A year ago, at the prime minister’s insistence, the UK triggered Article 50. And a year from now the UK will leave the EU. We’ve reached half-time in the toughest game our country has played for decades. So how’s the Brexit match gone so far?

From the kick-off the commentators noted that the UK’s preparations were rather amateur, with no evidence of a game plan. There was plenty of criticism for the fitness of the squad and for the team selection, too. For most of the game’s first half, though, the news has been about slow play, untidy passing and the occasional blatant foul. Of course the squabbles over who should wear the captain’s armband have been fun to watch, but most of the crowd drifted to the pie stall long before the half-time whistle sounded. 

If it’s been dull and boring so far, the second half promises to be truly nerve-tingling: and remember, if it’s still goal-less at full time, we lose on penalties. Because we always do. 

Off the pitch, the last 12 months have brought very mixed news for the construction industry. It was good to be named one of the four strands of the government’s industrial strategy, but then came the catastrophe of Grenfell. The government’s 10-year plan for a £600bn pipeline of infrastructure was good news; but the Carillion collapse was bad. The plan to reach 300,000 homes a year by 2025, good; the 30% drop in EU27 recruitment, bad – and challenging that a newly recharged CITB needs to deliver a massive skills upgrade and recruit 158,000 more workers within five years.

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