IN the fall out from Brexit, arguably the worst spectacle is political leaders using people as pawns. Sadly Theresa May is a culprit. So too – the prime culprits you might say – are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk, president of the EU Council.

The latter pair blocked a proposal by Mrs May to guarantee, post Brexit, the existing status of British expats in the EU and EU immigrants in Britain. So Mrs May had taken a laudable initiative, which the EU knocked back.

But Mrs May’s response has been to dig in her (kitten?) heels and yield no ground to the EU incomers now among us. She told Parliament: “The [EU] reaction shows why it was absolutely right for us not to do what the Labour Party wanted, which was to simply give away the guarantee for rights of EU citizens here, because that would have left UK citizens in Europe high and dry.”

Really? Is it likely that the EU, faced with a generous gesture by Britain, would not feel compelled to reciprocate? Since it hardly ever projects an image of compassion and humanity, perhaps it would cold-heartedly deny its British residents the rights accorded to its citizens here. But that’s not the point.

The point is that assuring people who are already living and, greatly in the main, working here, often very hard, that their rights will be maintained is the proper thing to do. We will play fair regardless of how the other side chooses to behave. Unless our post-Brexit condition is as weak as Remainers appear to anticipate, bargaining chips other than people will be available to deploy on behalf of our citizens in the EU.

Meanwhile, any refusal by the EU to confirm the rights of the British expats will speak volumes on why we are best out of an organisation so indifferent to people.

WILDLIFE NEWS 1. A former gamekeeper who often accompanied the Princes William and Harry when they were learning to shoot, has recalled a particular accomplishment of William. He achieved a famously difficult shot – a “left and right” snipe – downing a bird with each barrel in successive shots.

A snipe mind you. A fast flying moorland bird, only a little larger than a blackbird, it is not all that common. And it’s fully wild – not bred as game, like pheasants, or specially encouraged by moor management, as grouse. Prince William speaks up for elephants. His words would carry more weight if he didn’t have the blood of that snipe, no doubt among that of many other luckless creatures simply going about their lives, on his hands.

WILDLIFE NEWS 2. Grey squirrel haters are always quick to emphasise that it carries a pox fatal to reds. They’re strangely silent on the recent discovery that reds carry a more serious disease.

Tests on 25 red squirrels on Brownsea Island, Dorset, revealed that all were infected by a strain of leprosy that causes human disfigurement. Since the vast majority of healthy people are naturally immune to leprosy, the chances of a human catching the disease are extremely low. But imagine how the finding would have been blown up had the disease been discovered among grey squirrels. A crowning reason to exterminate those hated ‘tree rats’.