None of what follows is impossible and, if there is a common thread, it is the self-interest of MPs in avoiding an election before leaving the EU.
The vocation of the front-runner is not to mess up. And he hasn’t. Indeed, he has picked up support – and upped the pace.
There is more than one moving part in this complex day, and some could counteract one another.
The implication is that the Government would win more votes if it kept the ERG happy.
Robbins’ overheard conversation has further eroded faith in his boss – and the ERG is itself divided over whether changes to the backstop would themselves be enough.
All he may have achieved is to make the No Deal that neither side of the negotiations wants marginally more likely.
The Prime Minister has eschewed the chance to bind waverers with patronage in favour of promoting able loyalists who won’t make trouble.
Now we will find out if the EU really is seeking practical progress, or if it is cynically exploiting the issue as a way to seek leverage.
Inside the ERG’s Brexit plans. Why Rees-Mogg doesn’t believe the hype about ‘Blue Wave’ entryism. Plus: how he spent his summer.
The Morley and Outwood MP says that her constituents want the Brexit they voted for – and asks why Downing Street accuses Leavers but not Remainers of “bullying”.
And most EU member states haven’t spent nearly enough time really thinking what the future relationship between the UK and EU should look like, either.
Either the EU is an issue over which one should put conscience before whip, or it’s not.
P.S: Only one Tory Prime Minister in recent years was “taken down” by Tory MPs. Clue: it was neither Major nor Cameron.
If making a final decision seemed too risky for the Prime Minister, her deliberate indecision has now proved even more dangerous.
The Prime Minister has made the freedom to strike trade deals, so important to key allies and the membership, a cornerstone of her strategy.