Yeah, but a lot of the GDP we did have was focused in London, which is a big part of why a lot of those voters didn’t feel too bad about putting a wrench in the works, despite the cascading effects. There’s a lot of structural inequality we have to deal with before even thinking of joining the bigger club again; though devolution may actually be starting to make some headway on this.

UK GDP is now 6–8 per cent smaller than it would have been by 2025 – worse than forecast, not better. That is a permanent loss of national income, not a blip.

Average metric, meaningless to the median worker.

Investment has collapsed. UK business investment is 18 per cent lower than in comparable economies, as firms put money on hold or moved it elsewhere. Employment and productivity are both around 4 per cent lower, locking in weaker wage growth and lower living standards.

Less jobs is indeed bad though, especially as we are a service economy and haven’t exactly ramped up our own manufacturing capacity since Brexit happened.

It frustrates me that we may have to wait until the 2040s to reverse this mistake. Unless CPTPP picks up a huge new member to make that worthwhile, the next decade or so is going to be painful.