Are we really witnessing a government playing a game of Brexit chicken? That’s the accusation lobbed this week by the Labour Party and others who believe the prime minister’s tactic is to “run down the Brexit clock” so that MPs are faced with an unpalatable choice between her withdrawal deal or no deal.

The deadline as set out by Article 50 means that on 29 March we must leave the EU with or without a deal, and none of us can ignore that ticking clock. For one thing, the government has been very publicly ramping up preparations for the no-deal scenario and spending £2bn of contingency funding in the process. Officially it’s still confident its deal will be voted through the Commons next Tuesday, but the sight this week of lorries queuing up near Dover to test new border checks was a reminder – if we needed one – of what’s at stake (even if the operation itself was reminiscent of something from Dad’s Army in its cack-handed amateurism).

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