I am relieved to report that the prime minister is alive and well and that any fears that he might be found dead in a ditch on 31 October 2019 were unfounded (as was perhaps always going to be expected). The only thing that may have landed in the ditch is his credibility but he doesn’t seem particularly fazed by the fact that this is a fairly commonly held belief, so that is ok then, too. I am equally pleased to report that, for the time being, the UK remains a fully-fledged member of the EU.

So where does this leave us? Well, to start off with, with a new flextension, potentially until 31 January 2020. Apart from that, between all the spin and counter-spin about the prime ministers “new” Brexit deal, it was actually rather difficult to understand what precisely had changed. The EU had said that it would not re-open the Brexit agreement itself, so the changes are in fact set out in a 64 page Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland included in the withdrawal agreement. The new deal is pretty much the old deal agreed by Theresa May with the EU in November 2018 but with certain changes to the customs status of the Irish border after Brexit replacing the old back-stop.