As our new prime minister Boris Johnson grew increasingly comfortable with no-deal Brexit in recent weeks, you’d be forgiven for thinking our barely functioning media had forgotten to ask him questions like “what’s your plan for the day after?”

After negotiations that essentially amounted to Theresa May concluding that we’re going to do everything the European Union wants, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit has become somewhat seductive, like a mysterious void we’re told not to stare into. Voids are dangerous in politics as they create the conditions for projection: where the consequences of an outcome are unclear, almost any meaning can be attached to it.

But the implications of leaving without a deal are clear. The United Kingdom will have to understand and determine — before it reverts to World Trade Organization (WTO) terms — what exemptions to its rules it requires, as all the current trade schedules Britain is exempt from are enacted through the European Union.