Despite all the divisions and differences of opinion over Brexit, there is one common thread that links conversations on both sides of the Channel: time is running out for the UK to decide what it wants.

In Whitehall, very senior officials are literally heard to scream with frustration at the political paralysis that currently prevents the UK side from shaping the looming conversation over the future EU-UK relationship.

They correctly identify that now is a precious moment in the Brexit process. After the exhaustion of reaching a deal last December over the ‘divorce issues’ of phase one, there is a brief hiatus in which Europe is itself deciding its own approach to what comes next.

While Germany and France have entrenched views and are determined to defend the EU’s ‘level playing field’, other member states in Europe’s free-trading North and even, like Italy, in its more economically embattled south, are still forming their own positions.

As one top UK negotiator puts it: “There is a real chance now to define the art of the possible; to put flesh on the bones of our ideas and create pragmatic coalitions - but only if a clear vision is articulated.”