These articles on the Demise of Soft Brexit by @anandMenon1 and @jillongovt are thoughtful and interesting. But there is something that bothers me about them. 1/8

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/who-killed-soft-brexit-eu-european-union-no-deal

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/06/as-we-close-in-on-a-brexit-that-pleases-next-to-nobody-how-did-we-end-up-here?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=soc_568&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1607286738

The reason we're gettting a diamond hard brexit (deal or no deal) in four weeks is that... drumroll... the current governing party wants a diamond hard Brexit.

The various people who don't want that failed to stop it, during the last parliament and at the last election. 2/8

By all means we can relitigate all the old fights. Was Labour's 'constructive ambiguity' a shambles? Was the Lib-Dems' revoke policy a terrible misjudgement? Was the People's Vote a reckless gamble? Like the rest of Twitter I have shouty opinions on all such questions. 3/8

And that's fine. None of those people, or the many other political and parliamentary groupings involved, need to be shielded from criticism. We can search souls, exchange insults, learn lessons etc.. 4/8

But ultimately those people are all secondary actors. In different ways they all tried and failed (or in some cases failed to try) to stop the primary actor from doing what it is now doing. The primary actor is the (right wing of) the Conservative party. 5/8

A bystander who fails to step in, or does so ineffectively, is not responsible for the consequences of an attack. The attacker is. The panicking first aider, or the paramedic or police officer who arrive too late, do not 'share blame' with the murderer. 6/8

Those people may have failed. They may have failed abysmally. But however badly they failed, their failure is a qualitatively different matter from a premeditated, deliberate cause of action. 7/8

Who killed Soft Brexit? The current UK government: the Conservative and Unionist party. The end. 8/8