Brexit’s core problem is there are too many alternatives each favoured by a minority but there isn’t one option convincing enough for a majority. The leave vote was a majority against something not a homogeneous vote for something. We’re left with no obvious way forward.

Ironically, with 48% in favour, support for the EU membership we already have is probably the option closest to having a majority.

Other options for a future relationship I’ve seen mooted are EEA/EFTA, Norway+, Canada+, Common Market 2.0, Labour’s customs union based plan, bespoke FTA, plus many other variations I’ve probably missed all/any of which could’ve been meant by ‘leave the EU’.

These all have varying levels of support but there’s little evidence so far one of them could command more than 48% either in Parliament or amongst the public. Perhaps because none of them are better than what we’ve already spent 40 years negotiating. For any non-EU option we will need to step back to go forward.

And we’re still creating more options trying out different variations. They are good ideas, that should have been debated, but at this stage, with just 12 days to go, they add confusion when we need focus. The options analysis we are doing now was needed 2015-2017.

Had we broken down the various leave options and had a preferential vote on “a future relationship with the EU” rather than an in/out referendum, or indicative votes since, it would have been clear what the option(s) that commanded most support was and we probably wouldn’t be having this crisis of legitimacy.

We got the Brexit referendum so wrong. You can respect the result that was returned in 2016 and understand many of the reasons it went the way it did and still think it’s flawed as a solution: the right answer to a simplistically wrong question.

There’s also two options for leaving. With a negotiated withdrawal agreement that would govern transitional arrangements and provide some continuity/protection whilst a future relationship is negotiated. Or without a withdrawal agreement (no-deal) leaving us operating under WTO rules until something else is agreed.

So far we’ve ruled out both of these options, as well as remaining, so it’s not entirely clear how we actually leave. Or stay. Or limbo.

The preferred way forward for Parliament is now extension. Given the EU have said the WA is the only one on offer and we must leave before we negotiate a future relationship it’s not clear what an extension would achieve beyond delaying. Unless I’ve got this wrong or we are hoping they shift on these.

As someone in favour of letting the people have a better/final say I’m not actually sure what form of referendum could help right now.

A referendum that asked us to choose between leaving this way (May’s deal), leaving that way (without a WA) or remaining would potentially be seen as an attempt to split the leave vote yet still wouldn’t resolve the question of a future relationship.

This is frustrating for everyone. For all of us waiting for an outcome but powerless, for MPs embroiled in party politics and most of all for the EU. Britain keeps saying we don’t want our current bespoke membership but it’s not obvious what we are asking for instead or what would command more support than what we already have.

Meanwhile days, debates, and votes tick past and deadlines approach. We wouldn’t start from here, we didn’t need to be here, but here we are and it’s not obvious how we get out.