The Boris Johnson Brexit strategy is maximum verbiage, maximum risk – and minimum actual work

We are being asked to believe our PM has no desire to lead a hard-right dictatorship defined by civil unrest, queues at Dover and medicine shortages. When he’s barely taken a trip across the Channel, I don’t buy it

Welcome to the Thunderdome! Oh boy, do we have a contest for you at the Westminster Arena this week. Only... we can’t tell you who the sides are: anyone could be deselected from Boris Johnson’s team at any moment; Seumas Milne and Justine Greening are, for the moment, as one. And we can’t tell you what the contest is about. I’m pretty sure it was about the European Union once, but that’s like saying the First World War was about Slavic separatism.

We can’t even say what game is being played: it could be Quidditch, it could be Texas-Hold-’Em, it could be WWE, it could be all of those things at once.

But while it is impossible to predict how the parliamentary shenanigans will pan out, the tactics of the main players are now becoming clear – and might offer the best clue as to who will be left standing.