Theresa May gets into bed with Corbyn

I suppose it was inevitable. Having failed with her red-lines Brexit deal which she thought was what Leave voters had demanded, Theresa May is now turning to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a Marxist, to bash out a new way forward which will have one result and one result only, a much softer Brexit. It will mean that the UK will be so closely linked to the EU that no one will notice the difference from the state of play today. So after three years in which she has said that she would never accept an exit deal that would involve staying in the EU single market or customs union, that's pretty well what will emerge from a May/Corbyn get-together. It represents a total about-face by the prime minister. When Maggie Thatcher was prime minister she famously said "This lady (ie her) is not for turning". Well Theresa May, the second UK female prime minister, IS for turning. In fact she is for turning and twisting and dancing round in circles. No wonder the cabinet is screaming at her. I can envisage some serious cabinet resignations. The Leavers in her cabinet will be totally against teaming up with Corbyn for any deal, let alone one involving the future status of Britain in the world. And what will the Northern Irish DUP say about it all? Do they want to maintain an intimate relationship with the EU? Well being in the customs union will solve the border issue and rid the deal of the wretched Irish backstop insurance problem aimed at preventing border checks. But I thought the DUP wanted to leave the EU. And the 17 million who voted to leave certainly intended the UK to scrap both the single market and the customs union. So what about them, Mrs May? Getting into bed with Jeremy Corbyn may sound like sensible, practical politics but this is not what Theresa May has been planning ever since she started this Brexit journey. It's a case of desperation. The end result will be May's already rejected Brexit deal plus Corbyn's demands attached. It's what we in Blighty call a bugger's muddle.