EVERY news anchor aims to be the voice of cool, calm authority. The presenter who signs off with a hopeful good night and good luck; the soothing presence greeting the dawn. Jon Snow of Channel 4 News, as is his rebellious wont, has decided to upend the established order and become the embodiment of sheer, hair-tearing, forehead-slapping, Brexit-induced exasperation.

The other night he was outside the Commons as usual, reporting on another day of fast-moving events, when the time came to interview his two guests, Tory MPs Nicky Morgan and Dominic Grieve. Turning to the former Attorney General, Snow could barely get the words out, such was the weight of his aggravation. “What, what, what, WHAT is happening to this country? This is the country’s destiny at stake.”

It was a sincere inquiry about a serious matter, but one would have to possess Theresa May’s wafer-thin sense of humour not to laugh, if only to stay sane.

Speaking of the unfortunate Mrs May, she will turn up in Brussels today to ask the EU27 in person for an extension to the UK’s leaving date. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said yesterday a short delay was possible, but only if the Commons approved Mrs May’s deal first. So the pressure is on the PM to get her deal through early next week, or see the UK crash out with no deal. Another day, another gamble from this unluckiest/reckless/desperate (delete as applicable) PM.

May hints she might quit

Forced to trudge back and forth from London to Brussels, refusing to give up on her promise to deliver Brexit no matter what is thrown at her, Mrs May now has the look of the martyr about her. It has been a chief component of her martyrdom to cast herself as the people’s champion, and she has been at it again this week following John Bercow’s blocking of a third vote on the same deal. He has framed this debate as Parliament versus the Government, she reportedly told Cabinet, but in her view it has come down to Parliament versus the people.

It was said to be her sense of the public’s growing impatience that made her ask for a short extension to June 30 rather than a longer one, but the truth is she would have lost half her Cabinet and the support of many of her MPs had she requested a date beyond June.

She is said to feel keenly, too, that The Speaker’s ruling had made Parliament a laughing stock and it was time to take back control, so to speak.

May's statement from Downing Street

Yet if there is one thing on which most people can agree, however they stand on Brexit, it is that the old “Parliament has become a laughing stock” ship sailed from Westminster pier a long time before Speaker Bercow stuck his small but effective oar in. It is not the case, as the PM put it yesterday, that Parliament has “indulged itself on Europe for too long”. We know there are those, chiefly in her own party, who regard what to do about the EU as a sort of grand parlour game, and have done so since their Oxbridge days. That is not the case with most MPs, who see Europe as a matter of jobs, security, prosperity and freedom.

Put simply, the reason why Parliament and Government are flailing is because they have been handed a ferociously difficult task for which they are not equipped. Compounding this, they cannot agree on a position that commands majority support. A system held together in the past by large majorities and a shared sense of endeavour, however hazy, cannot cope with the demands being placed on it.

There are some who are revelling in Westminster’s embarrassment, at the Mother of Parliaments being held up to be unfit. What better argument could there be to declare democracy, Westminster-style, hardly worth the bother of saving? You hear the talk on the right and the left, and increasingly in the centre. All of it is dangerous. One cannot cast doubt on one democratically elected chamber without the risk of the fire eventually spreading to others.

Corbyn walks out of talks

If there is one other thing that Brexit has exposed it is how out of step Westminster has become with the way politics is conducted now. Its procedures are arcane and cumbersome, its adversarial set-up and style of debate likely to bring out the worst in MPs when the going gets fractious. Compared to Westminster, Holyrood looks practically futuristic: a small, nimble parliament that could and should be in a position to do a lot more.

Dealing with the all-consuming needs of Brexit has also left Westminster badly out of the loop on voters’ concerns. At least in Scotland the public knows what is happening in health, education, jobs and the economy. Voters in the rest of the UK must feel to all intents and purposes abandoned in those areas. That, too, is a dangerous feeling that should not be allowed to fester.

It is too easy to look at how Westminster is currently working, or failing to work, and despair. But something positive has come out of the current mess. Westminster is no longer seen as the be all and end all of UK politics. We have long known this in Scotland; now the rest of the UK is seeing for themselves.

Faced with a Parliament busy doing other things, political life has gone on, it has changed, sometimes for the worse, with increasing levels of abuse on social media, and sometimes for the better, as with the recent pupils’ protests over climate change.

Different voices are being heeded, the push for reform is coming from the bottom up. When it comes to practical politics and how we live our lives, Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series has had more impact than any number of backbench Commons speeches in recent years. It should be a reminder to politicians everywhere of the need to stay relevant or stand aside and let someone else have a go.

Which brings us back to Mrs May. There was a striking moment at PMQs yesterday when she said that “as Prime Minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than the 30th of June”. It was the first public sign that she might resign. If that is the case the most responsible thing to do would be to call a General Election rather than fire the starting gun on a Tory leadership campaign. History truly would not forgive the latter.