WHEN she finally leaves Downing Street, I wonder if Theresa May will ask for a replica of the Number Ten podium as a souvenir. She does seem to have grown awfully fond of this modest wooden platform, once again standing behind it to address the nations about the latest Brexit twist. Her hands gripping its sides, the podium has become her ballast, the only thing keeping her on the ground as a hurricane rips through UK politics.

On Tuesday she was at her post slightly earlier than usual, in time for the six o’clock news, but then it had been a seven-hour Cabinet meeting after which more than a few were in need of strong drink.

Another Minister quits

One has to hand it to Mrs May. She may be almost entirely lacking in imagination and originality, but she cannot half pull some surprises when she has a mind to do so. Her invitation to sit down with Jeremy Corbyn to get her Withdrawal Agreement passed, and set out the UK’s future relationship with the EU, was up there with her announcement of a snap General Election in 2017. Not a happy precedent, admittedly, but there we are.

What is to be made of this latest move? On the face of it, as Churchill may or may not have said of the US, she has done the right thing only after exhausting all other possibilities. Unable to get enough support from her own side to pass her deal, she is seeking the votes of her opponents. It is two-party politics, red and blue in tooth and claw.

There will be many who say it is too late, that she should have taken this cross-party approach to Brexit from the start, that the matter was always going to be too difficult and divisive to handle on party lines. But she was not the Prime Minister to see this, nor, in Jeremy Corbyn, was there a Leader of the Opposition big enough to extend the hand of cooperation to her at the start of the process. The two have been dragged kicking and screaming towards this position, which does not bode well.

If it was a matter of regret that two of the most uninspiring party leaders the UK has seen in a long time were in charge after the EU referendum, one can double, treble, that regret now. Cometh the hour, cometh the two worst candidates for the job that needs to be done. As a double act in the forming, they are less Dumb and Dumber than Stubborn and Obstinate. They have never agreed on anything before, so why start now?

Time to keep calm

All of which further begs the question of why Mrs May is bothering with talks. If nothing else, I expect she is tired of taking all the blame for the bodging of Brexit. She wants to spread some of the current loathing of the political class around. Understandable, given her job must have seemed like the loneliest position in the world these past few months. It will come in handy, too, if there is a General Election. The Tories would be able to point to Labour and question why they should now be given the chance to fix the mess when they were unwilling or unable to do so before. Where were Labour’s bright ideas when they were needed, when the UK was haemorrhaging cash and international confidence?

There is a lot at stake here for Mr Corbyn. Just as the notion of Mrs May seeking Labour’s help has appalled the hard Brexiters in her party, so the idea that Mr Corbyn should do anything to keep the Tories in power will horrify many Labour members. The temptation to allow the Tories to crash and burn will be strong.

May under fire

There is also the not-inconsiderable matter of Mrs May’s job security to take into consideration. What value can be placed on her cheques and promises if there is someone else in charge, a Boris or a Raab, when the time comes to cash them in? If there is one thing Mrs May has proved beyond doubt it is her willingness to chop and change, but only when it suits her. On Tuesday she was the champion of Parliament and cross-party cooperation. The week before she had stood at the same podium castigating the very MPs she was now asking to join her in putting country before party.

Can anyone believe things will be any different from now on? That she really is ready to erase her red lines? That depends on what one thinks are her motivations. This PM, who rushed to embrace the label of “bloody difficult woman” placed on her, has refused to budge for years. Her red lines were sacrosanct, her mission clear. What could possibly be so different now, other than the level of her desperation?

SNP accused of 'game playing'

One line being put out by Downing Street will be familiar to Scots. Like Scrooge and David Cameron before her, Mrs May is said to have encountered a terrifying ghost of the future, one that has shown her the UK without Scotland, and Northern Ireland, if she does not compromise and get her deal, any deal, through.

I think Scotland has gone past the point of being flattered by such notions. It would be severely embarrassing for Mrs May to go down in history as the Tory PM who lost the Union, but the world would not stop spinning. For her or us.

Mrs May has perhaps seen a glimpse of the future, one that involves blocked ports, lost jobs, civil unrest. She is not the only one. As for her party, Brexit has surely done for the Conservatives as we currently know them. A party that cannot hold MPs of the calibre of Nick Boles, which threatens to deselect Dominic Grieve for trying his best to find a way forward, is in deep trouble.

More worrying is what lies ahead if the logjam is not broken. Last Friday the mood in a section of the crowd outside Parliament turned sinister as far right thugs behaved in a threatening manner to anyone, be it a member of the public or a journalist, they suspected was not of their kind. Let us not be so complacent in Scotland as to think the same people could not get on a train and come here, or are not here already. This is the ugly pass to which we have come.

Perhaps it was wishful thinking but Westminster yesterday appeared to draw breath and calm itself a little. Now that Mrs May has given up solitaire, there is everything to play for. MPs from all sides should get on with it.