Angry and frustrated Leavers have been making their views know on these pages on the subject of Brexit. And well they might be, given the mess we are now in.

But it is a mess of the Leavers’ own making.

We were told by Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove and others it was all going to be so easy.

I don’t know how many times I was told by Leavers that the Germans would be so desperate to sell us BMWs that they would agree to anything. It was delusional nonsense then and still is.

The fact is that the UK only takes 10 per cent of Germany’s production of BMWs, Audis and Mercedes. Over a third go to China. We are simply not that important to them.

I’d like to make a few points about the current situation. First that the referendum was won on a very narrow majority. Second, I well remember the cry during the referendum campaign “Give us more facts”.

The problem was at that time that there were no facts. Only speculation and supposition. In this vacuum, both sides were able to make claims and promises that could not be checked or verified.

The most extravagant of these was the claim that Brexit would release £18bn a year for the NHS – the famous £350m a week. It is now clear to almost everyone that there is no ‘Brexit dividend’. It simply does not exist. The NHS will get the money in 2022 but it will be on the back of higher taxation.

Third, we do now have some facts that we didn’t know two years ago.

We now know the Irish border is a real problem.

I don’t remember anyone on the Leave side mentioning it, let alone how they would solve it. Surveys show that the British population place a high priority on maintaining peace in Northern Ireland.

Another fact that was missing from the debate was the extent to which the British economy is dependent on frictionless trade with the continent, especially food supplies to our supermarkets and parts for cars.

Any delay at the borders will gum up these industries in short order, leading to empty shelves and stopped production lines.

Of course, we are fortunate in having among our MPs ‘logistics experts’ like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith, who know far better than the people who actually do the business, claiming that that none of this will happen.

Finally, with the Chequers agreement, the Government has belatedly woken up to Project Reality.

They now know that the “quick, clean break” beloved by the true Brexiters would be an act of gross economic self-harm.

A ‘no deal’ outcome from the negotiations with the EU would lead to huge dislocation and reduced economic activity.

Any Government presiding over such an outcome would be blamed and would be virtually guaranteed to lose the next election and probably the one after.

Most Tory MPs know this and won’t allow it to happen.

It would be nice to think we could turn back from the idiocy on which we have embarked. Brexit has sucked all the political energy away from the other pressing problems we have in this country. And to what end?

To make us ‘free’ – as if we weren’t before – but poorer?

If there is an economic downturn the people who will be hit first are those who voted for Brexit as a protest, not because they knew or cared anything about the EU.

How misled they were.

Tony Golding

Coleridge House, Chillington