Evening Standard comment: Parliament will have a meaningful say on Brexit; No tracks for the Rolling Stones

You know a Tory Government is in trouble when it looks to Dennis Skinner to save it. News that Government whips are cajoling a handful of Labour Brexiteers, such as Mr Skinner, to support them in the Commons vote today merely confirms that they haven’t got the numbers to win alone.

The issue at question is whether Parliament should be put in charge if the Government fails to strike a Brexit deal. It was a completely avoidable fight, one made worse by loose promises from the Prime Minister last week.

Yes, there was a time when Downing Street threatened that “no deal was better than a bad deal”. Remember the Budget promise to spend billions preparing so we could walk away from the table? But it was only ever nonsense.

We always needed an orderly transition out of the EU. Britain handed over control of that negotiation to the other member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission the moment it decided to fix its departure date for March 2019.

The outburst from the GCHQ chief that our security will be imperilled if there is no agreement merely reinforces the growing sense of desperation across Whitehall.

Because now it’s the Commission saying “no deal is better than a bad deal”, with Michel Barnier turning up the heat with a warning to businesses to prepare. But he knows Europe also needs a deal.

The financial disruption is too dangerous, and the impact on the likes of Ireland and Belgium too great, for Brussels to risk it — and bang, too, would go Mr Barnier’s hopes of becoming the next Commission President.

But the EU can play a waiting game; Britain cannot. If no agreement is reached by the October European Council the contingency plans many firms have put in place to relocate will start to be activated — something Paris and Frankfurt will hardly complain about.

So the real issue is not whether there will be a deal but what it will consist of and when it will be struck. Brexiteers promised us we’d have a comprehensive trade deal in place to sign by the time we leave.

The Prime Minister said we’d have detailed heads of agreement spelling out the future relationship. But with just nine months to go to our departure we haven’t even got agreement from the Cabinet.

What is our customs policy with the EU? Are we going to sign up to the rules of the single market, even if we don’t remain in it? What are the immigration rules for French and Polish citizens? Are we going to stay in the European Arrest Warrant and accept European Court of Justice jurisdiction?

Two years after the referendum they haven’t a clue.

The latest idea is to lock Cabinet ministers away in Chequers until they agree — a house party from hell, if ever there was one. But even if they can agree there is now precious little chance they can get Parliament to sign up.

The House of Lords will reject anything that falls short of a close ongoing relationship with the EU, with most of the elements of customs union and single market membership, a role for the ECJ and near-free movement of European citizens.

Barely a year into this Parliament there are already enough Conservative MPs in the Commons who will not vote for anything else either. It is, after all, what a 52 to 48 per cent vote in the country to leave the EU should lead to.

That is the real meaning of the arguments over a meaningful vote.

No tracks for the Stones

Twickenham was All Sold Out when the Rolling Stones played last night but for 50,000 fans the problem was Goin’ Home.

Mick Jagger probably got in a Black Limousine but there was trouble All Down the Line when local stations shut and no Silver Train showed up.

Huge crowds might as well have been 2000 Light Years From Home.

Staff said It Won’t Take Long but there were No Expectations from passengers who told them I Am Waiting.

Shattered fans were caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Walk and they’d be a Midnight Rambler.

Stay and who would Gimme Shelter. For many it was a case of Let’s Spend the Night Together (outside Richmond station).

I Don’t Know Why, many said, but Something Happened to Me Yesterday: when it comes to the South Western Railway, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.