“A quarter of British exports to the EU (worth £3bn a month) go through Calais. At present they are waved through as “EU goods”. But if we crash out of the single market without a new trade deal, every consignment of British goods will have to be inspected to ensure it meets EU regulations. France has no incentive to invest heavily in expanding its customs service just to keep British exports flowing smoothly. “The M20 and M2 motorways will become giant truck parks as drivers wait to be inspected.” The same is true the other way: over 10,000 trucks go in and out of Britain from the EU every day, transporting “vital food and goods”. If huge customs delays build up, “who will organise food rationing in our supermarkets”?

“Voters should be warned of the real consequences of “no deal”. Yet even as we chose  who should lead this nation through “the most important negotiations since the War” during the election, there has been no real debate. “Instead, silence reigns.” (Will Hutton, The Observer)

This is, of course, deliberate.  The Tories want to ram through Brexit if they can, with as little “confusing” fact as possible.  Either they are being less than honest with the electorate or they simply haven’t thought through the consequencies of failure to keep trade with the EU healthy and buzzing.

No respectable EU politician has an interest in making it easy for Britain.  Macron, the new President of France has sweetly said never mind, if after two years things aren’t settled you can always re- join.  In other words,  he for one is going to make Brexit absolutely excruciating and he wants to lure foreign bankers and manufacturers away from Britain.  Others in the EU want to stop more exiters in their tracks.

I was asked yesterday by an acquaintance of Roumanian origin, were I a politician what single British historical political decision would I want to reverse. By coincidence I had been idly casting my mind back over dreadful political decisions made since Anglo-Saxon days.  I replied that, with the possible exception of  the provocation of civil war under King Charles I in the 17 th Century,  Brexit is the most disastrous decision made in a thousand years of British history, and that it will have an horrendous effect on the British way of life and its economy.  Horrendous-ness has already started.  The only good thing will be to eventually see all those reactionaries in the Tory party lose their seats – and maybe hide their heads in shame (that will be the day!).   But wait land see.