IT remains to be seen whether yesterday’s decision by the Speaker, John Bercow, to rule out another vote on the Government’s rejected Brexit agreement if the motion remains “substantially the same” deals a terminal blow to Theresa May’s hopes of securing a deal.

Procedurally, it has now become much more difficult for the Prime Minister to get her deal through Parliament. Unless the European Union agrees to significant changes to the current agreement – something it has consistently ruled out – Mrs May will be unable to secure a Parliamentary majority.

The Prime Minister must now decide how to approach negotiations with the EU as she prepares to request an extension beyond the current withdrawal date of March 29, but at least she has avoided the potential embarrassment of seeing her deal defeated for a third time. Had there been another vote this week, such an outcome was on the cards.

That is an extremely minor source of relief though, with the Prime Minister finding herself at the heart of what the solicitor general, Robert Buckland, has described as a “constitutional crisis”.

His words are not hyperbole – they sum up a situation that lurches from one shambolic situation to the next. There are now just ten days to go until the UK is due to leave the EU, and no one has a clue what happens next.

That is simply not good enough. There was a time when Great Britain ruled over half the world. Now, it finds itself completely incapable of governing itself.