Whether we go or not, the game’s up and our position lost

A week!

The claim came in a report from respected credit ratings agency Standard&Poor’s which analysed the range and impact of the Brexit process as the date for departure came and went and the atmosphere at Westminster became ever more desperate.

It’s all too easy to see how the figures began to stack up.

To start with, the report said the most visible effect had been the depreciation of sterling which triggered an increase in inflation. The ultimate result was to erode household spending power.

S&P suggested that since the June 2016 vote, 3% had been shaved off GDP, equating to what it termed “forgone economic activity” of £6.6 billion in each of the 10 quarters since the referendum, or £66bn.

“Household spending would have been considerably stronger - in line with GDP - had the referendum not occurred,” it said.

‘Countdown To Brexit: What Might Have Been For The UK Economy’ went on to assert that external trade, exports, did not see any significant boost from the pound’s collapse, contrary to claims from leading Brexit proponents.

“Uncertainty over the shape and form Brexit will take has increasingly paralysed any forward-looking decision making,” said S&P senior economist Boris Glass.

“This is reflected in particular in a contraction of business investment in 2018.”

The analysis, based on the Doppelganger economic method, also shows that British-based businesses have “ventured well beyond the point of no return”, which will hammer the economy even harder.

And yet we are still waiting to see what will happen and this time next week we could well be sitting on our bottoms outside the EU gates with our worldly possessions sitting in a box beside us.

Good luck everyone as we await the brave, but impoverished, great new world...