There is no doubt about it: British politics is about to enter very choppy waters indeed as we come to the end of the preliminary part of the process of exiting the European Union. I say “preliminary” because even if (and it’s a very big “if”) a withdrawal agreement is finalised with the EU and passed by the House of Commons, there will then be detailed negotiation of the future relationship which will go on for many months.

Of course, there is nothing inevitable about this Brexit process that should dictate we leave, which is why The Independent is campaigning for a vote on the final Brexit deal. No Brexit is better than the appalling, chaotic Brexit we are seeing and the people should be the final arbiters of what happens next – not elites in Westminster.

In this column last month I bemoaned the state of British politics after a torrid summer. Since July more information has arisen exposing Brexit for the disaster it is. Boris Johnson kicked off the next Tory leadership election – which is already underway, albeit unofficially – by offending Muslim women. Meanwhile institutional antisemitism continues to pervade the Labour Party, leaving it hamstrung when we should be destroying the Tories for the damage they are wrecking across the country.

Brexit casualties Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit casualties Brexit casualties Andrea Jenkyns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary at the ministry for housing, communities and local government role May 2018 - The Morley and Outwood MP said: “We want to see a new relationship with Europe, with a new model not enjoyed by other countries – nothing that leaves us half-in, half-out. “And in order to achieve this, we need to leave the customs union.” Ms Jenkyn’s also said she wished to dedicate more of her time to Parliament’s influential Exiting the European Union select committee, after a series of “unbalanced” reports produced by MPs PA Brexit casualties David Davis - Resigned from Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - quit following a major row with May over her plans for post-Brexit relations with the EU. Davis resignation letter said: “As you know there have been a significant number of occasions in the last year or so on which I have disagreed with the Number 10 policy line, ranging from accepting the [European] Commission’s sequencing of negotiations, through to the language on Northern Ireland in the December Joint Report. “At each stage I have accepted collective responsibility because it is part of my task to find workable compromises, and because I considered it was still possible to deliver on the mandate of the referendum, and on our manifesto commitment to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. “I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely.” He went on to argue that the “general direction” of Ms May’s policies would leave the UK “in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one”. AFP/Getty Brexit casualties Steve Baker - Resigned from Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - Mr Baker, a key Tory figure in the Leave campaign, was David Davis’s main lieutenant at Dexeu, and was hailed as ”courageous and principled” by other Brexiteer Tories as he also left. Reuters Brexit casualties Boris Johnson - Resigned from Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congratulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward. "As I said then, the government now has a song to sing. "The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat." Reuters Brexit casualties Conor Burns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - A Brexit supporter who worked alongside Boris Johnson stated in his resignation letter: “I've decided it's time to have greater freedom. I want to see the referendum result respected. And there are other areas of policy I want to speak more openly on.” Rex Brexit casualties Chris Green - Resigned from Department for Transport role July 2018 - The Bolton West MP said: "Parliament overwhelmingly decided to give the decision of whether to leave or remain in the European Union to the British people and they made an unambiguous decision that we ought to leave. "I have always understood the idea in 'Brexit means Brexit' is that the final deal should be clear to me and my constituents - that we have, in no uncertain terms, left the European Union. Twitter Ads info and privacy "The direction the negotiations had been taking have suggested that we would not really leave the EU and the conclusion and statements following the Chequers summit confirmed my fears. "I recognise that delivering Brexit is challenging, however I had hoped at tonight's meeting that there would be some certainty that my fears were unfounded but, instead, they have been confirmed. "I have been grateful for the opportunity to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary and it is with regret that I offer my resignation with immediate effect." PA Brexit casualties Maria Caulfield - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for women role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. Lewes MP warned that the direction of travel did “not fully embrace the opportunities that Brexit can provide”. Ms Caulfield said in her letter to the PM: “The policy may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out. This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. “The direct consequences of that will be prime minister Corbyn.” PA Brexit casualties Ben Bradley - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for young people role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. The Mansfield MP said: “I admit that I voted to Remain in that ballot. What has swayed me over the last two years to fully back the Brexit vision is the immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britain to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again. “I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to No10.” PA Brexit casualties Robert Courts - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. MP Mr Courts said: “I have taken a very difficult decision to resign my position as [parliamentary private secretary] to express discontent with the Chequers [plans] in votes tomorrow. “I had to think who I wanted to see in the mirror for the rest of my life. I cannot tell the people of Woxon that I support the proposals in their current form.” Getty Brexit casualties Scott Mann - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. "I fear elements of the Brexit white paper will inevitably put me in direct conflict with the views expressed by a large section of my constituents. I am not prepared to compromise their wishes to deliver a watered-down Brexit. "The residents of North Cornwall made it very clear that they wish to have control over our fishery, our agricultural policy, our money, our laws and our borders. I will evaluate those principles against the Brexit white paper and ensure that I vote in line with their wishes." Rex

I was attacked by Unite’s general secretary, Len McCluskey, for pointing all this out, neatly illustrating that neither party’s establishment is prepared to acknowledge the need to fundamentally change their behaviours. Unless they do this, they cannot properly meet the huge challenges we face as a nation.

