Roasting

 I've posted about heatwaves before. But this week is shaping up to be diabolical. Consider this forecast on the BBC on Monday 22 June for London.

Some other forecasters suggest highs close to 40c. Temperatures at this level are currently experienced in southern and central Europe and the bulge of extremely hot air is moving north.

It will be a little easier in beautiful Warwickshire where I now live and quite comfortable in Northumberland, where, by a staggering stroke of luck, I and Mrs C. happen to be on holiday. 

I shall update this post over the next few days and we will see if some of the more apocalyptic scenarios play themselves out.

Update: Tuesday 23

Very pleasant for us, touring around the Etal estate, the site of the bloody battle of Flodden and the almost chilly (when the sea breeze was blowing) Lindisfarne. The hottest part of the day (28c) was when we returned to our hotel in the late afternoon. 

Meanwhile in France: 42c in Bordeaux and 40 people said to have died from drowning caused by going into cold rivers and lakes.  At home, a violent electrical storm struck London, which did indeed reach the 36c forecast. Many schools are closed. And a man called Burn'em is about to replace Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister. Seems appropriate.

Update: Wednesday 24

We visited Alnwick Castle and Cragside (the most advanced house in terms of mod cons at the end of the 19c), and it was very comfortable sitting outside in the shade.

Meanwhile, here is the headline in The Guardian:

UK records its hottest June day, beating highs from 1957 and 1976

Temperature of 35.8C recorded in West Sussex, beating previous record of 35.6C, while France records hottest day nationally

Update: Thursday 25

A delightful day on the Northumbrian coast, with gorgeous sunshine and temperatures in the low 20s. We were at Bamburgh Castle with a little fog rolling in to obscure the sea view and then at Warkworth Castle where the stiff breeze almost made it feel chilly. 

And here is how the BBC summarised the UK at the end of the day:

• The UK record for the hottest June day has been broken for the second day in a row, with 36.7C provisionally recorded in Merryfield, Somerset
• It's also been the hottest day of the year so far in Wales (35.6C), Scotland (31.2C) and Northern Ireland (30C)
• Meanwhile, a hosepipe ban is introduced for around 850,000 customers in Kent, and at least six NHS trusts in England have declared critical incidents
• A red weather warning for extreme heat has been extended into Friday for London and parts of south-east England - the first time it has been issued for three consecutive days

Update: Friday 26

Warm and sunny up to mid- afternoon in Northumberland, then a distinct cooling, a strengthening breeze, much rumbling of thunder and finally rain and lightning to accompany our tea. 

Winning in the Snow

The Olympic Winter Games begin this week in Cortina, Italy. There is much excitement about the prospects for the British contestants. Let us not get too carried away. In 1988 and 1992 Britain won no medals. We did win two in 1994 but did not surpass this until 2014 and also 2018 when five were clocked. But 2022 saw a return to form with just two again.

Credit: Lebedev Evgeniy 

It's just not fair.  We are used to a certain sort of weather which in turn produces a certain sort of ground covering (see above), and it is not the pristine, fluffy deep snow that the skiers seek, nor are we blessed with lots of lakes that freeze up nicely for the skaters. It is time that there was a sports festival based on conditions in which our gallant athletes can truly compete:

• Slushboarding - contestants race over a pot-holed, slush covered road, trying to avoid keep left signs, speed bumps, badly parked cars and wobbling pedestrians. 
• Skating on thin ice - open to politicians of all parties as they make promises they cannot keep, affirm adherence to codes of conduct and swear loyalty to their leaders.
• The Overpass Dash - sprinters must race up and over ice-covered bridges to make a train connection
• Snowball fights - for individuals or teams. Spectators observe at their peril. No putting lumps of ice in the balls.
• Building a snowman, with both speed and artistic quality events. Scarfs may embody national colours. Competitors must supply lumps of coal and carrots.
• Stamping on puddles - Points are awarded for the height of splashes. 
• Snow on the line - A city tube network is crippled due to bad weather. Contestants must find the path between two stations that maximises the announcements about extensive delays, has the least useful replacement services and the most time spent shivering on a platform waiting for trains that are terminated at the preceding stop.

Readers! Suggest new events for the Realistic Winter Games. 

