Did the Whistle Blow?

There is a very English flavour to a political crisis in which, against modern convention, the Queen feels it her duty to say something. But rather than a formal summons to Buckingham Palace, a tea and cake celebration at the local Women’s Institute with a carefully crafted and well coded message delivered to the ladies but aimed at Westminster and the country at large, grabbed the headlines and found its mark.We wait to see whether due attention will be paid by her ministers and their opposition shadows, who are hers too.

Parliament at large is not quite so hers, history tells us that, and it is here that there are signs of tectonic plates moving. A majority is beginning to emerge to defer Article 50 to allow more time to negotiate a deal acceptable to both parliament and the EU. That has caused a crisis of realism among the hard Brexiteers, who now fear such a move could eventually lead to the cancelling of Brexit altogether. Poll after poll shows the country is now against the whole project. So they are making noises about fig leaves being found to cover their inadequacies in return for backing May’s deal. A half Brexit, they tell themselves, is better than no Brexit at all. Sooner or later somebody had to blink.

So May could pull it off against all the odds. On the other hand parliament might wrest control and go for an even softer Brexit, or even, and this is very much the elephant in the room, go for another referendum. For all that the spotlight is on Corbyn.

It is not over yet. Even though that whistle blew.