Inching back towards a softer Brexit

She led her party into a disastrous election, and now leads a divided government; she is awkward in the media, markedly lacking in charisma, and never decides today what she can put off till tomorrow. And yet Angela Merkel is one of the world’s most respected leaders.

Theresa May, on the other hand, whom this character sketch could also describe, is widely pilloried. One is known, benignly, as Mutti (“Mummy”), the other is ...