While the PM wanted to reach some sort of 'balance' among senior ministers she has ended up with two rival factions each of which thinks the other is absurd. It is not only parliament that cannot make its mind up and reach a consensus, neither can the cabinet. As for the PM's mind nobody knows what's in it anyway. Probably only survival now.
Ben Bradley, the simple minded MP for Mansfield is one of those 'confident' that Brexit will be delivered on time (HERE)
Ben Bradley, the simple minded MP for Mansfield is one of those 'confident' that Brexit will be delivered on time (HERE)
