Plus: Snubbed by a Remainer. Delighted for Beth Rigby. Tusk japes, May spooks, Francois almost self-combusts. And: is Brexit Brecksit or Breggsit?
All he may have achieved is to make the No Deal that neither side of the negotiations wants marginally more likely.
But neither she nor Lidington sounded as if they expect Brexit to end in disaster.
The President of the European Council appears to have been taking charm and diplomacy lessons from Andrew Adonis and AC Grayling.
Strangely but truly, the best way of helping the Prime Minister is to send her back to Brussels to win concessions on the backstop.
Other options being floated are designed to hold us in the EU’s orbit in the hope that we may be sucked back in.
The logic is clear enough. The EU’s choice would be between no backstop and nothing else either; or no backstop and agreement on everything else.
The only potential escape lane from a breakdown in the negotiation and No Deal gridlock is marked “to Canada”.
The former Foreign Secretary says May’s team are inexperienced in EU negotiations and are “pushing out disinformation”.
The PM needs to empathise with those who have concerns about her policy. She should accept that Chequers is probably not anyone’s dream plan.
The EU’s rejection of Chequers gives May a chance to unite her party around Canada Plus Plus Plus – the only strategic Brexit option now open to her.
We also need to examine a ‘no deal transition period’ – i.e: a payment for a period of time to enable both the UK and the EU to adjust to the changes ahead of us.