If careerist Tories back Theresa May’s deal, it will destroy British democracy

MPs can’t indulge the prime minister’s behaviour because people are a bit tired and fed up. They have a duty to let the people resolve the messy situation their leaders have created

So now that MPs have decided they’re against every possible Brexit option, what do we do? Where do we go?

There is one school of thought that says it’s time to end this. Back the deal. Give the country the certainty it’s crying out for and let its unloved prime minister ride off into the sunset so someone else can get on with the long neglected job of fixing it.

In some respects this is understandable. But it is also profoundly wrong.

War metaphors have abounded during this grim chapter of Britain’s story. They’ve typically been misused by conmen and charlatans who spent their history lessons flicking spitballs at each other.

But, if you forgive me, it’s possible to see one here if you look back to the period before the Brexiteers’ beloved Second World War and to the Treaty of Versailles, which played such an important role in the creation of the 20th century’s greatest disaster.

As it eventually did in Germany after the First World War, signing off on May’s deal could be expected to usher in a period of relief. A Tory Weimar Republic. But it is one that would evaporate with the dawning of reality, and with far greater speed.

May’s “deal” will see Britain out of the EU, and in a transition period, during which it will be required to shell out £39bn while negotiating a new trading relationship with no leverage. To do this, the Conservatives will (likely) install a hard-right wing leader even more in hock to the Brexiteer ultras than May has been.

To keep them onside, they will feel the need to play the role of the action hero facing down the Brussels baddies. So get set for a lot of pointless and counterproductive huffing and puffing that could end up blowing us all down.

Before too long, business will be screaming blue murder again, as the certainty it hoped for evaporates. The country will remain paralysed, with Brexit continuing to dominate the agenda.

Schools will be sacking teachers, kids will carry on getting stabbed on the streets, the NHS will creak, the social care system will move closer to collapse, more local authorities will be declared bankrupt. Weimer didn’t exactly have a party by comparison, but you get the picture.

Compromise is a word that is used a lot right now. Most of the time it’s laudable. Conflicting positions emerge throughout life, and people mostly meet somewhere in between them, with each taking something away from the process.

But there is such a thing as a bad compromise. That is what the May deal is. A very bad one. It represents the worst of all worlds. It is the one thing upon which Remainers and Brexiteers actually agree, hence not one but two historic House of Commons defeats.

It strips the UK of its privileged position in the EU and replaces it with a host of new problems for an incompetent government and its exhausted and put upon civil servants to try and solve.

No, parliament didn’t find a way through the quicksand. But at least one of the proposals tabled by MPs last night came close to finding support: Ken Clarke’s plan for a customs union.

It is an improvement upon what May’s offers, created as it was through the foolish imposition of “red lines” born of bigotry and Tory dogma. It solves the vexed question of the Irish border, and the infamous backstop. But it otherwise has many of the same flaws.

The better, more democratic plan of putting the situation back to the people, of asking us what we want, wasn’t that far behind.

Compromise requires conversation, and that’s what MPs haven’t had, because our prime minister hasn’t allowed one. Instead she has indulged in badgering and bullying. She has had to be hauled back by the courts on at least one occasion, and by parliament on others. As a result, she took to inciting violence against MPs. Successfully, it should be pointed out.

Her latest gambit, maybe her last gambit, is her attempt to sell her country down a polluted river to satisfy the cynical careerism of the likes of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove by promising to resign if they and their allies will hold their noses and back her.

To indulge that sort of a behaviour because people are a bit tired and fed up would be a dangerous folly.

MPs should remember where Versailles ended up.

They have an opportunity here to put democracy first and let the people resolve the messy situation their leaders have created. Eventually someone will have to find a way forward. Whatever it is demands that the people are given a say. It is our future after all.

For the sake of the country, MPs must recognise that and seize the day.