REMEMBER the “strong and stable” mantra of Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of last year’s General Election?

At the time, this looked like little, if anything, more than pure spin. As well as being an attempt, ultimately a failed one, to disparage the Labour Opposition, the ad nauseam repetition of the mantra also appeared to be undertaken with half an eye on the UK making a peacock-type display for our long-suffering European Union neighbours.

Strength and stability are qualities that the business community in the UK has a great longing for right now, amid the Brexit chaos. However, looking at the divided Conservative Government’s showing since its General Election humiliation, strength and stability are much further away than they were before the 2017 General Election. And they were not in sight then.

Right now, damage limitation on the Brexit front seems to be as much as businesses and households can hope for, with a second EU membership referendum looking like a long shot in spite of the shambles.

In this context, it was a mild relief this week to hear the UK had, eventually, made the necessary compromises to enable a transition deal with the EU, running until Hogmanay 2020. Of course, the very fact there is such an urgent need for a transition deal again raises the question of why on earth we are not just staying in the bloc.

And it says a great deal that the Conservative Government’s seeming initial lack of appetite for a transition arrangement, most evident among the arch-Brexiters desiring a fast and dramatic EU exit, did not prove resilient as the realities racked up.

Businesses have been appealing to the UK Government for many months now for a reduction in the huge uncertainty created by Brexit.

In the meantime, they have been readying contingency plans, as well as reining in investment. This wariness on the investment front has weighed on a UK economy already hampered by years of austerity and the surge in inflation arising from sterling’s post-Brexit vote weakness.

In terms of the contingency plans, the clock is still ticking. All that the transition deal means is that it may be ticking slightly less loudly for some companies, for a short period.

For all its noisy bluff and bluster, the UK Government must surely hear the ticking. UK companies need to be able to plan for the future.

And a survey this week from the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply shows one in seven companies from other EU member states with UK suppliers have already moved parts of their business out of this country to reduce their exposure to any complications resulting from Brexit.

Carlos Tavares, chief executive of Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroen owner Groupe PSA, this month told the BBC that Brexit uncertainty undermined the chances of the Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire getting more work after 2021. And the importance of ensuring Brexit does not bring barriers to trade with the EU was last month highlighted by Koji Tsuruoka, Japan’s ambassador to the UK.

In a practical sense, the Conservative Government had no option but to go for a lengthy transition deal given the scale of the shambles 21 months on from the Brexit vote. Regardless of the ideology of the Brexiters.

Welcoming the news on Monday that a “status quo” transition deal was to be announced at this week’s EU Council meeting, Confederation of British Industry director-general Carolyn Fairbairn described it as “a victory for common sense”.

As many people will be aware, common sense has been something that has been sadly lacking when it comes to Brexit. So it should not be taken for granted in this context.

Ms Fairbairn noted business had been calling for such a transition deal since last summer, saying it would “help protect living standards, jobs and growth”.

While warning some sectors might need longer to prepare for Brexit, she declared: “It brings a welcome gift of time for firms on both sides...It shows what can be achieved when people and prosperity are placed above politics and ideology.”

However, it is crucial to realise that all the transition deal does is put off the disastrous consequences of actual Brexit for a short while longer.

It is also worth noting events in the wake of news of the transition deal highlight the challenges facing the divided UK Government as it attempts to negotiate a Brexit deal.

We have seen crates of haddock dumped in the Thames by Brexiters who believe the transition deal is a betrayal of the fishing industry. The deal involves the UK effectively remaining within the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy until the end of 2020.

And The Herald revealed on Tuesday that Scottish Conservative MPs have warned Theresa May that they are prepared to collapse her Government if she reneges on a “fundamental pledge” to give Britain’s fishermen full sovereignty over UK waters from 2021. This is just one of many potential areas for more infighting in the Conservative Party as the Brexit saga drags on.

The Brexiters seem less jubilant now than they were in the months following the June 2016 Leave vote, and maybe even not quite as rambunctious. This is no surprise, given it always looked inevitable their hot air about big new trade deals somehow reawakening the UK as some great global economic power would dissipate without anything more substantial materialising.

This week’s transition deal allows the UK to sign, but not implement, trade deals with countries outwith the EU in the period up to the end of 2020. Not being able to implement them is unlikely to be much of a concession, given there is little sign of a raft of big new trade deals emerging by then in spite of copious global glad-handing by the Conservatives.

It is worth observing this glad-handing has been with world leaders who, with the notable exception of US President Donald Trump, appear somewhat baffled about the UK’s decision to exit the huge European free trade bloc. No wonder.