This issue’s lead story is about views on the real estate market effects of Brexit, now and to come. That’s fine; that’s what I asked James Buckley to do. But we know that Brexit goes so much wider.

Would Donald Trump have been elected president of the United States if Brexit had not happened? Would the forces of populism that are now swirling around Europe have been unleashed and encouraged if Brexit had not happened? Would the national elections that will take place this year in France, Germany and the Netherlands be taking place in such a febrile atmosphere if Brexit had not happened? Would we otherwise be talking openly about a possible upcoming existential threat to the European Union?

The 52/48 vote in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union was a shock to the established order. It was a “Kennedy moment”, one people will always remember. It will not be the last shock, for the invocation of Article 50 at t