The best suggestions will be forwarded to the organisers and any adopted will win a fabulous, no-expenses paid holiday to the first AirBnB we can find that will give us a free room in exchange for a plug in these hallowed columns. Send in your ideas to the usual address. Terms and conditions apply and, in accordance with the spirit of the Olympics, will be supplied in exchange for a massive backhander in a brown envelope.

 

Sizzling Summer

 Yes, we have had heatwaves before. We've had hosepipe bans, photos of drained reservoirs, packed beaches, melting road surfaces and, most memorably, a Minister for Drought who took office one day and was nearly washed away the next when the heavens opened [Some perfectly acceptable exaggeration there: Ed]. What is new about 2025 is that we have already had two and, as I write, are midway through a third. It is only July. And there is no sign of the traditional thunderstorms that would bring the current one to an end.

[Saturday night] We have our curtains and blinds closed and it is still 28c inside at 7pm. It will just about be comfortable by the time we go to bed. There was a nice breeze this morning and we managed to give the house a decent airing before the incoming air became warmer than the insides and we had to close the windows. We are lucky not to have to work and not to be living in a stifling city environment.

[Sunday morning] It is strange to wake in the morning, open a window and think "That's a nice, cool breeze".  Because it is about 24c outside, not cool at all in old money, the sort of breeze that would be thought pleasantly warm most days. Somehow we are getting used to sitting around at 28c.

Sporting note: The England men's cricket team achieved their traditional midsummer batting collapse at Lords this afternoon. Some things never change.
Update note: England won the Test. Exactly as I predicted. The fact that I also predicted a narrow loss, a heavy defeat and a draw are not in any way material and I demand that they be struck from the record.

A Summery April

 The sun has been shining steadily over South Warwickshire for a number of days and the heat has built up to a climax, with 26c being reached today. We have sat out on our little patio with the parasol up and enjoyed the near total silence of our sheltered retirement village. 

Late in the afternoon heavy grey cloud began to build, rolling in from the west, and a few lightning strikes east of Worcester signalled what was to come - a sudden blast of much welcome rain that has effectively ended this mini heatwave. It has been the warmest April ever and today was the hottest day over the UK. Fun while it lasted but boy! did we need some rain.

 

A Quick Taste of Winter

 There was some highly interesting weather over the UK this past weekend. A great chunk of freezing air sat over the north and a warm, wet front rolled in from the south. Where they collided heavy snow and torrential rain followed. 

This might have been purely of academic interest to me, but fate decreed otherwise. For Mrs C and I were having a few days away, staying in the unexpectedly delightful Llandudno and the weather bomb struck the night before we planned to depart homewards. Amidst increasingly dire warnings on the media, I made various contingency plans. If all the roads were blocked, with reports of airlifted supplies being dropped onto those trapped in their cars - we would stay put in our hotel. If it was possible to leave but treacherous conditions might be encountered en route - find a welcoming cafe and indulge in a really long lunch. Otherwise charge up the mobile phones, stock some food and water and drive on in hope.

We woke on Sunday morning to find the town under snow but rain was now in charge and there was a few cm of slush on the ground, neither the deep snow nor the glassy and deadly ice that I had feared. With nothing worse than wet trainers, I was able to drive out of the town and though the worst hazards were fog on the A5, coupled with idiots who insisted on driving in the middle lanes of the motorways despite the empty inner lanes up which I was bearing down on them, we made it home. 

We planned to go shopping on Monday morning. That one failed pretty fast because the rain kept up all night and all the roads into our little village were flooded. Environment agency live monitoring of the River Alne showed it to be close to a record high for the past 20 years. 

We were lucky. Had we planned to begin our trip on Sunday, we would have had to abort. Had the bad weather hit a few hours earlier we might have got to within a half mile of home but been unable to go further. As it was, I think we got away with it.

The World Goes White

 

Here's something I thought I might never see again. It's been years since there was an appreciable amount of snow in sunny Ruislip. But we are not in Ruislip any more. This is the view from my new home in Warwickshire. 

It's been a strangely patchy blast of arctic air. Across the West Midlands and southern Pennines, plenty of snow. In northern England and the south, just rain. It will probably clear up by midmorning and start thawing later on so there is just a brief window in which to admire the view. We still have a cold few days ahead but are promised temperatures creeping back into double figures by the weekend.

This time last year prolonged rain brought flooding. This year we had loads of rain in the spring and summer, but very little since. And foreigners wonder we are obsessed with the weather.

