Brexit veering towards chaos: Time to look the monster in the eye

There seems to be a strengthening correlation between the impact Brexit might have on our lives and the growing public disinterest in how this fiasco has evolved to become something far more divisive and sinister than anything in play when less than half of Britain voted in June 2016. This, if understandable, may not be prudent. It is as if the capacity to chart the quicksands of Brexitiannia has been worn away by the disappointment, the relentless dishonesty and toxicity of it all. The process has lasted almost as long as the longest siege in modern history — the siege of Sarajevo which lasted from April 5, 1992, to February 29, 1996.

That brutal example of what happens when nativist nationalism supersedes reason and the capacity to work with — and respect — neighbours may not feature on the House of Commons agenda today when it resumes after its summer recess. Rather, that house will argue bitterly over prime minister Boris Johnson’s decision, if you can really believe it was his, to suspend parliament for more than a month so a hard Brexit might be imposed even though Johnson has no mandate for that kind of cliff jump.