As a nation we appear to be descending into chaos, our MPs vote to take control of Brexit and then fail to vote to agree on anything. Making it more likely we will crash out, or more likely limp out. It is disheartening if only because our once strong country looks weak and probably in a week will look even more disorganised.

I hope that in all this we can avoid tearing ourselves apart, no anarchy or violence.

Tomorrow is the day we should have left, drawn up the drawbridge, said yah boo sucks to Johnny Foreigner; did we really believe that, a country that’s very existence is so diverse? Our language is full of words that come from around the globe, the most popular dish is chicken tikka marsala and I believe we are still the greatest consumer of champagne in the world, although I think that might be after the French who produce it. Think of all the supermarket chain going down to the Reims area and buying  up a complete years production from a vineyard. I noticed a bottle for less than £12 in Lidl today, perhaps I should have bought it before a post Brexit run starts.

It was always better back then, they keep saying and I am inclined to agree so much so, that we will be joining a large group of former colleagues who are meeting at a south coast resort this weekend to celebrate our fortieth anniversary of ’Flights’ through training with the Fleet Air Arm, mine was a relatively short career, others enjoyed long and productive ones. Some, sadly, have crossed the bar, but we are a very social lot so let’s hope that when we raise a glass to absent friends it’s champagne.