Sizzling in September

 I record from time to time the less usual weather events that have affected me, hitherto in beautiful Ruislip but now I must switch focus to my new home in rural Warwickshire. A few warm days in September, often following a cooler period, are nothing new, indeed we have come to expect them. This week is one step beyond. It began warming up at the weekend and late afternoon temperatures have reached some 28c here, 31.5c in London, and will be at this sort of level until the end of the week. It is probably down to the jet stream, kinks in which gave us a scorching June, a cool and wet July and a fairly nondescript August. Europe, as usual, has it worse - Paris is expected to see 36c in a day or so.

It has rained so much in recent weeks that the countryside, I am delighted to report, is blooming. The fields are as a lush a shade of green as I can remember. That is, the pastures - arable fields have been harvested and are brown with a covering of whitish stalks. Huge dust clouds were blowing off one as I drove up the M40 yesterday, having had to pop back to London for an eye test.

Funny thing, returning to the place I lived for nearly 30 years, after three tranquil weeks in our new home. Ruislip seemed so much busier and noisier than I remembered. High Street was choked with traffic, and the stink of diesels and the snarl of the fast-food delivery motorbikes seemed overwhelming. Yes, there are many more shops and other facilities than are on our doorstep here but I don't really miss them. When my appointment was over and I was back on the road, it felt as if I was going home, not leaving it.

 

Rain, Glorious Rain

 As promised in my piece last time, here is an update on the heatwave / drought / flash flood situation. There was decent rain last night for the first time in many weeks and we stood at the front door and marvelled at the sight of water running down the street, and soaked up the smells suddenly released from the parched ground.

Today however it got serious. A major front moved north from France bringing lightning and, in parts of the UK, torrential rain that caused flooding. Here, in beautiful Ruislip, all was quiet until mid afternoon, despite an ominous build up of black cloud, and Mrs C and I even dared to pop out to a furniture warehouse. No sooner inside than a fierce drumming on the roof heralded the arrival of the storm.  Here is how it was at the start:

That red dot is us. The storm moved over our heads and then stayed there for about three hours, giving us some 20mm of rain. We had driven down a fairly placid A40 on the outward journey but coming back everything was at a near-standstill with pools of water at the side of the road and huge gouts of spray from the trucks. HS2 roadworks at Ruislip Gardens gave us another ten minutes of gridlock. 

I'm not complaining. We have desperately needed it. Some of our normally green and vibrant plants are bleached almost white, and the "lawn" at the front of our house looks like a desert scrubland. Let us see if the cacti bloom.

Back to Normal?

 Sorry for all the weather-related stuff recently. An entire week of unpleasantness is coming to a close with temperatures having topped 30c every day and no rain, not even cloud cover until this afternoon. It may or may not rain a bit in the next few days, but we need a great deal to top up the reservoirs, fill the rivers and percolate into the topsoil.  

It has been worse in Europe. Photographs of the River Loire show it dry - a staggering prospect in the one of the loveliest valleys of France.  They - and we - are facing a drought.

Mrs C and I volunteer at our local heritage centre, Manor Farm. We were there today but after 90 minutes with precisely no visitors and nobody bothering to look round the site - usually bustling and a haven of peaceful green space in the heart of old Ruislip - we packed it in. 

Supposedly temperatures will begin returning to normal this week. There will of course be updates on this channel. Historians looking back from the far future can have a laugh about it.

That Big, Yellow Thing is Back

 Just for the record, I present the BBC's forecast of the weather for the next few days.

The odd day of really hot sunshine we can take. But day after day of it is not what our houses or towns were designed for. I think we will be bunkering down with the curtains drawn and fans running, doing as little as possible. Summer used to be the time for getting out and about and revelling in decent weather. Or looking up at grey skies and ensuring that an umbrella was at hand. 

Looking back through my own musings on this topic, it seems that July was the month for the temperature-topping days and August much more temperate, as this typical post suggests.Oh well, let us hope for a traditional Bank Holiday end to this unwanted taste of the Sahara.

Heatwave Update #3

 Wildfires have broken out across southern Europe, forcing the evacuation of towns, campsites and holiday resorts. There have been casualties, including firefighters.

