A huge Tory majority made the debate and votes perfunctory. The Lords may be less controllable than the Commons, but the bill will become law largely unamended so Brexit can happen on January 31st. Mr Johnson hopes then to drop the very word Brexit, arguing that trade talks will be technical stuff more suited to business than front pages. In fact Brexit will still not be done on January 31st.
And the future talks will cover not just trade but standards, security, data exchange, fisheries, financial services, research and much else. Moreover, as Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, made clear at her meeting with Mr Johnson at Downing Street on January 8th pictured , they will be even more difficult than the withdrawal negotiations.
Changes to the withdrawal bill will not help. It now bans by law any extension of the transition period beyond And the bill dumps provisions giving MPs a big role in scrutinising and voting on future deals with the EU. All this fits with a much-loved Brexit trope that the way to win a good deal in Brussels is just to hang tough. On her visit to London, Mrs von der Leyen spoke eloquently of her deep friendship and admiration for Britain.
Yet she was steely when talking of future relations. The end-year deadline made a comprehensive deal impossible. As a third country, Britain would have less privileged trade access. Without free movement of people, it could not have free movement of capital, goods and services. This is code for a level playing-field under which Britain is required to observe EU rules in such fields as labour, taxes, the environment and state aid. The more Britain diverges from such rules, the greater the barriers to its exports.
The truth is that Mr Johnson, like Mrs May before him, is in a weak bargaining position. The withdrawal agreement deals with money owed after Brexit, the rights of EU citizens in Britain and, via customs checks in the Irish Sea, the guarantee of an open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