We were told Brexit would solve all of the country’s big challenges by Johnson and co. The big story coming out of the summer was that the many problems we have as a country – that led a majority to vote Leave in 2016 – simply will not be solved by Brexit. Here is a small selection of what we have learned during the parliamentary recess.

At the beginning of August, a group of international academics and scientists published research in the official journal of the US national academy of sciences telling us, such is the damage we have already done to the planet, even if countries now succeed in meeting their CO2 targets, human-induced global warming could put us on an “irreversible pathway” to “hothouse earth.”

This entails the climate settling at around 4-5C above pre-industrial age temperatures (its 1C above now), hotter than at any point for 1.2 million years. This would lead to seas up to 60 metres higher than now, melting ice caps and parts of the world becoming simply uninhabitable. When was the last time you can recall a leading UK politician providing any leadership on this issue on the world stage given the urgency of the situation?

This news was followed by Shelter’s release of research showing that since 2011, rent in England has increased 60 per cent faster than wages, with a declaration by the UK’s chartered surveyors that private sector rents could rise still further by 15 per cent by 2023. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said that government tax changes to buy-to-let investments are responsible and driving small landlords out of the market.

Whatever the reason, this country is still building woefully few homes to buy and there are not nearly enough homes to rent at affordable prices. The intervention by the new communities secretary, James Brokenshire, in the middle of August provided few substantial answers on any of this. Instead he received much derision for coming forward with insubstantial policy proposals devoid of any extra funding.

When surveying the UK economy and the need to change our economic model, Shelter’s research on housing was the starter to the main course dished up by the Office for National Statistics a few days later which, yet again, underlined the stagnation of wages since the global financial crash. As Ben Chu has pointed out, the ONS figures showed we are witnessing the curious case of an economy with a jobless rate that has sunk to four per cent – its lowest level in over 40 years – and yet wage growth continues to slow when you would expect the opposite to occur. Which of our country’s leaders galvanised the country into action on this during the warm summer months and provided a credible way forward?

And we will need the extra tax revenue to the exchequer that this increased employment, alongside rising wages, could bring, not least because of the growing costs of our ageing population. Last week the Lancet told us that the number of those aged 65 and over needing round the clock care is set to increase by a third between 2015 and 2035. How on earth are we going to pay for all of this? There is no consensus in Westminster on how we address the social care crisis now, never mind an ageing population in the future.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves The elderly “We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population,” Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a “honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments”, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4’s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called “very serious problems at some hospitals” by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunt’s plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that “key members” of Ms May’s team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky News’s Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been “ducked by government over the years”. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a “humanitarian crisis” and said health funding was at record levels. “We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need,” said the Prime Minister. “They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required… Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in.” But doctors accused Ms May of being “in denial” about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise – introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2000 – should only be for “those who actually need it”. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had “less stringent” rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of “hiding” from the public eye following news of the Red Cross’s comments and didn’t make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying “the public will want to know, Mr Hunt”. “Sorry Beth, I’ve answered questions about this already,” replied Mr Hunt. “But you didn’t answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didn’t want to water it down. Is that what you’re saying?” said Ms Rigby. “It’s very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then won’t answer the question, Mr Hunt”. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

An overheating planet, a dysfunctional housing market, stagnant wages and a social care crisis are not an exhaustive list but just some of the policy areas where we have learned something new since the recess started but the Westminster establishment seems too impotent to respond to as the summer break closes.

To the extent there is any response, the populism of left and right – resurgent in both main parties – proffers simple, black and white, tweetable answers to all these problems, inferring that centre-left people like me should stop moaning and get with the programme. The truth is, the answers are not black and white; they are incredibly complex and need modern answers. But British politics has little bandwidth to address them given the huge distraction which is Brexit – a project which certainly provides no solutions and will actually make these problems harder to address.