AT Wednesday’s meeting of the Tory 1922 Committee, according to reports in some Tory quarters, Theresa May has to put in a “powerful” performance or she could face a vote of no confidence.

It begs the question, what is a powerful performance? High rhetoric full of rousing iambic pentameters declaimed with gesticulation? Or conform to their demands and face down the EU, which is ganging up on the UK by not according it its due entitlement?

The routine at the EU negotiations is not oratory as in your school debate but facts, concrete proposals and a sense of knowing precisely what one is aiming for. Even if May puts in a “powerful-means-powerful” tongue-lashing performance, it will ultimately carry no weight with the EU, as it has the final word.

The only unilateral independent action the Westminster government has to “take back control” is a no deal. If all else is a bad deal to the 1922 Committee, then Theresa May has to leave office and spare herself any more self-inflicted misery.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs