by Rab Bruce’s Spider

UK politics is a farce, but it’s not funny. What else can you say about the ludicrous events which took place in the House of Commons? They’ve wasted a day to come up with the imbecilic decisions that Parliament should not have the power to extend Article 50 but that they do have the power to tell Theresa May to go back to the EU to renegotiate their Withdrawal Agreement. Their truly moronic idea is to remove the Irish backstop and replace it with "Other Arrangements".

What are these other arrangements, you might well ask. But you won’t get an answer because nobody knows.

It is quite pathetic that grown adults should behave in this way. The EU has consistently said the deal will not be renegotiated and that the Irish backstop cannot be removed. All that Westminster has achieved is to show the world that they are utterly divorced from reality and completely untrustworthy when it comes to negotiating deals. That won’t have been missed by any of the countries the UK wants to do trade deals with.

Naturally, most voices in the mainstream media have been trumpeting a great triumph for Theresa May despite the fact that she may as well go back to the EU and demand a herd of unicorns for all the good it will do.

And so more time is wasted and we lurch towards a No Deal crash out of the EU, with all the horrendous implications that brings.

Nicola Sturgeon has done the sensible thing up to now, waiting to see what the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is before calling IndyRef2. There is, after all, no point in asking the Scottish people to go into another referendum when they don’t know what the choices are. We know that far too many Scots are afraid of their nation becoming a normal country, and leaving one half of the equation vague will only allow those people to cling to their dream of what they think the UK is.

But time is running out. Even if we vote Yes now, we will effectively be out of the EU come the end of March. Our position then will require careful negotiation with the EU, although a sort of temporary associate membership may well be on the cards.

Still, we cannot wait much longer or it will be too late. The very existence of the Holyrood Parliament is at risk if we allow ourselves to be dragged out of the EU and left to the tender mercies of the Tories.

The next few weeks will be crucial. I fully expect May to refuse a section 30 order because she knows she can’t afford to lose Scotland, so I sincerely hope Nicola Sturgeon has thought this through and come up with a plan. Whether it is an advisory referendum or a simple dissolution of the Treaty of Union, we are rapidly approaching the cliff edge and need to do something soon.

And while we wait for the decision, we should all start stocking up on food and medicines if we can, because Brexit is going to hit hard when it happens.