> Brexit is a symptom of the underlying incompetence of the British political class, not a cause.

It's not incompetence. It is deliberate sabotage.

The economy is being smashed to pieces so the Conservatives can steal it and sell the bits off for a quick fix of cash. They're all junkies, who will steal whatever public property they can to sell, and now they've worked out they can do it to the whole country.

I think there's a complex interplay between their incompetence and maliciousness.

They are both, but the incompetence means that the maliciousness, while intended ends up manifesting in some unintended way.

> They are both, but the incompetence means that the maliciousness, while intended ends up manifesting in some unintended way.

Oh yeah absolutely, the whole idea of Kwasi Kwarteng deliberately tanking the pound sterling by about 60 billion so that his wee pals at Odey Asset Management could clean up a few million quid was absolutely premeditated sabotage, but everything that followed on from that was like some fucked-up lovechild of The Sorceror's Apprentice and some malign bottle genie's implementation of the "Invisible Hand".