LET’s approach it from a tangent. By what authority did the six so-called founding members of what became the EU but was then (1951) the European Coal and Steel Community come together the day after Britain voted for Brexit and declare that the separation must be swift?

Are not all EU members equal? Did the full 27 non-Brexit nations vote approve the intervention of the (seemingly) super six – Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg? If not, as seems likely, here is an example of the EU’s disdain for democracy right at its heart. And anyway, we all know that Germany chiefly calls the shots in the EU.

As it happens I agree with the big half-dozen. Or rather I agree that the divorce procedure, invoking the relevant part of the Lisbon Treaty, should begin at once.

It is a disgrace that Britain had absolutely no plan in place in the event of an exit vote. The blame, I believe, lies not with the Leave campaigners, a loose alliance with a broad aim but little technical expertise, but the Government. The Civil Service should have been instructed to detail the various options that would, or might, be available. These could have immediately formed a starting point for discussions with the EU, to be pursued by whichever settled Government emerges after the inevitable, but hopefully short-lived, post-Brexit period of turbulence.

What of the vote itself? I place it alongside what was the surprise election of a Labour government in 1945. Despite Churchill’s superb war leadership, the people recognised that a different society was needed. They got it right. It’s the same now. In 1945 the issue was simply fairness, social justice. Today it is democracy. We wish our laws to be made here, by a government we elect every few years – and can dismiss if it is not to our liking.

Yes, we will co-operate internationally, hopefully always on the side of the angels, though we will sometimes fail. But, fundamentally, we want to rule ourselves. It used to be thought that ‘ordinary people’ weren’t intelligent enough to be trusted with a role in Government. Britain would be ruined if the masses had a vote. To me, a message of the referendum is that that view lingers in the Establishment. Where was the regard for democracy among the massed ranks of bishops, bankers, academics (a full page of signatures from Oxbridge) businessmen, economists, celebrities, even, to their shame, former prime ministers, all urging us - effectively – to remain manacled to the unaccountable EU?

Now there looks like being big trouble with Scotland. It was Russia that Churchill described as “a riddle wrapped in an enigma” – or maybe the reverse. Today our neighbours north of the border wear that mantle. Do they really fancy border controls and a separate currency? Why split from the UK when 80 per cent of their exports come to England? And where’s the advantage in being yoked to Brussels rather than Westminster, where Scotland has far greater representation? Helped by the iniquitous Barnett formula, which provides twice as much public spending per head for Scots as most English citizens, Scotland currently receives £15 billion a year (yes, that’s right) from the UK Gateovernment. We’ll have that in our pockets if Scotland leaves.