Every effort must be made to avoid no deal

My opinion is that we have had a referendum and it was a free and fair vote that produced an unarguable result. Ballot boxes were not tampered with and was about as clean as such an endeavour ever could be. There are those who believe that the grubby shenanigans at Vote Leave are grounds to nullify the vote. But as we have seen just lately, with Change UK spending the most on social media advertising in the euro-elections, no amount of internet jiggery pokery can buy a particular outcome. The 2016 vote must be upheld.

That, though, is the fullest extent of my agreement with Brexiteers. I had previously considered a no deal Brexit as an instrument of last resort. Now that we are there, with parliament steadfastly refusing to ratify any withdrawal agreement, and seemingly no choice but to press the nuclear button, I think we are duty bound to do whatever it takes to avoid leaving without a deal. It's too much pain or no discernible advantage.

In recent months we have seen the likes of Mogg and Baker telling us there is a magical solution in WTO Article 24, but of itself that is an admission that no deal is not a viable end point and that no deal cannot stay no deal. So by their own admission, we would be seeking to invoke an arcane piece of international law as a sticking plaster - one which doesn't even begin to address the full array of concerns and deals mainly with tariffs which are only a bit part of the problem.

They fail to to grasp that the EU acquis is not just a list of rules. It is a system of government. A system upon which much of our trade and cooperation has evolved inside for the last half century. You cannot pull the plug and expect anything to function even half as well and certainly not without meticulous planning and watertight contingency measures. If you believe government reassurances that we are adequately prepared then I have a bridge to sell you.

The only argument for no deal is the rather fatalistic view that politics has drifted so far from reality that no deal is inevitable and we might as well just bite the bullet and try to make the best of it. It all seems rather hopeless and anyone holding out for an amicable orderly exit is probably more deluded than even the no dealers.

This, though, is a question that we cannot afford to get wrong. The decisions made in the next few months will decide the UK's international standing for the next century. A no deal Brexit could well see us becoming a weakened supplicant of the EU as we cave into virtually any demand in order to re-establish our deep economic cooperation with the EU. The promise of buccaneering free trade will soon hit the rocks if it hasn't already. Every effort must be made to keep the Article 50 process alive even if that means further delay.

Some worry that if there is further delay then Parliament kicks Brexit into the long grass. That much is a risk but the the Brexiteers share the sole blame for that. They may have won the 2016 poll but they certainly didn't win the argument for leaving without a deal. The ERG have managed to turn many moderates off the idea of Brexit entirely and now conclude that it simply isn't worth it.

For me it's simply a matter of if you are going to do something then do it properly. No deal is a resignation and a shortcut to nowhere. The UK will always need a deep and comprehensive relationship with the EU for as long as it exists and no deal ducks the issue entirely leaving others to clear up the mess at a massive cost to the country.

There are times when I feel like I'm a lone voice out on my own but my view is not entirely without support. It just isn't represented in the national debate. The media has given ample airtime to the demagogues of Brexit allowing them to own the narrative, pitting hardcore leavers against hardcore remainers just to watch the sparks fly. The media has abandoned its obligation to inform and treats politics as yet another channel of entertainment where you pick your team and cheer them on. This is no basis on which to make a seismic constitutional decision.

Similarly the Twittersphere is in no way representative of the country as a whole. It tends to be the domain of activists and political obsessives, most of whom are in hock to an established narrative. No deal may have been popularised among a narrow strand of Brexiters of the Ukip 2.0 persuasion but that is far from a majority view. There is no explicit mandate for terminating all formal relations with the EU.

This is where parliament seriously needs to get its act together. If one trend is becoming apparent then it is that the Brexit issue is carving up politics and eroding the capacity of either main party to win outright. It must recognise that a failure to deliver Brexit will keep British politics off balance for a decade or more, extending the uncertainty which will no doubt lead to economic stagnation. A cross party alliance may well be able to keep Brexit at bay during this time, but in so doing would be unleashing a darkness in politics that cannot be contained.

Here parliament needs to realise that their only realistic chance of avoiding no deal now or in the future is to ratify a withdrawal agreement. Thus far the opposition to the deal is largely based on a fundamental opposition to Brexit rather than the deal itself, at which point parliament is acting in open defiance of the 2016 vote for which there are far reaching consequences.

This is simply a case of the losers refusing to accept defeat which makes this less about Brexit and brings the whole basis of our democracy into question. For some, that is the whole basis of their demand to leave without a deal. There are a great many no dealers who would rather have a deal but simply do not see any other option. Parliament alone is responsible for that.

Thus far parliament has been crippled by indecision. They have been instructed by the electorate to do something that goes against all of their political instincts. By asserting their own supremacy they are effectively telling us that they rule over us, and though we may have the opportunity to periodically replace our dictators, we ourselves are not the masters of our own destiny. That, not Brexit, is the constitutional emergency. For all the outrage at the suggestion that a no deal prime minister could prorogue parliament, they might well take some time out to consider how it came to be that it might be the only way to ensure the 2016 vote is honoured.