Defeat postponed?

What must our European partners think?  As Paul Cezanne once said, we live in a rainbow of chaos:

As a metaphor for Brexit, the debate on the Lords amendments could hardly have been bettered. A speech cut off in mid-sentence due to an arbitrary time limit set by the government, and the chief whip darting around the chamber desperately pleading with Tory rebels not to defeat the government over a meaningful vote.

The solicitor general making up government policy on the hoof while making plea bargain concessions in public to Dominic Grieve. A government that can barely negotiate with itself, let alone the EU. Hundreds of MPs milling around, unsure of what had and hadn’t been agreed. The rebels reckoned they had a deal, while a government minister briefed that they had been stitched up. A shambles. 

...

The session ended in chaos. Anna Soubry appeared suspicious, but Grieve reassured her they were going to get what they wanted. Almost immediately, prominent Brexiters were claiming they wouldn’t. Not for the first time May appeared to have promised different things to both sides. Indecision and ambivalence are the only things at which she excels. But something has to give. And it’s going to get messy.

And how ...