One has to pinch oneself to remember that as recently as last July May was Prime Minister, Hammond Chancellor of the Exchequer and Gauke Lord Chancellor.
The Speaker is retiring, so is the Father of the House, but the Prime Minister looks confident of getting several encores.
The Prime Minister falls 14 votes short – and says that the Bill will be paused while he speaks to EU leaders.
It’s a surprisingly large Government majority: 24 independents and 19 Labour MPs voted with the Government.
If a UK-EU deal is agreed, it will be because both men want one urgently – which in turn opens a chance to reset Anglo-Irish relations.
Yesterday’s Downing Street briefing and the plight of the Brexit talks suggest that he will ultimately settle for extension. That could be fatal – not least for him.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, he still has a fighting chance of gaining an election – and then winning it.
When Letwin and Watson are on the same page, we should all study the book very carefully.
Two different conceptions of it are widely held in the UK, representative and direct. In 2019, they collide.
Clarke delivered an attack which recalled Howe’s on Thatcher.
But there is method in his madness.
MPs are more likely to try other means of stopping a No Deal Brexit than holding a no confidence vote in Johnson’s Government.
Their real aim is to overturn the referendum result, wreck Brexit and destroy the Government we actually have.
The Government won by 11 votes, 298 to 309, in a setback for Letwin – though the result doesn’t guarantee No Deal any more than a vote the other way would barred it.
Gove, Stewart and perhaps others too could see their standing and prospects damaged this afternoon.