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| Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna, by Antonio Tempesta (1608). The MET |
If you have wondered why this blog has been silent since December, despite all the shenanigans with Brexit, it is because the basic situation has not changed. Parliament is gridlocked over the withdrawal agreement and refuses to approve it, the EU says that it it is up to the UK to come up with an alternative realistic proposal for changes to what already agreed and signed with the rest of the EU. The Prime Minister must feel that she is fighting the proverbial many headed Hydra. No matter what she proposes, another ugly head raises itself and blocks her move, whether in the right or wrong direction.
Meanwhile business is getting increasingly worried about the possibility of the UK crashing out without an agreement, with supermarkets and other suppliers considering stockpiling products that normally arrive from the EU within a day or two. Major car manufacturers are intending to have a break over the Brexit period in March and are reconsidering or even withdrawing their investment in the UK.
The one possible new light on the horizon is the resignation of 8 Labour MPs and three Conservative MPs and their setting up a group (not a party) that aims to be in the centre. They claim they are escaping from parties pulled radically to their respective political left or right wings. Is this the birth of a middle ground common sense, trying to rise from the mire of navel gazing Westminster politics.
Or is it just a new head on the Hydra?
