MPs are playing with fire

The biggest problem with any extension is the total absence of trust. We know why the remainers are pushing for an extension. They are hoping this enterprise will run out of steam and by some twist of fate we end up remaining. It could very well be that looming threat that sees the ERG brigade folding at the third attempt to pass Mrs May's deal.

Frankly, I could not be more disgusted that they would put us in this position to begin with. Ok, so the deal is far from ideal, and falls short of what we would consider a good deal, but it is at least a withdrawal agreement that sets us off on the road to departure. Instead of ratifying that, the ERG fools have played double or quits, pitting their widely discredited no deal agenda against a house that has a majority resolve to avoid no deal at all costs.

Instead of gearing up to celebrate Brexit day on the 29th, I can't now say for certain that we are leaving. There is still every chance we could crash out through procrastination or we could delay in order to fanny around for a couple of extra months only to be hit with the same dilemma, but this is now entirely contingent on what the EU opinion on extending is. If we are looking at a longer period and holding European Parliament elections, Then it's anyone's guess which way this goes.

As much as remaining would be a bitter pill to swallow, the bitterest of all pills would be remaining on account of the Brexit hijackers in the Tory party. There are days when I wonder if Rees-Mogg and his ERG cronies aren't deep state plants working for the remain camp. They can wail about the remainers all they like but nobody has gone more out of their way to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory.

But no matter. For them, having control of the narrative, they have their own get out of jail free card with the narrative that May's deal "is not Brexit". They will cynically claim that an exit was never on the table. The rank and file will buy it and the culprits will slink away scot free.

But then at this point, I have stopped making the distinction between remain or leave politicians. For the duration of this parliament they had one job. To deliver Brexit, preferably with a deal and preferably without trashing the economy. Collectively they'll have failed. Collectively they'll have dishonoured themselves and in so doing wrecked what is left of our so-called democracy.

From there I don't know how this goes. I don't see a mass protest on the horizon. The Waitrose Warriors are more predisposed to waving placards. That's not the leave way. We vote our way to victory. Or at least that used to be the case. Should we remain the whole deal collapses.

If we do remain I'm not going to riot. I've never seen what smashing the windows of shops is ever supposed to achieve. I'm also not a violent man. I am certainly prone to seething gammonesque rages in a shout at the telly sort of way, but the violent path leads only to a police cell. What I can see happening, though, being that it is already starting to happen, is more and more credible threats aimed at MPs and harassment in the places where they go. Some of them are going to get hurt.

In that case I'm certainly not going to condone it but shan't exactly be brimming with sympathy either. I'm far from alone in saying that Brexit has been my central political preoccupation of my lifetime, and to have it stolen in the final hours by parliament is not a recoverable position for them.

From the looks of it on Twitter, a fair few politicians seem to think that if they revoke Article 50 they can ride out the storm and then wounds will heal over time. That is not going to happen. It's not like leavers are going to start dying off in droves as they imagine. I'm only forty and god willing have at least another thirty years or so to have my revenge. This whole process has been a major recruitment drive for a generational cause which didn't dies in 1975 and it won't die in 2019.

From here there is no question of ever voting for the Tories ever again. My vote was on loan to them in 2015 to get that referendum. The only option will be to vote for whatever party is viewed as the most obnoxious by the establishment. I really don't care what labels they want to use to try to contain it, because it's not going to work this time. If the Tories deny us Brexit then we shall deny them power.

What the great and the good seem to forget is that part of the reason we are here to begin with is an overall disenfranchisement of leave voters. We've been able to choose from the full rainbow of a narrow band of social democrats. Even if they could radically change policies they wouldn't. A failure to leave the EU would be to seal the deal that we don't get a say in who governs us.

Politicians are itching to ditch Brexit. Remaining is the answer to all the technical questions which distract them from their every day trivia. It also kills stone dead any serious discussion about policy reform in a number of areas because it's all decided for them. Banking, fishing, road haulage, agriculture, space policy and much beyond is all done for them in Brussels and to a large extent they don't even have to rubber stamp it. They can enjoy all the trappings of office with none of the actual work that goes with it.

Remaining also removes the issue of democratic reform. For sure they will feel the need to tinker with the voting system and maybe junk the House of Lords, but only as a figleaf of a reform - a bone to throw after they've completely abandoned Brexit. It means their grip on power over us is not in any way threatened and their agendas remain in play even if we vote them out of office.

That may well by them some stability and a stay of execution in that we are largely powerless to do anything about them, except for the pointless general election rituals which seldom ever matter. They are, though, overlooking the fact that our patience with them is totally exhausted. One way or another there comes a reckoning. Too much is wrong in the country to simply sweep this all under the rug and pretend it never happened. They can perhaps pretend to themselves that we've moved on but this is not something we will forgive - or forget.