For some reason I am intellectually incapable of equating something I don’t understand with itself. I try to follow the news but, even more than two years after the referendum, I have no idea what it is that the various and disparate groups who voted Leave actually wanted. What Brexit means to one person is completely different to what it means for someone else.

There are some Brexiters who can do joined up writing, but when it comes round to the detail, all that is strangely missing. There is no definition of what Brexit means, so there can be no means of achieving it. You can believe in Brexit all you like, but that makes it more of a quasi religious cult than an achievable political ambition. Where is the detail, where are the facts and figures? Why is it that every time I ask for the details all I get is a load of meaningless jingoistic claptrap, fine sounding words but not a single verifiable fact.

One problem is that many of those who voted Leave thought that was all it took to get Brexit. They had voted, and Britain would be out of the EU. But Brexit is a process, not an event. And it is a very complex process. After forty something years of legal integration it is like trying to get the stripes out of the toothpaste. Besides even if you were promised a brand new top of the range Rolls Royce for the price of your clapped out Reliant Robin you ain’t gonna get one.  Promises were made which were never meant to be kept. Instead of the Roller you are going to get the old Reliant back, minus the engine and wheels.

The backtracking on promises happened immediately after the vote. The first to go was the £350m per week to go to the NHS. That one went within a few hours. As the months progressed to the point when it was admitted that there would be tough times ahead, for a limited period, but it would all lead to the sunlit uplands and gambolling unicorns. Last I heard, Jacob Rees Mogg thinks it will be fifty years before we see the benefit of Brexit.  That means that my grandchildren will be coming up to retirement by then. Wow, what a prospect!

So let us take some of the governments own figures for what will happen with a no-deal Brexit. On average there will be a 7.7% reduction in economic activity. But some areas, such as the North East will be more than twice as badly hit as that.

There are currently four million children growing up below the poverty line. More than a million people are using food banks and over two million homilies would be unable to find £50 within a day to meet some minor emergency. In these circumstances a 1% fall in living standards would cause serious harm; a 7.7% fall would be catastrophic. This is not ‘project fear’, this is a living hell for a huge section of the population.

So tell me, where is the Brexit dividend?

Oh, and what the hell does Brexit means Brexit mean?