A couple of weeks ago it was was commanded by the courts that parliament must return to session; it MUST sit, lest civilization collapse, like the England football team in a penalty shootout. So everyone was sent back and almost no work was done because there's frankly little that can actually be done now by MPs until the Prime Minister decides the next move. It's like the bit in a chess game where people are staring at the board while the clock counts down and half the audience are actually starting at their phones looking up the latest scores in the Rugby. Highlights of next week's empty schedule include the appointment of a lay member to the parliamentary expenses watchdog. I've seen video footage of 1970s car factories with more work being done.

The latest proposal on Brexit was to make Northern Ireland part of the customs union but removed from certain other parts of the single market such as freedom of movement and the like. Brussels said no which was a bit reminiscent of that time the band Queen sang "I want it all" mostly because the band ceased to exist a couple of years later. Brussels has made it clear that the single market is sacred and can not be picked at, it's like a bronze statue of a bull like the ancient Sumeraians worshiped, rather than the Sunday beef roast that gets picked at for several days. In both cases, Jean Claude Juncker has brought some wine though.

Of course, that means either no Brexit deal, or London just has to accept Northern Ireland being part of the EU and not the UK. At which though point we have the plot twist requirement that Boris Johnson legally has to suggest an extension, although it's unclear how this will actually play out. Some hope he wil lindicate how he has no intention of chaingins his mind but he'd like to waste everyone's time next year too, at which point many in the EU are keen to just decline the offer. Others have pointed out that a number of countries, Hungary being suggested as one, will threaten to veto any extension unless they get send billions of euros of additional grant money. Again, does the EU really want that to continue indefinitely or will Berlin count on them staying nice and compliant like they were in the 1940s.

One of the major things that hasn't been discussed much is what Nigel Farage has been up to for the past few weeks. He has spent some time in the UK but much of it has been spent annoying people in Europe, giving speeches and using his EU expense account to turn up at pro-nationalism events with the very deliberate aim of poisoning any good will that remains and focus all the EUs animosity that exists towards Britain in one last push to get them to pull the plug. At which point I look on the BBCs Europe news page and they do have a major article about what's been goin on in Vienna "selfie museum aims to make art more enticing" which seems to me about as newsworthy as Jeremy Corbyn's recipe for curried parsnips, and about a good as use of public money as that time the NHS tried to buy a computer.