Brexiting Bad

Did you hear the sirens?  I'm assuming that something akin to the air raid sirens used in World War Two must have been sounding earlier today, as what passes for our government warned us plebs that we needed to brace ourselves for a 'No Deal Brexit'.  Apparently public service announcements will be made in the weeks to come in order that we might prepare for a potential economic collapse, plunging living standards and shortages of everything as we won't be able to import anything from the EU.  Meanwhile, we can also expect to see all those wealthy Brexiteers who engineered the situation to be flying out of the UK in their private jets, en masse, while the rest of us will be unable to get a flight anywhere as commercial air travel from the UK will be paralysed.  I've no doubt that soon they'll be putting sand bags up outside of public buildings and advising us to put those tape Xs on our window panes to stop them from shattering when the EU's bombers start blitzing us.  Or whatever it is the government is trying to convince us they will do.  Trust me, it will be all tin hats, ration cards and 'Brexit Wardens' going around telling you that 'you can't buy that - it's from the EU'.  Doubtless, with the economy knackered and public spending slashed, the armed forces will be disbanded and the Home Guard re-instituted.  There'll be hundreds of pensioners armed with carving knives taped to broom handles lining our coast lines, prepared to defend Britain from invading hordes of illegal immigrants.

There's part of me which hopes that all this 'No Brexit' preparations panic the government is stirring up is merely a tactical ruse, designed to panic its own back benchers sufficiently that they will retreat from the brink and endorse May's Brexit deal in the January vote.  Sadly, though, seeing as it has been the spectacular incompetence of this government which has landed us in this situation, I somehow doubt that they have the collective wit to carry out this kind of political subterfuge.  Indeed, it has all the hallmarks of a government that has simply given up.  'No Deal' is the only move left to them: parliament won't accept May's deal, May won't accept a second referendum, so what else is there?  Well, there's always the option - raised by May herself, incidentally - of 'no Brexit at all'.  Right now, the best option, surely, is to halt the implementation of Article 50.  It could still be done, parliament could still legislate to abandon the 29 March 2019 date for Brexit arbitrarily set by May.  This need not be permanent (although many of us would prefer it to be), but it would give time for the UK to properly assess the form which Brexit might take, finding a formula which can be supported by a majority in parliament, before re-triggering Article 50.  Which, of course, is what ant competent government would have done in the first place.  But a sensible and competent government is precisely what we don't have.  So break out the tin hats and prepare for the worst.