It is hard enough following real politics, but we are now residing in a surreal new world where rival politicians are fighting over things that don't even exist.
First there was the non-existent EU veto, but now we have Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander complaining that Cameron's pledges on the EU were "rapidly unravelling" after "a draft EU agreement suggested Britain could be left out of decisions affecting the single market".
This cropped up a few days ago when Cameron pledged to keep single market issues out of the new treaty.
But such pledges are about as relevant as would be a government promise to keep wild elephants out of Lewisham High Street. As there are no wild elephants in the darkest reaches of London, so there is no mention of the single market in the new treaty – as even a basic search will show (see also above - this can be searched on the Chrome browser - use "ctrl F").
The implications of this new development, though, are profound. There can now be no limits to the issues over which our politicians can fight, and score off each other. We could, for instance, have Mr Cameron refusing to offer equal rights to Martian settlers, or promising to cut subsidies for the Brazabon airliner.
Come to think of it, so much fun could be had from fantasy politics that we could park the real version in Brussels and allow our politicians free rein on any subject that takes their fancy. Considering what use they are, this at least would introduce an element of entertainment into an otherwise moribund subject.
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