It’s getting hard to keep up with the battle for Brexit

As I write, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn looks like the cat which has been offered cream for supper as he declares how right it is that he and his party should be part of the negotiations.

Do we need this committed Marxist on board at such a crucial time? With our own leader not knowing where she’s going on any one day is she not ripe for exploitation by Corbyn, a man who keeps shifting the rug to ensure all those who oppose his unacceptable views trip up without noticing?

Corbyn sees himself as some kind of Mr Fixit and many think Theresa May is simply not smart enough to see that.

Whilst she abhors his values and politics he’s wily enough, and with his band of desperate-for-power followers in tow, to back her into a corner from which she cannot escape.

Ask an enemy to negotiate with you and, scarcely able to believe their luck, they’ll stab you in the back.

The crisis reminded me of that infamous chapter in history when a British Tory Prime Minister signed a deal with the enemy of the day only for it not to have been worth the paper it was written on.

That was in 1938 when British Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain paid three visits to Munich to plead with Hitler not to seize Czechoslovakia and sign a friendship agreement with Britain.

Hitler signed up and the hapless Chamberlain flew back to London where, at what is known today as Heathrow Airport, he waved that infamous agreement in the air declaring he had secured ‘peace in our time’.

We all know what happened. Hitler laughed behind his back and went on to pulverise Europe, later bombing the daylights out of London and even Belfast.

When the war broke out in the UK Chamberlain had the decency to resign believing that a Government supported by all parties was essential. Winston Churchill succeeded him and the rest is history.

Corbyn, of course, is an extreme right wing socialist, Mrs May a true blue Tory, so it’s unlikely that a match between the two will ever work in the war over Brexit.

But, hey, by the time this column is published on Saturday I could be eating my words; Theresa may have emerged with her demands from him met in full, with Jeremy having scuttled back to his little terraced London home trying to work out how she got round him.

Maybe they both will have discussed the DUP and decided to sock it to them for being so bold as to think they could continue to be king makers.

There can’t have been too many periods in history when a British Prime Minister canvassed the views of the opposition and came out of it triumphant, still full of their own importance.

Brexit, of course, came about via a referendum of the people agreed by former Prime Minister David Cameron who I believe never thought it would get to this.

He must have been quite confident the Brits wouldn’t vote to come out of the European Union.

After all weren’t we all happily travelling freely through Europe and preferring Greek salads to fish and chips on a Saturday night? Sure, wasn’t it great we no longer had border checks at Dundalk and then there was even the AirBus which saved us all the bother of taking the car to Dublin airport?

What’s not to like about being in the EU?

I have two sons both working in EU countries outside the United Kingdom and they think we – the British – are completely bonkers wanting to ditch membership of the EU.

I try not to argue my case with them as I don’t want to fall out with my boys.

Happily they escaped living here during the Troubles so they know precious little of Ireland’s past with England and I wouldn’t dream of raising the issue because they believe we should put the past behind us.

I suspect Theresa May’s decision to bring Corbyn on board will all end in tears.

It’s time for a stiff drink.