Today should have made history for Britain. Instead, it turned that storied country’s venerable parliament into a shambles with MPs stumbling like headless chickens.

Today was the day when Brexit – Britain’s exit from the European Union after 45 years of ever-closer union – should have happened allowing the British people to “take back control” as desired by the referendum of June 23, 2016.

The British government imposed the exit deadline on itself by submitting a formal letter of exit to the EU on March 29, 2017, which triggered withdrawal and set the clock ticking.

Then, astonishingly, British Prime Minister Theresa May failed to get even her own Conservative Party behind her. Today, she suffered a third crushing defeat within a month on her plan to get Britain out without disastrous economic consequences.

She lost by 58 votes, slightly better than her previous defeats by margins of 230 and 149 votes. There is no precedent for such mortification despite full use of the Whip — a draconian British parliamentary tradition that “whips” party members into obeying their leader when they vote on important issues.

“The implications of the House’s decision are grave. I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” she said, clearly threatening to call an election to get a new parliament but without announcing anything specific. Earlier, as a bribe to opponents within her party, she offered to step down if her exit plan were approved. That would have allowed a more favored successor to negotiate with the EU without calling an election.

Time is short since the EU will throw Britain out on April 12 with a “no deal”, absent a convincing new process (that could include elections) to make a deal. MPs have already voted to prohibit a “no deal” exit while also rejecting the deal May had already set up. So, there is a logjam that seems to defy solution.

Some prominent politicians are lobbying for a second referendum that would, hopefully, overturn the first one and keep Britain in the EU. But a parliamentary vote rejected that, too.

So this breath-stopper continues.

It is painful to watch Britain doing to itself what its enemies could never do. This is gratuitous self-harm.

Factions within factions of MPs are squabbling so virulently that Britain’s two-party system, much admired by other democracies for decades, might be in its final throes. The grand old Conservative and Labour parties are fragmenting into resentful clans and even their Whips are reeling.

This gives great cause for alarm Suddenly, Brexit has turned into an existential challenge for British-style parliamentary democracy instead of being just a prideful endeavor to return the English Channel to its traditional role as the divider from continental Europe.

In effect, British politics has become a quagmire filled with quicksand in which sinking MPs are flailing only to be sucked in further. The best experts can say about this “inexplicable” phenomenon is that MPs are so divorced from the British people that they no longer know what their voters want. The divorce is being worsened by the Internet which supercharges “us and them” divisions and misunderstandings among the people.

In the doomsday scenario, which is no longer science fiction, the United Kingdom may not be able to persuade its two jewels – Scotland and Northern Ireland – to remain in it after Brexit. They may find association with Ireland, a successful EU member, more worthwhile.

Both voted overwhelmingly against Brexit in a 2016 referendum and may refuse to be dragged down by England’s anti-EU diehards. Wales sat on the fence and may have no choice but to stick with England.

London, which was also strongly against Brexit, will have to stay but it will no longer be the gateway to Europe that made it so attractive to non-EU businesses.

Yet, there is a saving grace. Nowhere in Europe are the people as aggressively mercantilist as the UK and as financially savvy as in London. Not even in Holland and France nor Berlin and Frankfurt. So, whatever happens to Brexit, the phoenix will rise but it might take a decade.

Brij Khindaria