Sunday is the new Wednesday. At the dinner last night that was supposed to be decisive, Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen again kicked the can down the road, setting up Sunday as the new, final, final, extra-special final cut off point in the Brexit negotiations. How many of these Brussels deadlines that are final until they are not, when a new deadline is set, have there been in recent years?
It is easy in such circumstances to think that this game will go on for ever, that there is no end to the number of times deadlines can be breached. But it looks like false comfort, a habit learned by the hacks that risks obscuring what lies dead, straight ahead. This is no deal, unless Boris or the EU folds. And neither looks likely to.
In only three weeks, the transition period ends. If there is no agreement on replacing it with new arrangements, Britain and the EU will begin 2021 with no deal.
