Get us out of Brexit maze...fast

WE wonder whether voters would have been so keen on Brexit 20 months ago if they could have foreseen the pickle Britain is now in.

But the country voted for it, and we accept there is no going back.

Since the referendum, progress has been minimal. Now we have less than eight months to negotiate a deal before the European Council summit in October.

Yet our politicians have been wasting all that time negotiating with each other.

What little we know of Theresa May’s agreement with her Brexit war cabinet at Chequers last week has already been branded pie-in-the-sky by other EU leaders.

Jeremy Corbyn’s position has so far been at best opaque. We may learn more in his keynote speech tomorrow.

Yet while our pie is in the sky we still seem to think we can have our cake and eat it.

Our political leaders must get real about exactly what we will have to swallow.

And it is the same circle which must be squared as it was 20 months ago.

The EU will give us continued access to the single market. But as that comes with unlimited migration we’re told that’s a no-no.

The EU will let us remain in the customs union. But as that stops us doing free trade deals elsewhere we’re told that’s a no-no too.

Yet without a customs union to keep the Irish border open there is a real risk that Northern Ireland could return to civil war.

That is the mess we are now in. The maze in which we are lost. The pickle we must sort out.

Not since the Second World War have we needed political bulldogs so much. And what we’ve got is political rabbits frozen in the headlights of indecision.

Whether it’s making compromises on the single market, or accepting customs union restrictions or a bespoke deal acceptable to our EU partners, our politicians have to decide one way or another. They must then go out there and bat for Britain.

While this newspaper believes Brexit is a mistake, we have never believed it would be a disaster. But there is a risk that today’s chaos could lead to tomorrow’s catastrophe.