In this business - the business of writing lightly irreverent and frothy articles about glib topics that but flit across the surface of deeper human existence - it can occasionally be a struggle to proffer some lightly humorous angle on whatever story has been slung my way. Trying to cobble together a gently droll take on a Ryanair flight sale or on say a Laois-based ewe that has somehow seen every episode of Glenroe, can occasionally become a struggle.
Sometimes however, there comes a story whereby any and all jokes write themselves. It is for these moments that I live - for they are the lifeblood of a writer of lightly irreverent and frothy articles about glib topics. This, this is one of those moments for Theresa May, while visiting Angela Markel on a desperate impromptu European tour to try curry favour to improve the terms of her Brexit proposal, found herself trapped in her car.
The footage, show by Sky News can be seen below.
Theresa May gets locked inside her car as she attempts to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Read the latest on Theresa May's tour of European leaders here: https://t.co/BdWa4K5WMy pic.twitter.com/h6066HP7o3
— Sky News Politics (@SkyNewsPolitics) December 11, 2018
There are numerous avenues we could go down with this:
Theresa May can't even leave her own car.
Theresa May deliberates leaving her own car but decides to delay decision as she doesn't think she'll have enough support.
Theresa May locked in struggle to leave European car.
Etc., etc.
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What's undeniable here is that it is one of the juiciest pieces of symbolism we could've ever been presented with.
It comes during what has been yet another disastrous week for Theresa May as the Brexit process becomes an ever tighter swirling vortex of nightmares. The all important vote on the Brexit bill, which had been comprehensively declared by Theresa May and her supporters to be both, beyond further negotiation and definitely going to a vote in Parliament today. Both of these promises were reneged on yesterday and the Parliamentary vote has been delayed until the 21st January and Theresa May is currently whirling around European capitals trying to butter up European heads of state in the hope of negotiating improved terms. This is despite the fact that both Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, and Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's representative in the Brexit negotiations, has decried the latest developments in Britain as a 'mess' and has reiterated that the proposed terms are beyond renegotiation.
#Brexit has become a mess. A vote delayed. Mrs May returning to Brussels. My two messages: we'll never let down Ireland; it’s out of the question to renegotiate the backstop & if you are looking for a closer future relationship to avoid the backstop, this will be no problem w/ us
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) December 11, 2018