So Boris Johnson has gone from the cabinet, though I expect we'll hear more rather than less from him for a bit, now he's free to speak. Not that he seemed to be backward in coming forward in that respect, mind. And he left with a phrase which can't help but stay in the memory, "polishing a turd". So, is it - the Chequers compromise - a turd?
Well, of course, because it's a compromise then all those seeking a "full" Brexit and all those preferring the softest of non-Brexits will agree that it is, because it's emphatically not what they wish to see. That doesn't mean it isn't the best option now though. It might be, though I have my doubts. However, it might be politically well judged.
If it is the mildest Brexit that most of the Tory hardline Brexiteers could swallow without gagging while also being the hardest Brexit that the Tory remainers can take then it might, with some cross party support, command a Commons majority.
Of course we don't know if the EU will agree to it, or anything like it, though it's notable that they haven't immediately rubbished it like every previous UK pronouncement. The almost radio silence they have maintained suggests a degree of, if not pre-agreement, then at least an advance agreement to leave comments to the actual negotiations. It struck me when May went scooting off to see Merkel and others before the Chequers awayday that an intelligent aporoach might be to agree what could be agreed with the EU beforehand. After all, presenting the cabinet with "this is what we can negotiate" might have been the only way to get agreement round that table. I rather doubt this is what actually happened, mainly because I don't think May is that clever and I doubt it would be any easier to get an unofficial pre-agreement with the biggest gorillas in the rump EU.
But even if there was only an agreement for the EU side to hold their tongues, the clever thing about the Chequers turd is that, if the EU side won't buy it, then it becomes obvious that there isn't much scope for a bespoke agreement. That would mean, as anything softer wouldn't get through the Commons (and wouldn't be much of a Brexit anyway) we're heading for Canada plus plus plus or no official deal. Knowledgeable blogger Wolfgang Munchau has been claiming the probability of no deal is increasing for some time now. One thing May has done is give her Brexiteer wing every chance - and almost every last minute in the negotiating schedule - to come up with a credible version of their Brexit. They failed.
One point that exercised my mind was the statement that we could still do our own free trade deals. Maybe not with the US though, as we would be sticking too close to the EU rule book to import their chlorinated chicken. This rather ludicrous example took hold in our press months ago. On that point, most people seem averse to American chlorinated chicken. And yet we read in the papers a while ago that most of the fresh chicken in our supermarkets is contaminated with campylobacter and that hygiene standards in our processing plants is poor*. Personally I know which I would prefer and it's not food poisoning.
But returning to the main point on the ability to do trade deals with non-EU countries, I think it is notable that, unlike Davis and Johnson, Liam Fox didn't resign, so presumably he thinks he still has a job he can do.
For myself, I don't see how the turd fixes Ireland, though I've already suggested how that can be fixed. (We don't put up border posts whatever. If the Irish are told to do it by the EU then they aren't our border posts and it's not our fault or problem).
The compromise doesn't seem to prejudice my personal red lines: control of borders and no interference in our domestic laws by the ECJ. For example, while I don't have strong feelings about whether prisoners should be able to vote I have extremely strong feelings about a court from outside the UK telling us we must do it. This I will not have - and I think I'm far from alone.
So yes, by definition it's a turd. But it might be the basis of a way forward. Let's see if Barnier thinks it stinks. I don't think I mind too much either way, as long as, if he does, we walk away rather than watering it down further, to mangle my metaphors.
The white paper is published today. We'll see if it's a pile of steaming ordure.
*British supermarket chickens show record levels of antibiotic resistant superbugs. The Guardian, 15 January 2018.
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