Buoyed by disunity

London

THERESA May seems to be battling on all fronts over Britain's European Union (EU) exit. The British prime minister's position looks parlous. Yet, beyond her multiple parliamentary and diplomatic battles, she is suspended in Downing Street by an uncanny equilibrium of opposing forces. The scale of her adversity keeps Mrs May in power.

None of her opponents, whether at home or in the rest of Europe, can achieve significant benefits in dislodging a pivotal figure in the Brexit process at a highly sensitive time. Nowhere is this converse logic on more vigorous display than in her own Conservative party.