Its hard to write about Brexit in a way that looks forward to the exodus which a majority of voters supported on 23rd June and a sizable majority of MPs voted for more recently. Its perfectly clear that our departure from the EU rather than a demand for the institution to be reformed is a terrible mistake and one that my children and subsequent generations will pay dearly for. However that is where we are. It is very difficult to separate the truth from the posturing coming from people like Theresa May, Liam Fox, David Davis and Boris Johnson. All four of them have changed positions on a number of things related to Brexit over the last year. Both Johnson and May have gone from promoting our membership of the EU to promoting our departure. All of the men have gone from saying that EU nationals would be allowed to remain, to denying this opportunity to my friends who are now feeling very unsure of their future. At various times some of this quartet have articulated for us to remain and then leave the single market, the list goes on. However as we prepare for Wednesday’s en-action of article 50 I believe we need to do so with dignity and that we should end the relationship with the EU member states well. Clearly we do have a negotiation to participate in and of course we need to get the best deal for the UK but I confess I am deeply concerned at the way in which this group of four and their many backers are attempting to argue for us not to pay our dues before we go. The exact sum and the benefit we might get from a more positive approach is hard to quantify but making stupid comments like Philip Hammond stating he does not recognise the figures being circulated by the EU, Boris Johnson urging the PM to resist a large payment Liam Fox dismissing the idea of a bill as absurd simply diminishes our status in a setting where we need to appear to be a state with integrity and which other nations can do business with, without having to count their fingers after every handshake. We may not want to pay a large sum, but the fact that we did not anticipate such a cost in our debates last Spring is a failure of the Government, and cannot be used to further damage our nation. After all the rest of society has already had to come to terms with the fact that £350M a week will not be used to fill the hole in the NHS accounts!