AFTER a week in which Brexit chaos reached new levels of madness at Westminster the SNP yesterday welcomed suggestions that Britain would, after all, be taking part in EU elections in May. The message from party leaders was clear: “Bring it on.’’ Some party insiders have told the Sunday National they believe the EU elections could serve a similar purpose to a People’s Vote by allowing the public to express an opinion on the Brexit process.

“The more I think about it, the more I expect that such elections, if they happen, are a turning point in that regard. You might even call them a sort of People’s Vote,” the anonymous source told the paper last week.

In interviews with the Sunday National over the weekend, both SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford and Scotland’s Brexit Secretary Mike Russell stressed that independence remains the best outcome for Scotland.

But they said they would look forward to taking part in the EU elections.

European Council President Donald Tusk will sit down next week with his European counterparts, when they will decide whether to accept UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s most recent request for a Brexit extention to June 30. Tusk had already suggested an extension of up to a year, with Britain leaving earlier if it could agree a deal.

The atmosphere in the room will be palpable. There will be shrugs. There will be eyes on the ceiling and long exhalations through pursed lips. Everyone will have the same, multi-lingual, thought in mind. When and where will this end?

The European project has faced and overcome many tests. Never has it faced a situation as farcical and insulting as that which has been dumped on its doorstep by Theresa May, her Government and her party.

Tusk’s offer presents a diversion – up to a year’s extension of Article 50.

Time to consider, to put the madness to one side – to summon a vestige of the old-fashioned reasonableness Britain was once known for.

Kerry Buist, director of Scotland for a People’s Vote said the offer provided a “flextension” which could create “time and space for the public to vote on the Brexit deal in a referendum, with the option to remain”.

There is no clarity of what, if any, extension will be agreed, a People’s Vote and an election both retain possibles if not yet probables.

The former, backed by the SNP remains a credible option to breaking the deadlock. While opinion polls may have been spectacularly, catastrophically wrong before the EU referendum, the latest polls suggest that remain would prevail at a second vote.

British participation in the EU elections would be needed as part of the deal if the 27 EU countries agreed with Tusk’s suggested one year extension, something Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar said that it would be highly likely as no country would be likely to veto it.

“To wield the veto is something that is rarely done.

“I’m nearly two years now representing Ireland at the European council and I have never seen the veto used once,” Varadkar told RTE Radio One.

“We tend to operate by consensus, and certainly that can take time and sometimes it is messy, but it’s actually how the European Union works and it’s why it works, and if one country was to veto an extension and, as a result, impose hardship on us … theywouldn’t be forgiven for it and they would know they might find themselves on the other end of that veto power in the future.

“So, it is extremely unlikely that I could see any country vetoing it.”

And while the EU looks likely to agree on the new timetable, any hope that a Westminster deal forged by cross-party support looked to be slim over the weekend after Labour stated that May had not been willing to acquiesce any “real change” during the talks held in London.

Labour’s demands include a customs union, protection of rights, single market alignment and a public vote.

Shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbott said yesterday the party was not saying anything definitively on a People’s Vote but had a ‘‘position”, insisting that it “has to be part of the negotiations,” and that Labour did not enter the talks “being dogmatic”.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond later denied that the Tories had drawn any “red lines” which would scupper the talks with Labour.

Instead, he offered a contrasting picture at an EU finance ministers meeting in Bucharest yesterday: “We should be open to listen to suggestions that others have made. Some people in the Labour party are making other suggestions to us; of course we have to be prepared to discuss them,” he said.

“Our approach to these discussions with Labour is that we have no red lines – we will go into these talks with an open mind and discuss everything with them in a constructive fashion.”

Of course, May has insisted that the crazy train keeps on rolling.

It is highly unlikely the EU will accept her proposed date of June 30 because they know by now that she doesn’t actually care about working out a new way forward.

It must be her deal or no deal. May is, in a spaghetti-western scenario – the bad – but if she manages to survive until the final showdown, then it may come down to the very last moment and a choice between her deal and no deal ... and that is exactly what she wants.

That’s certain to alienate the SNP even further. Blackford yesterday issued another broadside at May’s Government: “Since the EU referendum nearly three years ago, the Tory Government has side-lined and shunned Scotland’s voice at every opportunity.

‘‘We have found ourselves chained to the Brexit chaos unable to escape the damaging long-term impact it will have on our economy, job opportunities and living standards,” he said.

Blackford bemoaned the Tory yoke “dragging Scotland down the road to economic harm,” and again warned of the threat to Scotland’s identity as a “progressive, European country”.

“It is becoming clearer as each day passes that the only sure way to protect Scotland’s interests is through independence,” he added.

His party colleague Mike Russell proffered a similar view. No matter how “productive” No 10 said the discussions between Corbyn and May were last week, Russell said there would be no escaping the fact that “the PM does not compromise,” and that the “offers proposed by her are not really offers at all, just ways to tell people she is right and they are wrong” – a lesson learned by the First Minister a long time ago.

“Our position is of course that we don’t want to leave and that is the best deal. If revocation does not take place there has to be a second EU referendum,” he said.

He echoed the First Minister with calls for patience but reflected on the significance of the week ahead and how quickly the situation could unravel.

“It is step by step and day by day at the present moment. It’s where we have been since November.

“This week is crucial in terms of whether the Prime Minister will put anything before the Commons on Tuesday – what will that be?”

He said that he felt it would be “highly unlikely” that the EU council would agree to the terms of the extension proposed by the PM, as it would “poison the European elections”.

Instead, he predicted a longer extension, unless something “rational and reasonable” was brought before the EU.

The unlikelihood of this, therefore, makes EU elections – which could, as Russell put it, “change the dynamic” – highly likely.

EU elections, he said, “will be really intriguing. I don’t think enough is being talked about in terms of what the dynamic will be. It will be an unpleasant campaign I suspect, but it does present an opportunity to put forward a strong and positive case for European membership”.

“Quite clearly our position is that staying is best of all and that people’s voices will be heard.

“Turnout is usually low in European elections, but I think we will see a much larger turnout and a lot more focus on the issues,” he said.

Russell admitted that he had “never seen someone as dogmatic or as out of touch” as the Prime Minister and felt that another vote on her deal would only serve to see “the majority against it rise again”.

“An EU election would put enormous strain on the Conservative Party. I saw it being referred to as existential for them, and I think that is true.’’Russell said the rest of the world had viewed Britain’s political meltdown aghast, but noted that the chaotic scene is not completely devoid of opportunity.

There have been consistent, and growing, voices in the international press saying that Scotland’s stance and composure are to be commended.

That Scotland’s place in Brexit UK is that of a hostage and not a heel.

“I have noticed an increasing amount of coverage that Scotland is different. Scotland is doing different things,” he said.

“I think it is clear that people realise that Scotland is trying to be sensible and grown-up about it but we are facing a very difficult set of circumstances dealing with the UK Government.”

Indeed, the existential alarm was raised by Tory Education Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, who went on to tell BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday that an EU election campaign “would be the suicide note of the Conservative party”.

Zahawi added that both the Labour and Tory parties would face an impossible task of campaigning while explaining why they “haven’t been able to deliver Brexit”.