The leaders of the increasingly irrelevant “main” parties have agreed to stitch up a Brexit deal. This patchwork policy is not being lovingly hand crafted. It is being cobbled together under duress, and looks likely to fall apart almost immediately. It’s a stitch up.
There are strings attached, naturally. Labour members want another referendum, and are looking for a blanket agreement.
The attempt to pull the wool over our eyes is failing too. Both May and Corbyn have laid down red lines, picked out in scarlet wool, which the other may not cross. The result, inevitably, is full of holes.
In any case, the materials being used are threadbare. There are no sunlit uplands, there is no extra money for the NHS, free trade deals are proving hard to strike. Brexiters are feeling needled.
The promise of independence has led to the country going cap in hand to beg for more time, and will have terms and conditions imposed upon it by bigger and more powerful nations. The rhetoric has proved to be warped (and wefted).
Brexit is in tatters. All that is left is rags: manifesto promises, which as a rule are not worth the paper they are written upon; and the referendum, which is distinctly frayed around the edges.
So this is how it will unravel. Pick at any one of the many loose threads, and watch it fall apart. May’s government is coming apart at the seams, and Corbyn is a useless, crochet-y old sew and sew.
Can they knit together a fracturing country? Can May pin the blame on Corbyn? Not while May concentrates on the far right, and Corbyn on the far left. There is nothing in the centre of the patchwork to cover their arses.
Luckily, nobody will buy it. The material swing away from Brexit parties shows that the future lies with embracing life’s rich tapestry.
It’s a stitch up. Brexit has torn the fabric of society. It’s the Emperor’s New Comfort Blanket.