Brexit On The Rocks - Nine Days and Counting

Theresa May warns that, even if MPs back the withdrawal agreement today, there's not enough time to avert a hard Brexit unless the EU throws Britain a lifeline and grants an extension of the March 29 deadline.

EU president Donald Tusk has responded to May's extension plea and it's not looking good. Tusk says a short extension would be possible but only if MPs first vote to accept the withdrawal agreement.

May has been shot down twice on the withdrawal agreement. Speaker of the House, John Bercow, has ruled she cannot bring another motion, substantially alike the previous defeated motion, again during this session of parliament.

Theresa May has painted herself and the UK into a corner. A week this Friday Britain could crash out of the EU not at the hands of rogue MPs but through the bungling of the prime minister.

As political theatre goes we may not have seen anything this disastrous since Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain from Berlin with his piece of paper.

Update:

Nigel Farage just announced on LBC radio that Theresa May is taking over the airwaves at 8 p.m. GMT to apparently plead with the British people.  Farage suspects she'll offer to step down if MPs support the withdrawal agreement. LBC's political editor thinks she'll just ask the nation to back her deal, whatever that is worth.

Farage mentioned a poll that found 90 per cent of respondents believe the Conservative government's handling of Brexit has been a national humiliation.  Farage also claims a growing majority of Brits are now behind a hard Brexit, just crashing out of the European Union. Of course that's all coming from Farage and should be taken with a hundred weight of coarse salt.

Here is Theresa May's televised statement. No mention of Tusk's blunt response to her extension request.