British Prime Minister Theresa May announced yesterday that the much-expected vote on the Brexit deal has been postponed.
It is clear the reason for this postponement is because it was certain the deal would have been rejected had the vote been taken today. May sent her ministers all around the UK in a futile attempt to gather positive votes and she herself campaigned hard but at the end she had to accept defeat was inevitable.
Whatever happens now is up to anybody's guess. The EU and the Commission have made it amply clear that the Deal cannot be re-opened or re-negotiated. Nor do the well-known reasons for the rejection of the Deal seem likely to be changed.
So one wonders what, if anything, may be changed by postponing the vote. The only certain thing is that time is running out and the 29th March is fast approaching. The UK will have less time to find an alternative Deal.
Without a Deal, the UK is staring at a No Deal future and that, as everyone accepts, will create chaos all over the UK and any relationship the UK has with other countries, Malta included.
The way May was openly derided in the House of Commons yesterday shows the reaction in the country. Things can easily get out of hand: what has been happening over the sea in France is an indicator.
May challenged the House yesterday: she spoke of the importance of a compromise in such circumstances and she challenged the House to make its decision heard, whether that be to accept the rules of a single market and thus free movement of people, which is not what the Brexit referendum decided, or seek changes that the EU counterparts have already said and insisted are impossible.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted that the prime minister must make way after 'two years of shambolic negotiations'. This government is the first government to be held in contempt of Parliament. This is a government 'in disarray'.
The issue, as May admitted, is that there is simply no alternative in the House for any of the alternative solutions that have been proffered. This is the stark reality of the situation.
Somehow, a way out of this impasse must be found. May's so-called compromise, the Deal, is now dead. Somehow, a way forward must be identified.
The British people wait to see the outcome, and so do the peoples of the EU, Malta included, hoping that the collapse which now appears inevitable, can somehow be staved off.