Brexit deadlock continues: Step forward Sir Galahad

Were Queen Elizabeth II to break her Scottish holiday and call a press conference on a Balmoral patio, corgis quartering the ground at her feet, to encourage Britain’s politicians to pause and very carefully consider the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, she would be dismissed as a project-fear agent, an EU collaborator and, worst of all, Remoaner.

The situation has become so bizarre, so emotional, that even her advice would be seen through one polarised prism or other. How the views in a leaked British government paper will be seen is not hard to imagine.