Not to be outdone, we had our own heat-driven apocalypse in NW Middlesex this afternoon. Fires on the parched fields at Hatch End forced rail cancellations. There was a report of a fire in Wembley. And closer to home, the normally marshy low-lying land near RAF Northolt went up in smoke, closing the A40  for several hours. 

Photo: Adam Crts on Ruislip Community Group, Facebook

It was supposed to rain this evening as the heat at last recedes, but as usual we got nothing bar a thick grey cloud cover and increased humidity. Or so I thought until, whilst writing the preceding line, Mrs C pointed out of the window to some real wet-type stuff falling from the sky. It was the briefest of showers but right now we will gladly take anything. 

Heatwave update #1

As predicted, it was 37c this afternoon in the scorched, baking plains of what they used to call beautiful Ruislip. The news was dominated by reports across the country showing cars melting, Rutland Water evaporating and mile-long queues to buy ice-creams. [Some slight but permissible exaggeration here:Ed] We remained steadfastly indoors. It was warm but comfortable in the living room with curtains closed and a fan on. Tonight may be less pleasant as massive amounts of stored heat burst out of the brickwork and converge on the bedroom. A local weather station is optimistically predicting some precipitation (rain, in other words) but all too often, in these situations, we see the clouds waft overhead without giving us some blessed relief, so I am not getting any hopes up.

We're Heading For A Heatwave

 The title of a long-forgotten pop song from the late 1960s seems peculiarly suitable right now. All of Western Europe is roasting in an unprecedented heatwave. Temperatures above 40c are being experienced from Spain to the Balkans. In Britain, having had a couple of days at around 30c we are bracing ourselves for a possible 40c in the next couple of days.

Fortunately the Commuter household no longer has to commute and can bunker down at home with a supply of cold drinks, damp towels and darkened rooms to ease the discomfort. 

I shall update this topic in due course

The One-Day Heatwave

 A plume of Saharan air brought temperatures of 32c in the south-east yesterday and left us with a fairly stifling night. Normally one might expect several days of heat but today a thick band of cloud kept it cool all day and as I write, at 7:00pm, it is actually below 13c. 

The desert air left its mark on my car, sadly. We had some thin rain this afternoon and now it is covered in dust. I'm not happy. I took it to the car wash a couple of weeks ago (actually included as part of my annual car service because the garage seems to have contracted out its traditional valeting) and it looks like I shall have to get the old bucket and sponge out.

Are THEY watching?

 Two weeks ago we had a few days of extremely hot weather (hot by UK standards, you understand). It came without any build-up, following a delightful week of really pleasant sunshine, a week in which, by pure coincidence, Mrs. C and I enjoyed a holiday for the first time in 18 months. But the heat did not simply fade into a typical summer, or vanish amidst thunderstorms (although there was a fair bit of rain). It was replaced by a cold snap so virulent that we, and other people of our generation, were seriously considering putting on the central heating. In June!

I am pleased to say things have now settled down to a normal British summer but at the back of my mind is one disquieting fact. The US government  is about to publish a definitive report on the existence of UFOs.

Nobody denies that unidentified flying objects exist. One of them hurtled past my ears only the other evening before disappearing mysteriously somewhere near the net curtains [Could it have been a fly? Ed]. What excites the loonies of this world is the idea that some must be alien spacecraft and that the US government knows all about them and is, perhaps, in contact with them.  Naturally, the aliens possess technologies so far in advance of our own that they can be thought capable of anything. Flying across light-years of space - no problem. Whizzing round our world undetected pretty well all of the time - a snap. Being able to land, abduct Americans, investigate their anatomies intimately and then return them without anybody else ever seeing - happens all the time.

And now we come to the crux. The aliens, who monitor all our of media closely (and I hope they find EastEnders of particular use when analysing the psychology of people who glower a lot and keep getting barred from pubs) will know all about the forthcoming report. They have kept their existence, not exactly secret, but deeply obscured, for at least 75 years.

Some suggest there is much earlier evidence, if the account in Second Kings is given credence -

 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

What do the aliens want? Presumably to go on probing the digestive systems of Americans and zooming around the skies in order to baffle airline pilots. They obviously derive enormous satisfaction from this and are credited with absolutely nothing else.  Would these activities be harmed by the truth being disclosed to those of us not already privy to it? Is this, in fact, why the weather has been so screwy? Are they sending us an awful warning?

