Did he have a crystal ball?

@Marionville The New Statesman was a vehicle for Rik Mayall and was written by Sparks and Gran whose other hit series were all pretty run of the mill sitcoms.
TNS however was wildly irreverent and frighteningly predictive
plot lines included insider trading by tory mps, politicians paying off hookers and porn stars, Illegal dumping of nuclear waste, offshore banking scams for mps, fiddling opinion polls, left wing extremism in the BBC, the rise of militant feminism, Mps become panel show stars and reality television stars, Paedophile scandals in the house of commons, the rise of Antifa, engineered economic depression, the universal credit scandal and the exploitation of refugees for political capital.

@LenHazell53. Extremely prescient I would say.

May, who voted "remain", was so arrogant that she allowed her two cronies to create the conservative manifesto for the last election, instead of seeking advice from her ministers. The Tories, at that time, were expected to win with a massive majority.
I remember reading the manifesto and immediately declaring that the Tories had lost the election already.
As it was, the Tories just managed to stay in power, but only with the support of a "bribed" DUP.
From that moment on, Brexit' was doomed. May has never been a team player, and the DUP would never back any meaningful deal with the Irish Republic. The EU negotiators knew this, so Britain has never been able to negotiate firmly.
I reckon the only answer now is to leave with mo deal, then negotiate deals. This way Brexit talks would be positive, rather than be hampered by the current negativity.

@Petter No Deal is extremely dangerous, but if the UK is to leave, may be the only option. A general election will be needed to ratify a new Prime Minister, but will produce a significant risk to the fracturing of almost all of the political parties giving the UK the potential of having the Brexshit party not only in the European parliament, but Westminster as well. That said, the UK really needs to update the First Past the Post system to allow a voice for all of the people. This winner take all approach has been a problem for the binary referendum choice.

@Petter Petter, no deal is the worst of all options, and one all the Tory arch- Brexiteers want, as does Farage....it is not an option at all, it’s falling off a cliff edge, Parliament will have to act to stop that from happening, the Tory leadership election is an indulgence that the country should not have to endure, its putting Party before country. We need to put this back to the people, either in a second referendum or a General Election, The DUP were never negotiating with the Irish Republic, whatever gave you that idea? I agree with @Sofabeast that we need a reform of the first past the post system of electing governments, we do have PR in the EU elections, and it should be adopted in all others too.

@Marionville I never stated the DUP were negotiating with the Irish Republic, just the opposite. I stated "the DUP would never back any meaningful deal with the Irish Republic."

@Marionville, @Sofabeast The big problem with the proportional system used in much of Europe is that it is wide open to patronage, and does not recognise individual merit. Each party draws up a list, then voters choose a party. According to their share of the overall vote, each party is then allotted a number of seats. Say a party is allotted 20 seats, then the first 20 names on the list get seats. They carry no alliegance to any constituency, only to the party
Hence, patronage is all powerful, as is the case here in Spain.

@Petter I misread you, but there is still no deal being done with the Irish Republic for them to back or not. It is the EU and the U.K. with whom the deal is being negotiated. The DUP are just trying to make their case that we are just as British as anywhere on the mainland, which is patently untrue, when we still have draconian abortion laws here, to name but one difference,

@Petter That isn’t how PR works on our EU and council elections here. It is the STV. Single transferable vote.

Must have!