“There is nothing unusual in the fact that a backward country produces powerful works,” Georg Lukács wrote in an essay on Dostoevsky. By that standard, the cultural work happening quietly in offices and studios throughout Great Britain right now will be of incalculable quality, volume, and worth. Politically, the United Kingdom is waist deep in a swamp of its own creation.

Prime Minister Theresa May has tried to force down her withdrawal agreement from the European Union like stomach medicine, and it has been received by members of parliament from across the political spectrum like a cup of warm vomit. Upon failing once, May attempted to use the looming threat of the UK leaving the EU without a deal — and having to crash out, reverting to World Trade Organization rules instead — to convince the house to back the second, identical, deal. This sequel — call it, “2 Vote 2 Meaningful” — was also voted down by MPs, who are able to read and not scared of May’s weak threats. The government lost by 149 votes.

May would have continued pushing the same vote through repeatedly until a spanner jammed the cogs of the machine. But the UK’s unwritten constitution stipulates that the government cannot reissue the same piece of legislation unchanged. Several MPs approached the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, to complain that May had abused this rule; Bercow thus decided that May must change the motion if she wanted a third vote.