IF anyone should take heart from England reaching the quarter- finals of the World Cup it is Theresa May. After all, if one unevenly talented gaggle can banish a long-held curse and triumph against the odds, the Prime Minister might have a fighting chance of avoiding disaster when she gathers her Cabinet at Chequers tomorrow to discuss Brexit.

Yes, another day, another crunch meeting of this clown car Cabinet. Will the wheels finally come off with a ministerial resignation or two, or can the jalopy of state keep going a little further down the yellow brick road? The betting has been that if anyone takes Mrs May on it will be the Foreign Secretary, but this cowardly lion finds it only too easy to run away from a fight (see Heathrow). The one to watch instead is the Cabinet’s very own tin man, Michael Gove.

Given his comeback from troubles that would have felled many another politician, perhaps that should be Teflon man with a brass neck. Whatever else he is, there is no denying that the Edinburgh-born Mr Gove is a political survivor. It is only two years since he stabbed his friend Boris in the back, championing him for the party leadership only to withdraw his support at the last minute. Mr Gove, whose standing among teachers when Education Secretary gave new meaning to the word “low”, was expected to skulk off, never to be seen again after such non-cricket behaviour. Not him.

There he was in his element yesterday, claiming to make good on the Brexiters’ promise to “take back control” of UK waters from the EU and give the British fishing industry a bigger share of the catch. It could yet come to nothing, the promises bargained away at some future date. Moreover, as an example of Westminster working with Holyrood on Brexit, it was as naked a power grab as could be imagined. The Scottish Government, despite having responsibility for regulating fishing, was simply presented with the white paper over the weekend. Any insult would have been looked on by the Environment Secretary as a bonus.

With the fisheries white paper the first part of Brexit to go well for the Government, there was no question but that it would have “property of Michael Gove” stamped all over it. Among the UK Cabinet, no minister can be said to be having a good Brexit exactly, but Mr Gove is having a better one than most. Using his brief, he has presented leaving the EU as a way to drive up standards in animal welfare. While that is open to question, no-one ever lost favour in Britain by promising to be kinder to animals. On a wider front, he won a lot of Brownie points by backing the campaign against plastics polluting the seas and taking action. If any politician was going to benefit from Blue Planet II, Mr Gove made sure it was him.

Such achievements look a doddle compared to fixing what ails Brexit. The Chequers meeting is meant to come up with a customs plan that removes the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, keeps goods moving with minimal disruption, satisfies the EU, and keeps the hard Brexiters happy. So far this week, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the main keepers of the Leave flame, has threatened rebellion in the ranks if the Prime Minister does not make a quick, clean, permanent exit from the customs union and single market. Mr Johnson has defended his colleague’s right to express his view, while other ministers are openly bickering. Meanwhile, the Environment Secretary is reported to have torn up Number Ten’s proposals for a customs partnership, though no-one appears to be clear where this act of vigorous recycling took place. Was it in front of officials, other ministers?

In short, it will be chaos as usual as ministerial limos pull up at Chequers. The question now is whether anyone will walk out of the meeting and out of government, as Michael Heseltine did in 1986 over Westland, another European argument of the time.

Given the mess the Tory Government has made of Brexit thus far, it is tempting to “do a Gove” and want to tear up the current political arrangements and start again. Yet those who would do so via a snap General Election ignore the fact that Labour is as divided as the Tories over Brexit (as is, to a lesser extent, the SNP). There would be no clear alternative to vote for, unless one believes Tony Blair, or a proxy, can somehow ride to the rescue as the head of a new political movement. That is not fantasy politics, it is certifiably delusional. As for holding another referendum to overturn the result of the last one, the SNP cannot go near such an option lest they set a precedent that could come back to haunt them.

In any case, how sure are those who advocate a second EU referendum that they would win? It is a heck of a gamble to take, a costly one too, only to get the same result. If asked to vote again, an irritated electorate might swing further behind Leave.

As ridiculous as Tory shenanigans are, there is now no clear alternative to muddling through in the hope of as soft a Brexit as possible. For Scotland there is the option of independence, of course, but the idea that there is currently a majority in favour of that, even if Downing Street would back a vote, is nonsense.

The plan Mrs May presents today is reported to offer “the best of worlds”. In other words, it is another pound of fudge to keep Tory gums busy while grown ups get on with the job of making Brexit work. For grown ups, read the public, business, unions and everyone concerned with protecting jobs. The arguments over Brexit were only ever going to come to a head when the deadline approached and the consequences of no deal became clear. Business, led by Airbus, is now speaking out, and there will be more to come.

Any Tory MP seen to put jobs in further jeopardy by toppling Mrs May at this point will pay the price for doing so, as will the party as a whole. It is not the divas, the Heseltines, who benefit in the end from high political drama, but the quiet, grey ones, the Majors and Duncan Smiths, who bide their time. One wonders if even Mr Gove knows to which camp he belongs. We shall see.