Mrs May has now resorted to threats to ministers,  fellow MP’s, business and the populace in general to coerce them into accepting her shabby capitulation to Brussels.

In summary, it distils down to “my way or no way” or  “my way, or else…”. By the time these utterances are made, the politician in  question (and in such circumstances it is normally just one lonely person exercising their rapidly diminishing formal powers) is desperate, inward-looking, and unable employ the objectivity the situation demands. And so it is with Theresa, and her colleagues must make this situation plain to her  by submitting their letters to Graham Brady.

On a wider note, Grumpy is programmed to react to a threats of such a nature from politicians by

• dismissing any validity to their argument  entirely, since they were unable  to persuade by a rational, balanced reasoning without threats
• never again to vote for a party which resorts to such bankrupt tactics.

It is hard to envisage that, come the next general election, voters will tick the conservative box, as it still will be a bitter and divided organisation at that time. Two people bear the blame; David Cameron for calling for the referendum in the first place, and Theresa May for failing to have the courage to spell out at the outset the obvious  implications of her contradictory red lines, and resorting to sleight of hand, obfuscation and double dealing  to hide this, with the result that we now have.