The Observer view on the baleful distraction of Brexit | Observer editorial

Every shred of political energy is being tied up in Brexit, with detrimental effects on a nation facing other urgent challenges

Brexit has paralysed British politics: it has left the government utterly incapacitated, ministers warring and both main parties riven by splits. It is absorbing every shred of political energy; in the words of one official, it has wiped the policy grid clean. Yet in every nook and cranny of the state - from understaffed hospitals to the schools sending parents begging letters for financial support - there are problems that demand urgent focus and resource. We also face huge social challenges that require action now, from how to care for an ageing society to how to prepare for the impact of technology on the world of work. All this is going ignored, with detrimental effects on people's lives.

There is a grim paradox at the heart of Brexit. The vote for Britain to leave the EU was partly fuelled by the sense among many voters that there are increasingly two Britains: a thriving capital barely touched by recession and boarded-up high streets outside the south-east. This has been a long project in the making, driven by decades of deindustrialisation and uneven economic growth that have contributed to some of the biggest regional inequalities in western Europe. Yet Brexit is going to make it far harder to respond to this gap, which has only got wider since the financial crisis.

Deliberate political choices made since 2010 contributed to the economic dissatisfaction that paved the way for the vote

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There are no Brexit-shaped shortcuts to better hospitals and schools, well-paid jobs and flourishing town centres