Can we please have some common sense and call a halt to this Brexit nonsense? It is quite extraordinary what is happening.

Of course, there is no chance of calling a halt. If the phrase “putting toothpaste back into the tube” ever applied to anything, it is this Godforsaken mess which pompous, one-eyed, white, middle Englanders managed to inch from a defeat to a victory.

David Cameron should be remembered as a spineless man who caved in to the imperialistic, xenophobic balderdash created by Nigel Farage and his motley crew of geezers. Where are they now?

I was among a group of international journalists in Estonia last week and when the unmentionable “B” word came up at dinner, we could see the ire rise in the Brit among us, a dedicated Brexitir, now more entrenched than ever.

“Why won’t Barnier and his mob in Brussels stop acting like idiots and get on with it?” The other colleagues just shrugged their shoulders in frustrated disbelief.

“Let them go quickly. We don’t want them,” a Belgian colleague whispered to me. That is fine for him to say. And it’s true. The rest of Europe couldn’t care less. But for Ireland, it is an utter mess, I told them. Europe says it’s on our side. Yet, if they want to punish Britain, they punish us. If they want to help us, they help Britain.

When I say punish Britain, I mean they are not going to give them any sweetheart deal that allows them leave but still enjoy the trappings of the EU, are they? It is like cancelling your golf club membership but still going down to the clubhouse every day for lunch.

Yet that is what we are now hoping for in relation to the customs union, which relaxes somewhat the idea of the hard border. If they leave, it would be a honey pot for smuggling, among other things. But immigration was at the heart of the UK vote. So, if they want to control who they allow in, how can they have passport and visa checks at English, Scottish and Welsh ports and not in Northern Ireland?

Ah, yes, Northern Ireland where the unionists pushed for Brexit. Yet, by actually getting what they wished for, they might have brought forward by a generation something they certainly don’t want – a referendum on a united Ireland. Because nationalists, not to mention republicans, in Northern Ireland are not going to be too pleased if they feel they are fenced out of their own country. If there is no hard border, then what was the Brexit vote all about in the eyes of the DUP who have considered southerners as foreigners long before now? It is a mess of their own creation.

That is just my humble synopsised opinion as things stand. As for a solution? Is there one? CL

Captains of industry

I was privileged to chair the Irish Business Network annual conference in Dubai at the weekend. It is quite extraordinary how many high-profile Irish people are heading up big businesses and corporations there. The Irish lead the captains of industry in Dubai. Among them is Gerald Lawless of Dubai Holdings, the former CEO of the Jurmeirah Group, owners of the iconic Burj al Arab and current chair of the World Trade and Tourism Council.

He told me that back in the ’70s, finished school and living on the home farm in Galway, he had to decide if he wanted to milk cows or study hotel management for the rest of his life. He eventually chose the latter. Somehow, I doubt he has too many sleepless nights wondering if he made the right decision!.