The real lesson from Theresa May’s bruising week

DESPERATE, NO-HOLDS-BARRED scrapping has become Britain’s day-to-day mode of government. On December 10th a landmark vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal was cancelled at the last minute, ambushing ministers who were giving live-broadcast interviews confirming that it would definitely go ahead. The next day Mrs May began a tour of Europe, promising to get better terms on the deal, only to be politely rebuffed in every capital she visited. The prime minister came home to find her own Conservative Party planning a vote of no confidence in its leader. She won, but only after promising that she would step down before the next election. Even then, 117 of 317 Tory MPs voted against her.

It is a grim spectacle, but the upshot of the latest bruising episode is that Mrs May staggers away bloodied to fight another round. Under the Tory party’s rules, having seen off the attempted coup, she is immune from further internal challenges for a year. The hardline Brexit bullies in her party have been shown up for the reckless obsessives they are. But the more abiding truth for Mrs May is the scale of the rebellion, which has demonstrated that she has no realistic hope of getting her plan for Brexit through Parliament. And it is not just her plan: none of the possible Brexits commands a majority of MPs.