The six flavours of Brexit

JUST over a year has passed since Britain voted to leave the European Union and Theresa May subsequently became prime minister. Nearly four months have elapsed since Mrs May invoked Article 50 of the EU treaty, setting a two-year deadline for Brexit that will expire on March 30th 2019. The clock is ticking. And at first blush there has been much activity: a big speech by Mrs May at Lancaster House in January; several government white papers; bills introduced in Parliament; and the start of formal Brexit negotiations in Brussels.

Yet for all this activity, almost no progress has been made towards deciding the form that Brexit should take. That is largely because the government is ambiguous over what it wants. Even issues that seemed settled in the Lancaster House speech have resurfaced since Mrs May lost her slim parliamentary majority in a snap election she called for June 8th.