"The EU has never really understood that brexit was all about holding the Tory party together. So the EU never had a counter-party to negotiate with. "

I think EU leaders understood this well enough, and were willing to give her as much latitude as possible in order to avoid a mutually damaging no deal Brexit. I think Salzburg finally disabused them of the delusion that she would be able to deliver on a deal and that they had better start working on plan B: Prepare for a no deal Brexit and hope that someone who could deliver on a deal takes her place.

I actually think that someone like BoJo could actually have the audacity to agree a deal absolutely unthinkable now and sell it to the Brexiteers as a win. He needs to find a way to topple her and buy off the DUP with some shameless bribery or chicanery without precipitating a general election.

The almost universal rejection of Chequers is her epitaph - like Camberlain's Munich "peace in our time" agreement with Hitler. Now she just has to go, if she has the wit to recognize it.

Index of Frank's Diaries