Brexit: time to give up?

The prime minister's statement at the start of the Chequers cabinet talks today certainly seems to make it clear that Brexit cometh. "We must continue to be very clear that “Brexit means Brexit”,", she says:

"...that we’re going to make a success of it. That means there’s no second referendum; no attempts to sort of stay in the EU by the back door; that we’re actually going to deliver on this."

Oh, dear. Have we Remainers who hope for sanity to prevail come to the end of the road? When you add in the line at the end of the BBC's coverage of this story - that Number 10 has said Parliament won't be consulted before the activation of Article 50 - it may be time to decide between angry, sad or puking emoticons ready for use when the miserable day finally arrives.

After all, the future that Theresa May is hinting at is one where the government produces a surprisingly positive vision of Brexit, everybody starts to think it might be OK, and she just pings off an email titled "Re: thanks for everything" to Jean-Claude Juncker. Easy as pie.

Now, we can speculate (and we probably will) about Theresa May's real convictions on Europe and her motives in office. (For my part I think she's decided that clarity and firmness are for the best, and that she is taking the bull by the horns rather than allowing herself to become bogged down in a messy argument over Europe like five or six of her immediate predecessors).

But whatever we think she's up to, whether she really wants out or whether she does have a game plan to keep us in, we all have to dance to her tune. And she has made it plain that the constitutional route to salvation may not be open to us. She has to act, either through conviction or convenience, like the Brexit prime minister. She cannot be seen to be soft. She clearly does not feel that going back to Parliament is defensible - perhaps because it will enrage the frothing Leavers and terminate her ministry. She will therefore press ahead when the moment comes. We should not ignore the constitutional implications of this potential route, by any means; but what May is telling us is that we cannot rely on a constitutional hiccup to save us from Brexit.

Constitutional tools are not available to us, then. But political tools remain. May proposed to act in a way consistent with her chosen identity as a modern Iron Lady: firm, accepting of the Brexit "verdict", clear about her power. But she has yet put in place pauses and delays, which allow the debate to develop and the players to build their cause. To build a Remain cause now around the hope of constitutional salvation seems a closed road. There's not even much point arguing about whether or not such a method, of relying on constitutional diddling based on the current situation - the "referendums are advisory, dontcherknow" approach - would ever be legitimate. What we have to do is shift the sands. The avenue open to us - the avenue that Mrs May is leaving open to us, deliberately or not - is political. We may find help from the Supreme Court or the House of Lords, but unless there is real, public anger with the passage of Brexit, a feeling that the alternative we have got is indeed worse than what anybody wanted, and a proper understanding that this is madness--or at least, enough persuasion that EU membership is the better option--then nothing will stand.

We have to stop theorising, diddling, dithering, hoping and regretting. We have to start persuading. Now.