Yesterday the papers reported a startling fact. "UK officials" had, as the Guardian put it, confirmed that an emergency brake on immigration was "on the table" in Brexit talks.
Most of the comment which followed this story (unspecific as to who "UK officials" might have been, but nevertheless so widely printed that you'd think it had some basis in fact) concerned the outrage of Tory MPs hostile to immigration. They had not, they fulminated, fought for so long for Brexit only to have one of its principal charms taken away at the moment of victory.
I guess you can see their point; but for me the really astonishing facet of this story, assuming it to be broadly true, lay elsewhere.
David Cameron went to Brussels to ask for concessions which would enable him to sell Remain to the British. He went to see Angela Merkel, we are told, and asked for an emergency brake on immigration. Nein, said Frau Merkel. Not a chance. Cameron had to make do with minor concessions on benefits for migrants, which by the time of the Referendum hadn't been agreed by other EU countries (and would in any case have been dependent on their unanimous agreement). Britain duly voted to Leave.
So this is where we are. A variation on the principle of free movement which Cameron was refused in the months before the Referendum now suddenly appears to be possible, and may be combined with continued access to the single market now we have voted Leave.
Wow.
If you assume it's true that other EU countries were mostly dismayed by the Brexit vote and would, whatever their reservations about Britain, have largely preferred us to stay, what are we to infer from this extraordinary volte face?
It must be agonising for EUrophiles to contemplate the effect this concession might have had if it been made, say, at the beginning of June. David Cameron would have been able to say, "Look! At last we have some means of stopping this unending flow of migrants. 330,000 net last year. A group of people roughly the size of Bristol. At last we'll be able to start bringing that figure down". A lot of people would have voted differently. The Referendum result would probably have different.
For EUrosceptics this change of heart prompts at the very least a grim shake of the head. For does it not show the staggering incompetence of the EU leadership? Migration might have been the most important issue in the Referendum, but an emergency brake, a sign that the tide might begin to slow, could have had a huge impact on the result. You'd have to imagine that EU leaders are kicking themselves.
What does this extraordinary mistake make Merkel, Juncker, Schwarz and Hollande et al look like?
Well here's a few things. Proud, inflexible, ill-informed (what were their UK diplomats doing?), unimaginative and doctrinaire for starters.
What absolutely crap leadership.
Aha, say the old Brexit hands. We told you that's what they were like.