Detailed, robust and painstaking research conducted here at Ramblings has established the following scenarios that pertain.

• The aliens do not want any more information about them to be released. The heat and the cold show what they can do if they are offered further provocations.
• The aliens want the information to be released. The heat and the cold are a warning that full disclosure must be made.
• The aliens want the information to be disclosed but are not happy at the thought of all the loonies going "I told you so" because, in a way, this undermines the total secrecy of the aliens' activities and make them look rather stupid. The heat and the cold are there to ensure governments round the world suppress all dissent but, so far, only the Chinese have followed them to the letter.
• The aliens don't know what they want and are having a furious debate about it with their overlords back on Tharg. As all messages can only travel at the speed of light, and Tharg is 24 light-years away, they are still waiting for a reply from a message sent in 1974 asking if they should exterminate the Bay City Rollers as a threat to the wholesomeness of the younger and more impressionable of their crew. The heat and the cold are a message to their mother ships anchored in orbit somewhere beyond Pluto and mean "Well? Yes or no? Get on with it, five-eyes!"
• The aliens really like sharp changes in temperature, such a refreshing contrast to the constant -139c temperature on their flying saucers. After a long day's medical review of the intestines of Americans, they like nothing better than to land on a deserted beach, take in the sun for a while and then don fluffy cardigans as the mercury plummets. They are worried that these activities may have to be curtailed when the report is published and so are getting in a final burst of basking and shivering before it all has to end.

We will soon know what the US government wants us to know. It doesn't really matter what they publish because the true believers in UFOs as evidence of alien spacemen will allege that the REAL facts are being covered up. And the strange contrasts in our weather will continue.

-*-*-*-*-

Readers! Do you have any stories of alien abductions in which things were inserted into parts of your body that, quite frankly, made you feel rather squeamish? Have flying saucers buzzed you while little green men leant out of the windows thumbing their noses or sticking tentacles down their outer proboscis or whatever it is that aliens do when they can go faster than you? Do you know the GRISLY TRUTH about what is REALLY going on and if so, do you dare to disclose it?

Please send in your contributions to the usual address and, provided you don't mind having thousand of goggling Thargians watching as your innermost secrets are probed with a, er, probe, you could win a holiday for two on a flying saucer. Just remember to bring your thermals!

Terms and conditions apply but as they have to be approved by the Thargian government it will take 48 years before we can let you know what they are. 

 

Slowly Cooling

It was, indeed (as predicted previously), pretty damn warm yesterday. Very near the record here in beautiful Ruislip, and across much of Europe. Fortunately some thunderstorms during the small hours have helped lower temperatures this morning though it remains humid. Amazingly England and Ireland (yes, really) played a Test match at Lords, the Tour de France struggled on into the Alps and even my local non-league football team was out training. I don't know how they do it.

[later]
Extraordinary sporting day. In the Test, Ireland  had scuttled out England in their first innings for 85 then scored 207. A historic win looming? Nope. Yesterday England scored 303. A confident Irish commentator opined that Ireland would certainly get the 180 odd runs needed to win. This plan worked brilliantly until they began their innings at which they scored 38 in just 15 overs. That's 38 all out, not for the first wicket or because the match had to be abandoned. 38 all out.

Meanwhile, in the Alps, Egan Bernal made a brilliant attack on Col de Liseran to go into the virtual leadership over the wonderfully combative Julian Alaphillipe and then the race was stopped before the final climb because the mountain road was under several inches of snow. Yes, snow, I saw the live pictures including a bulldozer making valiant but futile efforts to sweep it away. (And there was a landslide across the road as well). As a result Bernal wins the stage and the yellow jersey without Alaphillipe having had the chance to recover time on the long descent.  So this unusual weather continues to wreak its effects.

Boris in PM Brexit Meltdown Heatwave Shock Bid

Five years ago this column exclusively¹ broke the story that Boris "Don't bother me with the facts" Johnson was poised to return to Parliament in order to attain his ambition of having his picture hung in the stairwell at 10 Downing Street².  Today that dream has become a reality. Johnson, having been elected as leader of the Conservative Party by a small number of members, now finds himself without a majority, with "colleagues" who mistrust him and an impossible negotiating position with the EU. Why on earth does he want this job?

