THE risk of the United Kingdom (UK) simply crashing out of the European Union (EU) remains high. The gap between popular expectations and practical possibilities remains dangerously wide. The implications of the UK withdrawal have not yet, even by now, been fully discovered by negotiators on either side.

As new complications and hypotheses emerge every day, it is clear that the two-year time limit to conclude the negotiation of the terms for the UK's withdrawal from the EU is far too short.

Part of the real-life complication is that any kind of Brexit means digging down into 40 years worth of trade deals, memberships and understandings which the UK can only be part of as long as it is in the EU.