Boris is blocked whichever way he turns

I am amazed Boris Johnson just doesn't give up. Whatever he says, whatever he tries, whichever way he turns, he is blocked and stymied and thwarted by MPs of different political persuasions who want to exploit the impasse over Brexit to their advantage. It's not democracy, it's anarchy. It's not the will of the people, it's the ill will of parliament. I'm a Remainer, I want the UK to stay in the EU, but I lost the 2016 referendum. More people said they wanted to leave than remain. Referenda are a disastrous way to run a democracy but the vote was a democratic process. So, as a democrat, albeit disappointed and somewhat despairing for this country's future, I have had to go along with that 2016 referendum result. And as a consequence I supported Theresa May and now Boris Johnson in their individual attempts to do what the voters wanted which is to leave the EU in an orderly fashion. There is no such thing as the perfect Brexit deal, especially with Northern Ireland as a key component. Compromise has to be involved, and having read as much analysis and factual reporting as possible over the last three years, it's obvious that there HAS to be a concession over Northern Ireland. There HAS to be some form of border control procedure whether it be in the Irish Sea or a large warehouse or whatever. But the rigid faces of the Democratic Unionist Party don't do concessions, they only do rigid obstruction. First they went along with Boris but now they are voting against him and are adamantly opposed to him because he dared to include in his Brexit deal a compromise in which Northern Ireland would be part of the UK customs union AND the EU customs union. For goodness sake, DUP, get real and acknowledge that if the UK is to leave the EU, Northern Ireland has to be given a special status unlike the rest of the United Kingdom. There is no other way around it. It's geography for God's sake. Unless you cut the island of Ireland in half and drift off into different parts of the Irish Sea, geography is going to dictate how everything will have to be run after the UK leaves the EU. They must see that but they refuse to see it. The only way round it was to accept the Theresa May deal which was to keep the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland, in the EU customs union for a period until the future trade relationship with the EU has been signed and sealed. But her deal was rejected three times by parliament. Now, more than ever, I think the May deal was probably the best on offer for this country and better than Boris's complicated border checks by mirrors arrangement. But it's all too late. Parliament approved the Boris deal but while that might seem a victory it wasn't because MPs voted by a majority to throw out Boris's three-day timetable for a debate on the EU exit bill so they can introduce hundreds of amendments to the deal over a period of weeks/months. The amendments would destroy the Brexit deal, and would include having a second referendum which would be disastrously divisive for the whole country whichever way it went. Boris wants a general election to clear the whole thing up but, ridiculously, it's not in his gift to order an election. Under new parliamentary arrangements approved when there was a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats under the leadership of DAVID CAMERON (him again!), an election held before the statututory period of five years has passed HAS to be approved by MPs. Because Boris has a minus majority - ie no working majority at all - he can't dictate how anything goes and certainly can't order the Labour Party and other opposition parties to get ready for an election. The timing of an election is in THEIR hands, not his. Despite all this, Boris appears not to have given up. Does he have a few more cards up his sleeve? I can't imagine he does unless somehow under the constitution he can threaten to crash the UK out of the EU without a deal - Michael Gove, the crash-out minister, is spending more and more money on this very scenario - unless all MPs agree to an election in a few weeks' time. Whatever happens it now seems impossible for Boris to honour his pledge to remove the UK from the EU at midnight on October 31st. Failing to make that deadline will do him no good at all and could see the rise and rise of Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party.