AS I write, the Commons have just passed the Brexit delay Bill.

It's looking like Boris Johnson could have the shortest Premiership in history. The scenes in Parliament last night were verging on pantomime. Johnson twice accused the leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn of being "frit". (Is this an Eton expression? What does it mean? Seems to be a shortening of "frightened").

And you didn't need to be a lip reading expert to notice Boris calling Corbyn a "big girl's blouse" over his lack of a firm answer on whether a general election was a good idea.

Then, the night before, the caricature villain (or hero, for some people), Jacob Rees Mogg was sprawled across the green benches, seemingly having 40 winks, like a Bullingdon Club grandee who has quaffed a bottle of Bolly too many and is napping through a lecture on Keynesian economics.

Jeremy Corbyn was conspicuously absent following the Brexit delay vote. He emerged a few minutes later waving a piece of paper, where he had been amending his speech in response to Johnson's call for a general election. No one was really any the clearer after he spoke, other than him calling for another referendum on any planned European deal.

The real sense came from former Tory stalwart Ken Clarke, who was unceremoniously expelled from the party after years of loyal service on Tuesday after opposing the government's position on no deal.

He made a plea to Boris to understand the key and serious political position he was in, and to stop treating it all like a game.

That is exactly what it is. Politics has always been about out-manoeuvring the opposition, but Boris has taken it to a different level. This is a complicated game of chess.

As Ken Clarke said, if the election goes ahead, Boris will play the melodrama game, painting the villains as the wicked elected members in the Palace of Westminster trying to stop Brexit at all costs, and himself the conquering knight on his galloping horse, waving St George's flag, ready to take us out of the EU and duelling with the Europeans at all costs.

Those who voted for Leave, and in turn those who want to leave with no deal, will likely fall for this act, because by their very nature they have a romantic and ill-considered ideal of Britain ruling the waves.

They've not read up, or have chosen to ignore, that no deal will not only cause short-term problems (apparently that's just Project Fear) but also very long-term economic implications, with people much wiser than us predicting up to a ten per cent drop in GDP.

But the imminent damage Brexit has done is the way it has divided the country. There is the "Remoaner" camp (or just people with sense), the hardline Brexiteers with their blinkered nationalism, and those who voted Leave because they saw the need for EU reform – but are now regretting their vote.

It has thrown our entire political system into turmoil, divided the Conservative party beyond repair, and left Labour unable to make a decision or settle on a policy for fear of losing half its voting population.

David Cameron has a lot to answer for, for opening Pandora's Box. If anyone was 'frit', Cameron was terrified of losing votes to UKIP. And it has ended with checkmate for Britain, however things turn out.