The drama of Brexit is as gripping as the boredom of it is draining. How is that even possible. But it is actually a thriller as well as a dead cat bounce at the same time.

On the one hand, there is the threat of a new political party forming and challenging the existing main parties, on the other, there is the threat of Tory donors discontinuing their funding, if they allow there to be no deal. Given her apparent obsession with putting her party before her country, it would appear that this would have to be a problem for her.

So one of the apparent breakthroughs of this weekend has been that she seems ready to talk with Corbyn – which would appear to signal a degree of trepidation at last.

This week coming is again being seen as a critical week for the process. It seems apparent that she may be coming around to the view that Britain does not have as many trump cards as it believed it had up to now – unless of course she’s holding some up her sleeve. If she’s not though, then this all could go down in history as the most costly and ridiculous poker bluff of all time – probably not something she’d want to be remembered for.

Meanwhile the Guardian’s Matthew d’Ancona writing today is wondering if MP’s have finally come up with a decent proposal involving a deal – followed by a plebiscite – a proper one this time.

All pointing to the possibility that disaster may still yet be averted and we will look back on these posts wondering if we were stupid to have ever doubted the political experts. But given that both Tony Blair and the  head of the CBI were out on the airwaves again today talking about the Brexit Crisis and the Brexit Emergency – it does have a feel of 5 minutes to midnight already – with the second hand ticking by.

It was all smiles yesterday in Dublin as Theresa May met Leo Varadkar for dinner in Farmleigh. It is no doubt, important for them that they try to keep talking and exploring ideas especially in the light of how truly awful it seems the situation could be becoming in London.

Really Varadkar has little or nothing to lose by rolling out the red carpet to the British Prime Minister and in fact has everything to gain. He clarified earlier in the day in Belfast, that his meetings were not part of the overall negotiation, as the only forum for that is directly with the EU. But it could stand to him in the days and weeks to come that the hand of friendship was extended warmly and kudos to him for doing so.

Not that it will save the Prime Minister, or it seems her country. The reports of the behind the scenes preparations, if you were to believe them, are more than a little shocking, to say the least. Yet all the while the stiff upper lip Briton seems laughingly and jokingly jollying along as though all will be alright on the day. Astonishing looking at it from this distance.

Can it really be possible that Britain is prepared to go all out to do this to themselves.

For those of us who never claimed to be in any way anti-Britain, which would in fact probably make up most of the Irish population, it is in fact sad to see them doing this to themselves. Sad… and scary. The uncertainty that this political escapade could bring about will, if it all continues in the vein it is currently in, will almost certainly see the end of the Union as they know it, with at least Scotland, but probably also with NI. While that is of little concern to most Irish people, it is difficult not to imagine that happening without considerable social upheaval.

The fact that a new “Brexit” Party has been registered and been formally recognised spells a new sort of low for the prospects of the whole episode being overturned. The only thing that it seems will focus minds is the inevitable discomfort that the arrival of Brexit will bring onto the population. When that happens, it is hard to predict how exactly it will develop, it is unlikely to be in a positive direction however.

The main development of the day on Brexit, is the cancelling of the ferry service from the port of Ramsgate leading to calls for the Transport secretary to resign. Can the whole thing get much more farcical?

She can dress it up any way she likes, but the EU negotiators have by now concluded that any deal that they might offer could command a workable majority in the British House of Commons, it’s unlikely to be through Theresa May’s Tory leadership. Even if she is still droning on with her mantra about legally binding changes to the Withdrawal Deal and how she will still deliver Brexit and on time. Guy Verhofstadt assured the press that Mrs. May assured them that there would be a backstop.

Meanwhile the news is striking on the Labour side. And that is that Labour seems set to be punished harshly by it’s electorate if it is seen to give “any” kind of backing for Brexit. So says a Guardian article today following an indicator poll by a Transport Trade Union. The article states – “Brexit is a Tory beast that Labour needs to skewer”. It also notes – “If there is an election in 2019, Labour will get a lower share of the vote in every seat in the country if it has a pro-Brexit policy than if it has an anti-Brexit position.” It is a heavily political article – but it might only reflect the situation as it has become now – not forgetting that the Liberal Democrats failed dismally during the 2017 General Election even though it was the only party to campaign on a Remain ticket.

In a nutshell – while Corbyn’s letter seems more likely to find favour with EU negotiators, it is now still likely to fall foul of Labour grass-root youth supporters who have [late in the day] swung decisively against any form of Brexit. It seems therefore that neither of the leaders of the 2 main parties can do anything to save their skins at this stage, as the clock ticks down.

The EU is very much of the view that Theresa May is only running down the clock. What may be a surprise to her and her Tory party, that that looks to be their plan too. And the statement today from the Bank of England, 2019 could see the weakest growth  in the UK since the crash, mostly because of prolonged uncertainty over Brexit, and that by the Autumn it could already be in recession .

