It is difficult to recall a time when there appears literally no way out for the Tory party when, at the same time, it is in government. Its party conference next week threatens to become a spectacle for ghouls, disinterested in the politics and ravenous for the bloodletting. Yet such is the unpredictability of politics at the moment, none can reliably speculate on a likely outcome for anything. Anything at all.
As things now stand at the moment of typing, we are told the cabinet unanimously backs the Chequers deal, already rejected by the EU and certain of defeat in the Commons. This is because Labour, which opposes Chequers, will vote against it in the Commons and will be joined by the Tory hard Brexiteers, led by the nappy phobic Rees-Mogg. The Scot Nats and the Lib Dems will join in. That will bring about the collapse of the government and a general election. Somewhere in the mix may be a second referendum.
So it is unlikely that the government will stick to Chequers and will instead line up behind some compromise deal agreed at the last minute with the EU. But that might very well meet the same fate. The problem with Theresa May’s administration is that, split from the very start, it has not been, in the real meaning of the word, a government in power. It has been, and still is, an argument in progress.