EVEN if you support Brexit, and believe that the referendum produced a clear decision for it (rather than the exact opposite) I cannot see how any responsible Parliament could trigger the two-year exit process any time soon.

When challenged to provide a vision and a worked out plan the standard answer was “Don’t talk Britain down. We’re a great nation – we can muddle our way through like we did in the war.”

Back then, the nation had no choice and was totally united. Jesus told a parable of a farmer who finds that a wheat-like weed has got in amongst his crops (Matthew Ch 13).

His workers want to know whether to pull the weeds out, but he says that they’re too entangled at the roots that will only rip up the wheat. “Wait till harvest time, then separate them out,” he says.

Some €12bn of EU funding is spread across hundreds of social regeneration and scientific research projects, many of which have other funders who may pull out (or move across the Channel) if the loss of EU money makes them unviable.

I had no difficulty listing 17 areas where major interlinked budget revisions will need working out. A small panel of top civil servants (“unelected bureaucrats” and “experts”) won’t be able to crunch all the numbers: it will take years and the uncertainties are incalculable.

It never was a question of simply transferring £350m a week to the NHS. That was a cruel and deliberate lie. I hope Parliament will have the political courage to kick it into the long grass.

The great majority of MPs supported Remain and clearly warned us there was no deliverable plan. It is Johnson, Gove, Farage & Co who will be responsible for the betrayal, not the “political class”.

Cllr DICK WOLFF Victoria Road, Oxford