Remember the good old days, simpler times when the consequences of our actions were still some way off and we consoled ourselves that meaningless rhetoric really could overcome the cold hard reality of untangling ourselves from forty years of harmonisation with the EU? Brexit was Brexit! It's a red, white and blue Brexit! We're going to have a hard Brexit! How easy it all seemed. But this week was yet another reality check on the fantasy, when Brexit's complexities were further magnified and the impossible positions of the two main parties came to look even more exposed and short-sighted. 'Hard Brexit' - it doesn't even come close.
Monday:
The Labour Party in Opposition: a party of business taking bold, pragmatic decisions with a leader willing to compromise principles to snatch power. Blair in 1996? Yes. And now Corbyn in 2018. His announcement that Labour now supports Customs Union membership was a big shift. 'Comrades, let us join our friends in Turkey, Andorra and the Isle of Man!' is not what he said, but in realigning Labour's Brexit policy in favour of Britain's continued participation in the Customs Union he was doing exactly that. Of course fans of trade negotiations will know that one disadvantage of a Customs Union is that members can't negotiate their own trade deals with other countries. All of which probably makes Labour's shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner feel pretty redundant right now. Of course Remainers would have liked to see Corbyn go further - full membership of the single market. Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - members of the European Economic Area (EEA) - are single market members whilst being outside of EU membership. There really is an art form to taking bad decisions and selling them as good. Corbyn managed it with aplomb this week. It's almost like he's settled into this whole business of leadership.
Tuesday:
Sir Martin Donnelly, formerly the most senior civil servant in Liam Fox's department told ministers that they were "giving up a three-course meal, the depth and intensity of our trade relationship across the EU and partners now, for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future, if we manage to do trade deals in the future outside the EU which aren’t going to compensate for what we’re giving up." Fox replied that Brexit was “a little more complex than a pack of Walkers”. He has a point. No offence to Walkers but Brexit is much more in pork scratchings territory: the nasty whiff, no one really knows what they contain, and they tend to go down better with strong liquid refreshment. And for clarity, it was definitely a different Liam Fox who said previously that a trade agreement between the UK and EU would be “one of the easiest in history” to obtain. People need to stop getting those two guys confused.
Wednesday:
The EU published its legal draft of its Brexit withdrawal agreement for the first time, detailing the terms of the UK's departure, saying Northern Ireland would have to follow EU single market rules to avoid a "hard border" if alternatives cannot be found. May hit back saying that would in itself undermine the UK common market, but with absolutely no practical alternative to offer. Step forward John Major who threw his weight behind calls for a second referendum. The idea of a final definitive national ballot does feel like the only truly credible way to settle all these near-impossible decisions which even hardened Leavers could not possibly have forseen in 2016.
Thursday:
Snow and some welcome relief from Brexit.
Friday:
Then there's today and all that anticipation about the PM setting out plans for how a "managed diversion" from the EU will work in practice. If the material lands well there's talk of a run at the Pleasance during the Edinburgh Festival. Or at least it's easier to think this as one elaborate comedy ruse than the possibility that any of this total madness might actually be happening.