… I’m sorry, could you run that by us again please?

The rhetoric has entered a new phase of “us against them”. Donald Tusk made an astonishing comment about what the special place in hell must look like for Brexiteers who supported Brexit without even a sketch of a plan about how to carry it out safely.

Bravo to him. It has been waiting to be said.

The Brexiters are rattled of course. But that was probably not Tusk’s goal. He’s probably hoping to dash the hopes of the Prime Minister who arrives in Brussels tomorrow who thinks she’s going to get a sympathetic ear.

It is certainly a pity that Anglo-Irish relations have turned so frosty – everyone would have hoped that those days were gone by. Nonetheless, it is hard to see how anyone who can be even moderately in favour of Brexit, can be anything other than at best ignorant about Irish issues, at worst careless about peace in Northern Ireland. This is the type of thoughtless buccaneering which has lead people to vote for questionable short-term causes the world over without giving a fig about the effects such causes will have on others either in the short or long-term.

So Tusk is right in what he says. It’s time someone in his position started talking tough and showing that the silent majority of right-thinking people everywhere also have limited patience and will be less than merciful on outspoken clueless fools [like Brexiters] who disrupt good workable arrangements somehow in the name of disruption for the sake of disruption – or for their own narrow aims even worse.  It’s time we called them out as either with us or against us – and if they’re against us then they’d better have a good plan – if not they need to crawl back under the rock they came out from under – lively.

This morning Kevin O’Malley, former US Ambassador to Ireland spoke about a letter a group of Senators had written to the Taoiseach as well as the Prime Minister. Definitely worthy of a mention considering it could focus minds in Westminster. Click here to hear what he had to say. Quite strong language. On top of this, one of the members of the Friends of Ireland caucus, is also a member of the “Ways & Means” committee in the House of Representatives – one of the groups to decide how GB will enjoy free trade with the US post Brexit.

“… it’s not just that I need to be seen to say that now to get what I want and it’s not just that I’m a politician who will probably get dumped out in the next 6 months anyway and whoever comes after me will give even less of a flyin fig about Ireland and it’s hard border” – T. May.. well didn’t really say this, but she might as well have said it today.

The problem for the Tories and the DUP is well… it’s the economy stupid.. business leaders and farmers in Northern Ireland back the backstop. T. May’s beloved Unionist DUP pretend that the backstop is somehow their mortal undoing.

I don’t believe it’s anything of the sort. In fact I still haven’t heard anyone make a logical argument as to exactly how it even can even be a problem for them- everyone is just blithly taking the DUP’s word for it that the backstop is a major problem, without forcing any real analysis as to exactly how it can be. In fact, the opposite should be presented to them that their farmers and their business people see the benefit of the backstop – are they saying that their own constituents are somehow stupid or ill-informed?

This article [below] by the eminently pragmatic Guardian best sums up where May finds herself with that ridiculous DUP. Of course, anyone who lies down with such dogs will always get up with flees. They seem to revel in the idea that somehow they’re far more politically astute than anyone else, that the rest of us can’t see things as clearly or as far in the distance as they – the wise old sages that they are. I’ve met so many like them.

The truth is in fact – the exact opposite. There is no strategy to their thinking. They simply adopt the contrarian view – no matter how dangerous that might be for them or for their own people. They present as though they’re the great risk-takers, risking going against the grain regardless of the personal short-term risk to themselves – because they’re fighting the good fight for the sake of the great long game.  Again, the truth is, that it doesn’t take any great brain power to simply say “no” to everything that makes practical sense, just in order to draw attention to yourself and your isolationist cause. In fact it takes greater judgement to be able to weigh up each situation on it’s own merits and make a clear-headed stand alone decision even if that means going the route that’s easiest attained.

Was there a person in the country who could understand the DUP position when they campaigned for a Brexit? That decision will come back to haunt them. Unfortunately, it’s likely to haunt all of us, not just them, which is what makes it all the more sickening. In fairness, the Irish government is resisting getting drawn into a side-negotiation with either the DUP or the Tories. At least that is allowing us to distance ourselves and spare us all from the narrow focus of Green v Orange – much as the DUP would appear to crave such a victimization of themselves. If we can get through this crisis without reverting to that old chestnut – it will have been a great days work.

Not even a subvention of a £60m sweetener was enough to convince Nissan that it should keep it’s new xTrail line in Britain. Many of the manufacturers have already said that they are going to cease production temporarily in the event of a no deal.

Reason, Common sense and prudence

Simon Coveney has put things very clearly for anyone who’s interested about the position Ireland finds itself – “What Ireland is being asked to do by some in Westminster is to essentially do away with an agreed solution between the UK government and EU negotiators and to replace it with wishful thinking. And I think that’s a very unreasonable request to ask the Irish government to be flexible on,”

Senator George Mitchell also got a look in today in the US in an interview in which he asked whether a no deal Brexit will lead to a hard border on the island of Ireland – his answer was to employ Reason, Common sense and Prudence.

