Need to ask where Brexit is heading? You haven’t been paying attention
Chris Johns: An economic, political and social catastrophe grows more likely by the day
Brexit ultras: the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Ukip MEP Nigel Farage at a Leave Means Leave rally on Friday. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty
Anyone who asks where Brexit is heading hasn’t been paying attention. Or maybe that question is intended to be wryly ironic. Nobody, not least in the British government, has much of an idea about what happens next. The UK is now in the middle of a constitutional crisis.
These don’t come around too often, but historical precedent points to both further chaos and unpredictable outcomes. And as, amid all the madness, a legal clock is ticking, we can in fact identify the most likely Brexit outcome. It isn’t pretty, and there are plenty of other possibilities: there are lots of runners in this race, and even the favourite has long odds against.