Seven days.

That is all that remains of the two years that the UK had to negotiate a Brexit deal and yet the only thing we have to show for it is a short extension of the Article 50 process that seems to offer little prospect of a solution.

In her address to the nation this week, the Prime Minister said the fault for the situation lay with MPs, but no one is buying that one.

The blame for this chaotic, farcical and humiliating crisis lies not with MPs but with Theresa May.

She has been the architect of this shameful impasse and she continues to show none of the skills required to get us out of it.

Sadly, the signs that the Prime Minister was not the right person for the job were there right from the start two years ago.

When she triggered Article 50 in March 2017, Mrs May said the aim was to deliver Brexit in an orderly manner; she also said she wanted to give British citizens and businesses as much certainty as early as possible.

However, instead of searching for a deal that could win support from MPs, she laid down rigid red lines that ruled out membership of the customs union and the single market.

Not only did this make it impossible for Labour and the SNP to support her, it also led to the creation of the backstop which alienated the DUP and the ERG as well.

In other words, a compromise within the red lines was always unlikely and instead of certainty, we had doubt, and instead of an orderly withdrawal, we had chaos.

Does the extension of Article 50 to May 22 outlined by the European Union solve any of these problems?

It looks unlikely. The extension comes with a condition – MPs must support the withdrawal agreement at the third time of asking – and the French president Emmanuel Macron has warned that if they do not support it, the UK will leave without a deal.

The problem is that, thanks to Mrs May’s clumsy and counter-productive attempt to blame them for the mess, MPs are in an even more rebellious mood and the prospect of Parliament supporting the deal seems more remote than ever.

The hardest Brexiters also no longer have any incentive to support the deal and may begin to see this as their chance to get what they have always wanted: no deal.

Many voters watching the situation unfold this week have responded by signing the petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked and it has already attracted more than a million signatures.

However, such a move would require another major game-changing event first. For instance, could the Commons take control and seek to revoke Article 50?

A change of government or a second referendum might also pave the way to staying in the EU after all.

The question is: would a second referendum be the best way forward?

It would take weeks to organise and would require a longer extension of Article 50, but in the face of a Government and Parliament that cannot find a solution, thanks partly to weak leadership from Labour, and as the chances of Mrs May’s deal winning support slip further away, a second referendum is looking increasingly like the only persuasive way to break the impasse.