It is perhaps one of the most succinct and honest pieces of Brexit analysis produced since the UK's vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.
On yet another night dominated by television news shows speculating on what may happen next, and on the eve of yet another vote in the House of Commons, BBC Newsnight’s Nick Watt used the words of an anonymous British cabinet minister to sum up where Britain is at right now.
“Now in cabinet I am picking up complete and utter despair,” he told viewers on Thursday night. “I said to one cabinet minister ‘why is the prime minister holding a vote?’ when she’s pretty sure that she’s going to lose.
"Theresa May must be the only leader in living memory who has tried to fall on her own sword and has managed to miss" – @NicolaSturgeon at #FMQs pic.twitter.com/exB3Uv87rQ
— Mabon (@mabonelis) March 28, 2019
“And using very strong language, this cabinet minister said to me: ‘f**k knows, I’m past caring, it’s like the living dead in here”.
At which point Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis can be heard in the background saying "Oh, God" with a distinct weariness. The British nation, and no doubt many of the hundreds of thousands of Newsnight viewers in Ireland and around the world sighed in agreement.
Making the point that British politics is in disarray and that our nearest neighbour is in the throws of a most serious constitutional crisis, Watt continued: "This cabinet minister then went on to say 'Theresa May is the sole architect' of this mess. It is her inability to engage in the most basic human interactions that brought us here. Cabinet has totally broken down - ministers say their bit, she gives nothing away. One side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen and the prime minster decides on Z".
And as if this wasn’t enough humiliation for one 24-hour period, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, addressing May’s Brexit predicament, told the Scottish parliament yesterday: “It’s traditional for leaders to say to colleagues ‘you know if you don’t back me on an issue of such importance I might have to resign’. Not in the Tories though - Theresa May’s position is: if you don’t back me, I’ll stay”.
“Theresa May must be the only leader in living memory who has tried to fall on her own sword and has managed to miss.”
This all presents a grim picture of the Brexit process and May's leadership of the fractured British conservative party but as European Council president Donald Tusk said recently - "hope dies last".
May attempted for a third time to get support for her Brexit withdrawal deal in the House of Commons on Friday but it was rejected by a margin of 58 votes.
