From the start of the Brexit process in June of 2016, the United Kingdom seemed determined to go about Brexit, which is perhaps the most crucial foreign affairs policy for Britain since the Second World War, in a manner designed to cause the most pain and confusion possible. And so it follows, then, with a sort of perverse logic, that this last week Britain realized, at long last, that it would have to delay Brexit by some unknown span of time. This decision came only weeks away from the UK crashing out of the European Union without any sort of deal whatsoever, which would have been an unmitigated disaster, with grounded flights, shortages of medicine and food and an unsolved problem on the Irish border. Moreover, this temporary solution of delaying Brexit came only after Parliament rejected nearly any other sort of Brexit conceivable, at least in today’s political climate.

Given the fact that it appears to be increasingly unlikely that any sort of non-catastrophic scenario can be found for Brexiting, the best course of action for Brexit would be to reverse Brexit. This would be a fairly simple procedure – the government, presumably, but not necessarily, with the backing of Parliament, needs only to send a letter to the EU rescinding its prior invocation of Article 50, the mechanism by which Britain can leave the EU. As the European Court of Justice has ruled that this action does not require the approval of other member states, it would be much simpler and faster to do than any negotiations on an extension to Brexit negotiations, which would require approval of all other member states of the EU.

Brexit was a poorly considered decision from the start, with the referendum called mainly to settle internal differences in the Conservative Party. There is no reason for the UK to continue with this potentially devastating policy; Theresa May ought to do what is right for Britain and anull Brexit now.