Referendums have a nasty habit of emboldening those whose views are least moderate, as Scotland discovered in 2014 and the whole of the UK found two years later. (The AV referendum radicalised nobody, of course, but only because nobody much cared in the first place.) The 2016 referendum may have killed Ukip – but it also shattered long-standing taboos against full-blown public bigotry. If we hold another, there must be at least chance it’ll make the latter problem worse, while giving hard right parties the grievance they need to become a force once again. And, really, would you bet against a far right backlash at this point in history?
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The bottom line is, it’s hard to see any plausible scenario that won’t disappoint Brexiteers, and lead to cries of betrayal. They were promised an impossible combination, of more money and fewer immigrants, greater influence and greater control. But they can’t have all those things: real life requires compromise, and utopia does not exist. When that penny drops, they’re going to be angry – and some of them are going to lash out.

So, yes: cancelling Brexit might trigger a hard right backlash. But I can see no way that delivering it won’t do the same. The only difference is, we’ll have less stuff when it happens.