The message from Barnier was also reiterated by another Dutch Minister today at the border who claims the Netherlands is full square behind the Irish position.

With Nissan announcing today that it has scrapped plans to launch the manufacture of one of it’s new models the X-Trail at Sunderland, this is the reality of Brexit coming home to roost both on an electorate who voted leave, as well as on MP’s who believed they could dispel such consequences simply by castigating it as “project fear”. They were all wrong.

However as if it’s not bad enough being wrong in the run up to this point, they are still eager to go on being wrong by admonishing  for example the company and the business secretary for letting this happen. As though their very deliberate actions and decisions carry no blame for this happening – even though they were warned it would.

This appears to be an absolute lack of leadership at the heart of the British political system.

It’s hard to have any pity for the voters who tolerate [at best] the delusion of their MP’s, yet it’s hard to blame just the MP’s because the system seems to be so flawed as to tolerate this level of disconnectedness from reality. The media, it would appear, should also carry some of the blame for not adequately holding the representatives feet to the fire. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with glib one-liners as the get-out to all awkward questions. These job losses come on top of job cuts at other manufacturers from Airbus to Ford to Jaguar Land Rover.. you’d wonder how many more companies will need to announce cuts before the media actually starts to hold the High Priests of the Brexit cult to proper account.

In other news, there’s been a suggestion today there could be elections in the UK on 6th June – what are the chances that will freshen up the situation. Not great I’d suggest. There needs to be a deal more of the type of down-side to their beloved political fiaso as outlined above, before the voter will really take it out on the current crop of circus clowns.

And in still other news – there is apparently a plan to revive old cold-war plans to evacuate the Monarch in the event of civil unrest on account of a no deal Brexit.

This evening the iWeekend in London is displaying the front page headline that Dublin is Under Pressure from EU to help find Brexit backstop Compromise to save May’s deal.

What a load of rubbish, pandering to an audience which wants to read this. But the article contains nothing other than speculation about the prospect of pressure from the EU.

Speaking of rubbish, The Guardian which is unabashedly anti-Brexit is warning of Putrefying piles of Refuse building up under no deal.

Meanwhile Reuters is also reporting that the Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, is also saying that Britain must quickly spell out it’s solutions. Even though the reality is, there aren’t any solutions. He also said “On the backstop, Germany and the whole (European) Union stand firmly at Ireland’s side. We will not allow Ireland to be isolated on this issue.”  Reassuring, at least ahead of next week’s visit by Varadkar to Brussels to hold talks with Donald Tusk, in preparation for a no deal scenario, in particular a request for emergency aid for Irish agriculture.

The latest desperate stunt to get the Brexit deal over the line is to “buy” parliamentary votes from Labour MP’s by promising cash for their constituency areas. The other subject which is also dominating the airwaves is the possibility of extra time.

How is it possible for a whole population of people who have had good education, access to a free media, first world prosperity and well traveled worldly perspectives “not” see the validity of the warnings they are being given day in day out, about a No Deal Brexit? How are they not protesting in their millions against the direction of travel of their House of Commons.

Well one of the possible answers is that according to Channel 4 News last night, the social media monster is already in over-drive, whipping up the No Deal lobby.

There was yet more stark warnings today about a 50% drop to investments in the car industry in 2018.

Barclays bank was also given leave to transfer €190bn worth of assets to Ireland ahead of the actual Brexit date.

Maybe, it’s better that the general population isn’t paying attention to all of the news. However, when the penny does start to drop, what happens then. The potential for hysteria has to be very considerable.

The best commentary so far on the entire debacle to date is by Rafael Behr of the Guardian.

It’s been a day of commentary by serious brains on the EU side such as Philippe Lambert comparing Brexit to what happened in Grexit. That was about the single currency – Brexit is about the single market. And he made the point that it was not just for Ireland – it’s for the integrity of the single market.

Basically the EU is stone-walling Theresa May.  It also emerged in this news bulletin that despite the basic lies being pedaled by the Hard Brexiters the port system at Dover is not ready for customs checks.

Meanwhile another story today was that Dominic Raab accused the Irish Taoiseach of leaking a conversation they had together back in October to the Daily Telegraph – in the classic style of a school yard bully who is running out of options. A spokesperson for the Irish Gov said if he has any evidence of this he should produce it. His accusation coming out today – almost amounting to incitement.

It’s a pity the whole last couple of days are turning out to be so unedifying for the British Parliament. Yet the cool heads on the EU and Irish side do seem to be holding firm.  Not even the event of Jeremy Corbyn attending a meeting with Theresa May seems to have raised any expectations of anything constructive – although he is in favour of a customs union.