We've heard a lot about the Leavers,
those people led by Boris Johnson, prime minister,
who insist that Britain will leave the European
Union by October the 31st, no ifs and buts.
But what about the Remainers, those
that think there is a chance of stopping Brexit.
What chance?
Well, there is a very, very narrow window
within the British parliamentary cycle,
but it's open little more than a crack,
and it's getting smaller and smaller each day.
I think there are...
and we should talk...
what they're keen to stop is no-deal Brexit more
than just Brexit itself.
I think there are two options available to those people who
want to line up against Boris Johnson.
The first is a vote of confidence to bring him down.
His majority is officially only one.
He's got a little bit more to play with, but not much.
Bring his government down.
Force a general election.
The problem with that is it's become clear
that because of the nature of the British constitution,
he could probably delay that election until after Brexit
has happened, unless they can offer up
a rival administration.
And it looks like they...
That's the government of so-called national unity.
Yes.
And you've had some figures, Caroline Lucas,
suggesting that this new government of national unity
should be comprised just of women...
Yes.
...who've got more sense.
I think that was a strangely tokenistic call.
She said, let's have an all-women cabinet.
But I think what she was attempting
to do was cut through the fact that party
issues and tribal loyalties are stopping
the different parties from being prepared to work together.
Liberal Democrats won't serve under Jeremy Corbyn.
Rebel Tories wouldn't either.
Jeremy Corbyn wouldn't countenance
serving under anybody else.
So they're possibly pulling together that kind
of caretaker government.
The Brexiters don't like it being
called a government of national unity
because they say, well, it's only one side of the argument.
But this caretaker government, it looks very, very difficult
to assemble.
So if you can't do that, then the only other option
is to try to legislate to block a no-deal Brexit,
as they succeeded in doing under Theresa May.
But here, again, there's a problem.
Was that the Cooper-Letwin amendment?
The so-called Cooper-Letwin amendment.
Here, again, there's a problem, because the way
the European Union works is a request for an extension
to delay the Brexit date has to come from the government.
And if the government is refusing to do it,
even legislation can make it tricky.
So then you find yourself back in,
well, we'll have to bring this government down territory,
but you've wasted a lot of time.
So it's very, very tricky for the Remainers.
Is there a deus ex machina - the Queen, perhaps -
that could resolve this possible deadlock?
Or do you think, actually, it'll be senior civil servants?
The Queen will not want to intervene directly in politics,
making any choice that isn't apparently
obvious to the rest of the country.
So if the assembled forces of opponents of Boris Johnson
are able to unite behind one figure and say to the Queen,
we believe X commands a majority in the House,
then she would, under advice, probably call for them.
But she's not going to go looking
to solve this problem for the politicians.
And there is something even deeper here,
and you allude to this in your writing
Robert, that the Remainers don't have or appear
not to have that ideological cohesiveness and conviction
and passion that the Leavers have.
Yes.
I've written in a column today that the believers,
particularly under Boris Johnson,
his chief of staff Dominic Cummings,
a disciple of Bismarck you should know,
have essentially adopted the Goldwater maxim,
moderation in defence of Brexit is no virtue.
Extremism in defence of Brexit is no vice.
And...
That's Barry Goldwater...
Barry Goldwater, the former...
...who completely bombed in the 1964 presidential election
against...
Yes, there were drawbacks, drawbacks to this approach.
Lyndon Johnson.
But they believe they're going to,
they are going all out with an absolute single-mindedness,
and it's making a government with a wafer-thin majority very
hard to resist at the moment.
And the Remainers are not getting their act together
in fighting them.
Extraordinary, really, given that, as you say,
Boris Johnson has a nominal majority...
Yeah.
...of one.
Conviction brings you a lot these days.
It does.
Thank you, Robert Shrimsley.