THEY say a week is a long time in politics. Well, it’s a lifetime in post-Brexit British politics.

A week ago today 17.4 million people voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. And 16.1 million people voted to remain.

Leave won the referendum by 3.8 per cent.

Irrespective of the size of the majority, the result is the result.

Campaigns for a second referendum are a nonsense, though I don’t doubt for a minute that Leave supporters would be doing exactly the same if the result had gone the other way.

You can’t just have another vote because the first one didn’t go your way. That’s not how democracy works.

If it did, we’d spend our lives in a never-ending string of elections.

Britain is leaving the EU whether we like it or not.

It has to be made to work and it has to be done in the least damaging way to our economy.

Yet the week since the referendum has been a total mess.

The prime minister has resigned but is hanging around until the Conservatives elect a new leader at the start of September.

And David Cameron will not progress any plans regarding how the UK leaves the EU until his successor is in situ.

I hope whoever takes over calls an immediate election. I do not believe the country should have another unelected prime minister like John Major in 1990 or Gordon Brown in 2007.

A post-Brexit Britain should have a prime minister with a mandate.

And while the Conservatives search for a new leader, in typical fashion the Labour Party chooses to eat itself alive rather than provide a proper opposition.

Meanwhile, Scotland is agitating for another independence referendum.

So we are effectively a rudderless country for the best part of three months, with utter uncertainty during that period as no-one seems to have any idea how to actually implement Brexit.

I’m certain that Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and the Leave campaign did not really expect to win. Nigel Farage was even conceding defeat within minutes of the polls closing.

And on the subject of Mr Farage, what an undignified display the Ukip leader put on at the European Parliament on Tuesday. A gloating performance lacking in class and magnanimity; it was a masterclass in how not to win friends and influence people. Most un-British, in fact.

Because Boris and co did not think they’d win, they have absolutely no idea what to do next. There is no plan, there is no strategy.

And the uncertainty that has followed is already doing damage to the economy and to the lives of ordinary people.

Pension funds are being hammered, the exchange rate has seen huge variances, FTSE has been all over the place - although, as of last night, it had recovered to its pre-referendum level.

I have seen the effects of this uncertainty at first hand. 

One of my sons is about to start his second year at university in Canada on a soccer scholarship after spending a couple of years as an apprentice professional footballer at Newport County AFC. 

The monthly cost of his accommodation has increased by 13 per cent since last week as a result of the weak pound.

My eldest son is a newly-qualified primary school teacher and moves to Prague in August to work at the city’s British school. He will start his three-year contract there as an EU citizen, benefitting from freedom of movement.

He has no idea what his status will be at the end of his contract.

Neither are pleas for sympathy, they are just examples of how the present uncertainty - rather than the referendum result in itself - is having an effect on ordinary lives. 

No doubt there are similar stories up and down the country.

We need some certainty and there appears to be none on the horizon.

Brexit is happening. The sooner it happens the more certainty there will be and the sooner we will know the future direction of the country, good or bad.

We cannot go on as we are.