THE architect of the latest delay to the Brexit process, the Tory MP Oliver Letwin, put it best. He was delaying the meaningful vote on Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, he told MPs, because he wanted to support it. I'm sure the voting public will appreciate the subtlety of this stratagem.

Like many people, Remain and Leave, I hoped to see a resolution of this ludicrous Brexit imbroglio. But Super Saturday turned into Stupefying Saturday as, once again, Parliament opted for delay. Only this time the delay wasn't led by opponents of Brexit, or even the DUP, but by those 10 or so Tory rebels, the “Gaukward Squad” led, by the former Tory minister, David Gauke MP, who back it.

They decided that, even though they support Boris Johnson's deal (like Theresa May's) they were damned if they were going to vote for it. So they erected another procedural roadblock. The Letwin Amendment was ostensibly to prevent a No Deal Brexit by reinforcing the Benn Act. But its effect is to build in yet more delay to this interminable process..

As MPs shambled out of the chamber it was unclear whether or not Boris Johnson was going send the Benn Act letter requesting a further extension of British membership of the EU. Or whether the Speaker John Bercow was going to send it. Or some judge under Nobile Officium. But the whole exercise is pointless anyway. The Prime Minister made clear at the Dispatch Box that, letter or no, he is not going to “negotiate a delay”.

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This means he will refuse to cooperate with any prolongation, which had anyway been “ruled out” by the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, on Thursday. Juncker emphatically did say precisely this, despite claims to the contrary. Of course, the President can be over-ruled by the 27 heads of government. But Brussels' patience has been sorely tested.

Last week, Boris Johnson won what must surely be the final concessions from the European Union. He got Brussels to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement, abandon the Irish Backstop, and agree to dual customs arrangements at the Irish border. None of us thought this possible only fortnight ago.

Opposition MPs didn't just say that Boris Johnson could never get a deal, they accused him of actively working against one. The negotiations were a “sham” according to Jeremy Corbyn. Labour MPs said Boris Johnson was in the pay of hedge fund billionaires, who'd ordered him to secure a No Deal Brexit, so that they could make a killing on October 31.

On the Tory side, Amber Rudd, the former pensions secretary, resigned from the Cabinet last month claiming that the PM wasn't even trying to get a deal. The Tory MP, Nick Boles, resigned the party whip accusing Johnson of turning the Conservatives into a “hard right English Nationalist Party”.

To be fair, Boles paid fulsome tribute last week to the PM's negotiating skills and admitted he had been wrong. But he still voted against him on Saturday. Another cabinet rebel, Rory Stewart, said that if the PM got a deal, he would “get down on my knees before Boris Johnson and admit I was wrong”. That has yet to happen.

Yet, whatever you think of Boris Johnson’s new deal, it undoubtedly is one. Last week, he turned the Irish Backstop back to front. Theresa May's protocol would have kept the entire UK in the single market and customs union indefinitely. Now only Northern Ireland is in the single market, and the arrangement is time-limited. The protocol is a frontstop, and will only continue with the consent of the Northern Ireland Assembly. No longer is there “regulation without representation” in the province.

Further, Northern Ireland remains in the customs territory of the UK, yet there will be no hard border on Ireland. Goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will be subject to EU tariffs, but only if there is a “risk” that the goods will go on to the European Union through the non-existent Irish border. The UK will police the border at Stranraer, under a joint EU/UK committee.

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Labour are right to say that the Johnson deal waters down commitments on workers' rights and the environment. The “level playing field” on standards will be negotiated as part of the future trading relationship, rather than as a legally-binding condition of the Withdrawal Deal. But that is pretty much inevitable, since the UK is leaving the European Union, and therefore cannot reasonably remain under its jurisdiction.

However, this allowed Labour and the SNP to reject the deal on the grounds that Johnson was planning a “race to the bottom” on regulation and workplace standards. But I'm not sure it is reasonable to assume that. There's no reason to suppose that the UK Parliament will impose worse standards than those of the EU. The Tories won't be in power for ever.

Of course, Johnson made further concessions. He now accepts at least some customs checks in the Irish Sea. He dumped the Democratic Unionist Party's veto on future arrangements, in place of consent by a simple majority in the Northern Irish Assembly. It was odd to hear some Labour MPs siding with the DUP on consent, when previously they'd accused Boris Johnson of being in Arlene Foster's pocket.

The opposition also found themselves son the wrong side of the European Union. Brussels really wants this deal. What was remarkable about the optics of last week's EC summit was the back-slapping bonhomie with which Boris Johnson was greeted by the EU heads of state.

Not long ago, Brussels regarded Boris Johnson as a monster – a populist, ultra-Brexiteer, who could not be trusted. He was consigned to that “special place in hell” that the EC President Donald Tusk said was reserved for “nationalist” politicians like him. Yet last week it was all smiles and fist bumps.

But that all seems academic now. We are back in Brexit purgatory after another false dawn. The problem is that the opposition parties cannot agree on what they want, and will only insist on what they don't want.

Despite the huge demonstration in London in favour of a Peoples Vote, Remain MPs didn't even try to secure a vote on a repeat referendum on Saturday. Nor will Parliament ever vote to Revoke Article 50.

Even the 19 Labour MPs, led by Stephen Kinnock, who wrote to Brussels urging the EU to agree a deal with Boris Johnson, ended up voting against. Numerous Tory MPs who broadly support the deal, like Ken Clarke, can't get in line. Everyone wants something that they can't have.

There will now be further procedural wrangling and wriggling this week, as the Government tries to get another meaningful vote tomorrow and a second reading of the Withdrawal Bill on Tuesday. On paper, the votes should be there, if the Tory rebels relent and Labour Brexiteers vote for the deal.

But votes alone have never been enough to get Brexit over the line. This affair has now gone beyond politics and turned into a kind of psychological condition. Brexitus Interruptus: a withdrawal method with a beginning but no end.