Let’s have a little think about the vacuous mantra “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

Good deal: give me five quid and I’ll change your wheel for you (both sides happy).

Not a good deal: give me 50p and I’ll change your wheel for you (he’s happy but I’m fleeced, though at least not walking away with nothing).   

No deal: Bugger off and find some other mug to change your wheel for you. I’ll find someone else who needs a wheel changing. If I can, of course. They may only give me three quid, if can actually find them, but I’ll have to take take the risk (he simply shrugs, as there are plenty of tyre bays around, but I’m well miffed - and worried about going away empty-handed and the prospect of getting only bad deals from now on).

A bad deal worse than no deal: I’ll change your wheel for you AND I’ll give YOU a quid.

Well now, tell me how we are ever going to arrive at a bad deal worse than no deal. David Davis and co. may well be a feckless bunch of clowns but even they couldn’t achieve it. It’s a deal or it’s not a deal. The bad deal worse than no deal stuff is just bunkum.