While Brexit continues to deliver more empty shelves for consumers, more carnage to our food and fishing sectors and more chaos to the people of Northern Ireland, the eternal sunshine of our international trade secretary’s spotless mind continues to deliver more doses of what seems like good news for faithful Leavers.

Instead of stripping back literary treasure – I’d call on government to listen closely to creators and retain the current system.

Something odd is happening with Brexit. Since June 2016 polls have all shown a nation split 50-50 on its merits. But now as we see what the reality of Brexit means there is a shift.

The Covid threat to GDP is waning, but don’t expect the pain wrought by leaving the EU to subside any time soon.

New rules and standards on EU trade will make the first set of Brexit measures pale into insignificance.

Inflation is rising, worker shortages are grinding us down and consumers are hurting, but No.10 is introducing measures which will make the situation worse

Johnson is at the mercy of his cabinet. The trouble is, as Leavers, none of them will face up to our post-EU crisis either

“Brexit Opportunities Minister”. How about that for a contradiction in terms? Yet, this is a genuine post created for the oft-called “Member of Parliament for the 18th Century”, Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Rees-Mogg’s efforts to reap economic benefits from Brexit has come up woefully short.

The UK debate about Brexit’s impact on the economy has ranged from non-existent to unserious. Labour is avoiding the subject, to try to regain lost voters in pro-Brexit constituencies, and the government immediately changes the subject to vaccines or free trade deals.

There is only one real way to properly calm the markets – the Prime Minister and the Chancellor need to reverse the unfunded tax cuts they announced.

Every now and again the full, ongoing Brexit disaster is illustrated in technicolour. New evidence has been published showing how appalling it is for the economy, exports, jobs and the health service.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), within the last quarter of 2022, the UK imported about £33billion more than it exported to the EU. / This is the worst performance of the UK export trade balance since records began in 1997. / This is a shocking testimony that Brexit has caused fundamental deep-rooted damage to British exports.

“Car crash!” exclaimed managing director Andrew Varga, whose Brexit progress I have been following since the referendum. News of the latest Brexit U-turn landed on him on Tuesday out of the blue. All his years of preparation for a new UK product safety mark, all his thousands of pounds wasted, all the uncountable hours and effort were rendered pointless, at a stroke.