A delay is held up as a threat to Eurosceptics, but it's an opportunity

In Brussels, they are looking on with incredulous joy. Never did they imagine that Britain would so deliberately and publicly weaken itself.

When MPs voted not to leave without the EU’s express permission (or, as they put it, not to “crash out” with “no deal”) they left only two options: either to accept the EU’s vindictive terms or, for now, to stay put. Eurocrats are happy with either outcome. Some, notably Donald Tusk, would rather that we remain. Others, especially in the European Commission, believe that hanging on to us as a non-voting member is even better than reversing Brexit. Under their proposed terms, Britain would still be subject to most of the costs and obligations of membership, but would lose its ability to check further moves towards a federal Europe. What could be better, from their point of view, than to set the UK’s technical standards, even to control its trade with non-EU countries, without any British input?

When they first came up with that scheme, they never thought we would accept it. It was, rather, their speculative opening bid. Indeed, some of the 27 governments feared that the Commission’s demands were so outrageous that Britain would walk away. They did not reckon with the cowardice of our MPs, who on Thursday voted to deny themselves that option. “When thou gav’st them the rod and put’st down thine own breeches,” the Fool tells Lear, “then they for sudden joy did weep.”