Doesn't Brexit keep producing those little bundles of joy?
We're well aware that opinion is divided upon the merits of Brexit. It is at our gaff too. But we would still insist that the process is producing certain little bundles of joy:
Ministerial panic at the prospect of defeat over Brexit and key domestic policies has created the most inactive parliament for at least two decades.
Analysis by The Times shows that the number of votes held in the nine months since the general election, when Theresa May lost her majority, is lower than after every election won by David Cameron and Tony Blair.
Despite the task of rewriting British law for life outside the EU, since June MPs have voted 127 times on 40 separate days, equivalent to a third of the days on which the Commons has sat.
Legislation on post-Brexit customs rules as well as the multibillion-pound restoration of parliament has been repeatedly delayed as whips try to head off defeats on dozens of amendments. Pressing issues such as housing and social care are also being neglected.
There are indeed problems which need solving in this modern world. There are also problems which must be solved and which can only be solved by government. It is our insistence that the overlap between the problems needing solving and those which can or will be solved by more government is small. Small to the point of non-existence in fact. Our diagnosis of most of what ails this modern world - with respect to governance that is - is that we've too much government. The task is to get them to stop doing things, not to give them room to attempt more.
Brexit is preventing them from passing new laws. Good. Yes, of course we'd prefer that we were all in a better place, with better governance. Brexit is causing that log jam - how excellent, given that a decent enough prevention for modern government is that constipation.