Do we need a Brexit inquiry?

How will future generations revisit the Brexit years? Through what glass will we be seen? This spring and, I suspect, for many seasons to come, we’re in too deep for any attempt to stand back and assess. There has been much talk (particularly by some of my fellow Remainers) of a review along the lines of the Chilcot inquiry after the Iraq war; but even with the benefit of time, Brexit will not lay itself open to easy analysis.

Almost by their nature, inquiries start from the assumption that something went terribly and avoidably wrong, and culprits in the form of guilty individuals or badly mistaken assumptions are sought. I may believe that Leavers have been wrongheaded and foolish in pursuit of an impossible promise, a Brexit that leaves us better off; but Leavers may make similar accusations against me and my kind: that we obstructed the will of the people in pursuit of an outcome — Remain — that deprives Britain of material benefits and democratic freedoms.