Jeremy Corbyn will agree to an election.... but only if voting is taken off the table.

The Labour Party’s “strategy” over a possible general election has followed this trajectory of ludicrousness: demand a general election immediately, then demand one on condition that the Benn Act is passed, then consent to one but only after the Act is implemented, then refuse one before the January 31 extension deadline (which, incidentally, is a ten month extension and not a three month one). Mr Corbyn has now finessed the absurdity by insisting that an election should be ruled out until we can be certain that we will not exit the transition period without a deal tailored to his liking.

“Not leaving without a deal” has morphed from “not leaving the EU without a Treaty”, to “not leaving the Treaty implementation period without….what exactly?”.

Mr Corbyn presumably knows that the next Parliament cannot be bound by assurances given in this one. It is highly likely that this transition period will be extended beyond the date when an election will have to be held. Is he suggesting that he will only agree to an election if it’s held seven months after this Parliament is currently due to expire in May 2022?

That might sound flippant. But assuming his position has any logic to it – a dubious hypothesis I agree – then that seems to be it. Jeremy Corbyn increasingly seems to be saying that he will agree to an election but not until a vote is taken off the table.

In truth Mr Corbyn has nothing of substance to worry about. The May-Johnson Treaty would effectively preserve our supplicant status for the next phase of the negotiation, the purgatory bit. It is true that Mr Johnson has secured some significant changes to the Political Declaration, which have allowed the ERG to reluctantly endorse the draft Treaty on the grounds that the direction of travel has been altered in the direction of a proper FTA. But if the final destination looks different then so does the means of travel. We would be swapping a train for a coach and, regretfully, will not be able to find room for Northern Ireland.

Such is the effect of the revisions to the Withdrawal Treaty itself, a brutal abandonment of our NI co-citizens. As for the rest of the WT, its noxious mechanisms of continued membership remain largely intact. It endorses continued financial obligations and intensifies military commitments. Most bizarrely, it leaves us under the jurisdiction of the ECJ which by this time, we are told would be a foreign court.

The Prime Minister has been praised for managing to unlock Mrs May’s Treaty. The cynic might say it’s not difficult to persuade your interlocutor to revisit an agreement by offering her even better terms.

To the extent that Mr Corbyn’s concerns are real then he should be reassured by all this: the Johnson-May Treaty is a straitjacket, one that is sufficiently tight to prevent us “crashing out” in December 2022.

But of course his concerns are not real. They are confected. The Leader of the Opposition doesn’t want an election now for the same reason that the Liberal Democrats and the SNP desperately do: political expediency. Thus the scenes in the Commons on Monday night. The Labour leadership have made themselves look egregiously frit. They have therefore opted to follow the modus vivendi of this ghastly House of Commons: when in doubt, emote. If there is no argument to hand, then virtue signal – as loudly as possible.

This Remain Commons demanded more time to scrutinise the Johnson draft deal. Nothing wrong with that, it certainly needs it, as it is a Brexit-in-name-only nonpareil. But this collection of MPs is incapable of scrutinising anything as they operate not on the basis of reason but of emotion. Specifically: anger. As Aristotle pointed out, there is nothing wrong with anger. When it is properly directed, proportionate and time-limited it can be a very good thing. But what we saw on Monday night was anger for its own sake, and when your soul is disordered in that way then you are incapable of making sound judgments about anything.

This is the real reason we need a dissolution. Not because Brexit is blocked but because those who are blocking it have allowed their dysfunctionality to define the culture of the current Commons.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, he has become the angry man in the pub who asks you to go outside for a fight and then, when you agree, suddenly remembers that he has a bad back and a note from his mum. He is currently the most preposterous person in UK politics, including Ian Blackford. The SNP and the Liberal Democrats are poised to exploit this. The general election is coming very soon, one suspects.