The curse, ‘May you live in interesting times’, seems particularly cruel at the moment. Interesting, certainly, but surely not this interesting. At the time of writing Theresa May’s government is once again spectacularly failing to deliver the strong and stable leadership she promised us just over a year ago and is lurching around like an It’s A Knockout contestant in a giant chef costume. If you listen carefully you may even hear somebody really entering into the spirit of the occasion by muttering ‘It’s the Belgians!’

But fun as it might be to watch from the side lines as the Conservative Party continues its decades’ long struggle to make rats in a sack look comparatively dignified, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that they are no longer simply fooling around with a matter of internal party discipline, they’re now playing fast and loose with the future of the country. It’s a sobering thought.

A letter written this week by Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen to the chair of the 1922 Committee spelled out the position of many in his party. He wrote, “We have to deliver Brexit or we will be punished at the polls at the next election.” As clear an admission as you could want that for many pro-Brexit Tories this isn’t about the good of the country, it’s about the future of the Tory party. The country can go hang.

So the question we must now face is do we as a country allow our future to be decided by a handful of backbench MPs, many of whom represent constituencies which would elect a bag of flour if it wore the right rosette, whose overriding mission is to deliver Brexit, however damaging, just to avoid a drubbing at the polling station? Surely the time has come, after two years of dithering, inaction and party infighting, for the question to come back to us, the voters. This isn’t a call for a 2nd referendum on the same terms as last time, more a meaningful People’s Vote on the deal when it is finally agreed.

Surely, after this week’s events which, by the time this article goes to press, may yet be eclipsed by further resignations and possible leadership challenges, it is time for Parliament to realise that they simply are not capable of delivering a deal which will please everybody. They should not, therefore, attempt to force through a deal which runs the risk of pleasing nobody.

If Theresa May wants to salvage what’s left of her premiership, and for that matter if Jeremy Corbyn ever wants to become Prime Minister, the time is right now for them to unite to offer a People’s Vote on the deal and let the public ‘take back control’.