Tory civil war risks Irish hard border

Since the EU and the UK agreed a fudge that allowed the Brexit negotiations proceed to the second stage in December, there was a growing sense, at least in my mind, that the UK would be forced and probably willing to compromise in order to achieve the softest form of Brexit possible.

In other words, pragmatism would win out in order to avoid potentially serious and totally unnecessary damage to the UK economy.

However, this view was heavily cognisant of the very volatile and unstable political climate in the UK, and those political realities have struck with some vengeance in recent days. This more relaxed view, which had certainly influenced financial markets and others, has been cast into serious doubt again over the past couple of weeks.