I'd just like to place on record that #NoDealBrexit is just about the worst *political* idea I've ever heard. In the 1000% unlikely event I was advising the PM, I would be extremely strongly against.
It's the classic Weak Man's Strong Man decision, like Steve McClaren dropping David Beckham. Sugar rush of the call, then all your problems get much worse.
It supercharges your opponents, allows Labour all the political landscape, is a *vast* gift to the SNP, revives the Lib Dems - all at a stroke.
The public don't want No Deal. You just won an election promising to make it all go away. You're under attack for your competence on Covid. The last thing you need is loads more blame.
You need to move on, convince middle of the road voters who have peeled away. You need to talk infrastructure, jobs, Covid recovery, climate change, hospitals.
No-one cares about arbitration mechanisms and customs forms. They just want to get it done. Get Brexit done.
Balls this up today, you could be bundled out of office within a couple of years after an ERM-style debacle on the borders, on supermarket shelves, in Northern Ireland.
...While Sunak and then Starmer have to face the Q of how to build the hard border with Scotland, and where in England and Wales to base Trident.
Do the deal. /END