Johnson's stance on Brexit seems to be akin to the crusty, argumentative old codger in the golf club who gets so irritated he storms out and tears up his membership card, and then pokes his head round the door and says "I've paid my last penny in fees and I hate you all but I insist on jolly well playing here whenever I like just like all the real members".  What can he possibly say on his first meeting in Brussels that will be different to the scorn and lies he has already put out during his career?

I suppose it is incumbent on me to link this story with the return of the very hot weather to the UK. Really very hot, actually. Temperatures in London today are expected to reach about 33c, much the same tomorrow then a rather nasty 36c on Thursday before dropping back to something we are more used to. Can Boris take the heat? Will British politics go into melt-down? Are expectations at fever-pitch and will our man remain icy cool as all around are wilting? These are some of the meteorological/political considerations that headline writers will be pulling out from their rusty old filing cabinets (from the drawer marked "C" for clichés), polishing up and using whilst casually whistling and looking around as if to say "Look how clever I've been and I've not pinched this from anyone, honest". And who are we to stand out from the crowd on this one?


footnotes
 1. Well, maybe a small exaggeration here. Nothing serious. Nothing that will get me slung out of the League of Responsible Bloggers, should that organisation ever get formed and should I happen to become a member.
2.The stairs are lined with portraits of British Prime Ministers which grin down at you as you make your way to the main reception room for a quick glass of warmish white wine and a couple of unidentifiable canapés. I've been there, all right?

Sweltering

June can be a miserable month in the UK or it can be splendid. Or indeed, both. This week has verged towards the jolly nice end of the spectrum with settled blue skies and temperatures nicely in the mid 20s. However tomorrow we are promised a real heatwave and maybe something closer to 33 - we shall see*. In any case it will all be back to normal on Sunday.

It's a different story in continental Europe where a horrible burst of scorching weather has erupted from the Sahara and blasted intolerable heat from Portugal to Germany. Records are being set, with 45c in southern France today, for example. Looking back through the archives of this very column I see several instances that are similar (such as this one from 2 years ago and this from 2016) but this year is the worst yet. We seem to be getting away rather lightly with it.

Here is the temperature map on the BBC which I hope they won't mind me pinching republishing.

The colours make it look rather friendly but those deep reds are temperatures up and over 40. By contrast it is only (only!) 36c in Cairo and a rather pleasant 33c in Timbuktu. And spare a thought for firefighters in Catalonia, trying to combat forest fires whilst wearing all that heavy protective gear.

*update on Saturday. Yup, we got 34c in West London, the hottest part of the UK. The dryness of the air made it a little more tolerable than it otherwise might have been. And there were severe delays on the Metropolitan Line during the hottest part of the afternoon. Ah, it's good to see the old traditions being observed.

How Low Can You Get?

Travellers wishing to take the scenic and rather relaxing Chiltern Line north of Harrow-on-the-Hill may sometimes stray up to the very end of Platform 1 whilst waiting for the next train to arrive. Should they be thinking of a pleasant sit down they need to be warned. Only the very short will find any comfort here. For in this quiet and rather unfrequented part of the station is to be found a bench that no person of normal height is likely to use; unless they wish to incur a severe degree of back ache.

Here is that strangely undersized piece of railway furniture, looking a little like those tiny chairs found in infants' schools when compared to the ordinary benches on the adjacent platform. It's been there for a long time. I can't be the first to have commented on it.

By the way the white triangle at the base of the picture is not a camera error. It is the amazingly bright sunshine of what has become the warmest February day on record, going up to around 20c.

The Winds of Change

It has been a splendid summer (if you like lots of sunshine) and a rather difficult one (if you are a keen gardener) but certainly a great contrast to most of the last few years when dullness, chill and rain (especially over Bank holidays) seemed the norm. All over now. The first big storm of the season - Ali - is battering the north of these isles and even here in beautiful Ruislip 40mph gusts are giving us a lively morning.

There is no longer a goldfish population for me to worry about; instead Mrs C and I have installed a large pot as a central feature of the garden. We've put a load of old bricks in the base to keep it steady and now it faces its first test amidst the rising winds.

And, speaking of change, we are limping up to the finish line in the botched job that is Britain's exit from membership of the EU. Will there be a last minute deal that satisfies all parties? Or will the die-hards sabotage whatever emerges from the late-night negotiations on the grounds that any deal approved by the EU must, de facto, be detrimental to the UK? I have a horrible feeling that this may the case.