For all the theatrics of the past few days let’s be clear – this parliament is never going to implement the referendum result, nor will it be able to stop a no deal exit permanently, pass legislation to introduce a second referendum or pass a Queen’s Speech.

It has become a defunct, fury-filled unnecessary place

Whether we leave with or without a deal (or at all) will be the work of a new parliament after a General Election.

We now know what Boris Johnson and his advisor Dominic Cummings want and we know that they are willing to take audacious, reckless risks in pursuit of it.

I don’t know what the other party positions are going to be but I would have thought there now must be some merit in an opposition party running on a “revoke A50″ manifesto commitment.

That has two things going for it:

1) It is the purest expression of what most Opposition MPs actually believe and want

2) Do Opposition parties really want to run a General Election campaign calling for another referendum ? Can there be public appetite for this? Surely not?

Boris’s most obvious advantage going into any General Election is that his intent is fixed, his message is clear and he has made big sacrifices on its behalf. Polls suggest about 46% of the public might be prepared to go along with this

The Labour Party seem to think they can degrade Boris by having him stew in his own juices over the coming weeks by defying his call for a general election. Perhaps they will, but I wonder whether with every passing day that the public are denied a vote and this parliamentary pantomime rolls on it is actually playing into the hands of the Tory party and the Brexit party and the “People v Parliament” pitch they intend to run on.

In the end, the Brexit endgame is going to be played out in the country not the dilapidated chambers and backrooms of the Palace of Westminster. We’d all be wise to not confuse the frenzied reports of ups and downs being tweeted out of SW1 with the real tides of public sentiment out in the country.

As G K Chesterton put it in the Secret People: “Smile at us, pay us, pass us, but do not quite forget; For we are the people of England; who have never spoken yet.”