I don’t know how many Brits are actually stockpiling food, but the fact the Europeans can sit there reading this sort of crap tells you just how badly Brexit has gone for the Poms. From a position of strength, patriotism and boundless opportunity going forward, they’ve taken the momentum of a historic vote and butchered it in the most humiliating way, culminating in many respects today in Brussels with a series of humiliating offers none of which will be (a) welcome or (b) anywhere close to acceptable. But when you’ve run out of ideas, momentum, desire, collegiality or any sort of approach that involves commonsense or brain power, that’s what you end up with.

The EU, in yet another emergency session, will offer any number of humiliating ideas around Britain basically never leaving the bloc. In many respects, they should be proud of their efforts, to the extent that they have taken a pasting in terms of the original vote and the prospect of one of their major net contributors walking, and ended up dealing with a snivelling mess, who seemingly will do anything to avoid a no deal.

The no deal is, of course, the one thing they all agree on. But in agreeing on that, Britain has given away its last remaining bargaining chip. Even if they couldn’t back May's plan, even if they couldn't agree on anything to present to the EU, what they could always do - and what they should have done day one - is say this either works out the way the vote was intended to have it work out, or we are off.

The reason food is being stockpiled is not because the issues around a no deal couldn’t be worked out, it's because they couldn’t be worked out by the end of today if notice was only given yesterday. We have seen, and I guess they will study this in business degrees at universities all over the world, the most remarkable shift in power.

All cards are in the EU's hands, May is a blithering begging wreck praying for some sort of relief or help or life raft. Britain has gone from a boldened island with a history of greatness and the chance of a new brilliant and invigorating chapter, to a pathetic, hi-jacked, ramshackle, indecisive, insecure shadow of its former self. Trump ironically was right, and he told May to call in the lawyers day one, take the vote and walk.

Make it Europe's issue. Europe was allowed to pout, posture and pose, to make demands well beyond its mandate, and end up with Britain having to stump up with a half-baked agreement that was never going to fly in the commons. This is not to excuse the British MPs, who in their own specific way have been determined to ignore the vote and market their own view of proceedings. But what Britain has allowed Europe to do is by anyone's measure a trouncing, a humiliating spanking.

Britain is not leaving, the referendum was a waste of time, the will of the people has been ignored, even if there is a Brexit in the name it will be a washed-up, diluted cobbled together, tatty sort of acknowledgement barely held together. Today they will call it a delay, they may as well run up a white flag with it.