Dogged by Brexit.

OBLIGED by parliament to fetch up with a plan B after her deal with the European Union (EU) was voted down last week by a majority of 230, the largest defeat for a sitting government in the House of Commons, Theresa May did just that on Monday.

Her plan B barely differed from her roundly rejected plan A, though. The solitary concession was that EU citizens applying for settlement in Britain would not be charged APS65 for their effort. The opposition welcomed the token measure, but accurately noted that the Brexit crisis remains unresolved.

There are less than 10 weeks to go before the March 29 deadline, and the prospect of crashing out without a ratified deal remains the likeliest outcome. Some members of parliament, mostly on the Conservative side, and a sizeable proportion of the public have few qualms about a no-deal Brexit, notwithstanding considerable alarm among bureaucrats and businessmen in particular about the chaos that could immediately ensue. The most worried segments of the public have lately been stockpiling food and medicines, just in case.

May characteristically displayed no emotion in the face of last week's historic defeat, but right afterwards invited the other parties to talks at No.10 Downing Street. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced much criticism for turning down the invitation unless the ruling party rules out the no-deal option, while smaller parties attending the negotiations appear to have made no headway in shifting the perspective of the obdurate prime minister.

Crashing out without a deal remains the likeliest prospect.

It is possible that next week the Commons will vote to block a no-deal scenario, necessitating an extension of the Article 50 deadline unless a coherent deal is ratified by the end of February. May says the EU will reject that option, even though indications from Brussels suggest preparations are already being made for a postponement.

Her claim that a second referendum, another of the mooted options, would be deeply divisive is more credible. But deep divisions are already in place. Opinion polls suggest that a re-vote would reverse the popular verdict, not because all that many Britons have changed their minds but for the simple reason that the electorate now includes many teenagers who were unable to vote in 2016, and the young are broadly inclined towards continued membership of the EU.

Opinion polls can, of course, be way off the mark. It's nonetheless intriguing, though, that a...