Perhaps if we hadn't been a semi-detached member for the past 30 years we could have engaged more constructively to protect our interests. Apart from a brief period under Mr Blair, the UK has preferred to sulk in the sidelines complaining that it's all not fair.

Leavers are shortly to discover just how much the UK needs the EU, and how we've in fact surrendered all the influence we had to control our future.

Yes, we've surrendered our seat at the table where the decisions affecting our future will be made, and crucially we have surrendered our veto.

That's the reality of 'taking back control'

If we break international law we run the risk of economic sanctions being imposed by the EU and possibly Mr Biden's USA.

The destruction of thousands of businesses and potentially millions of jobs is no laughing matter. I trust you've stocked up on essential supplies.

The Withdrawal Agreement applies, deal or no deal. It's a failure to understand even the basics which differentiates those who voted for this national humiliation and those who voted against.

I'm not looking forward to the UK being plunged into disaster but when it is I'll be able to sleep at night.

The only benefit of a WTO departure is that it would demonstrate very quickly just how much the UK needs the EU. It is therefore the quickest route back to sanity, and as a result we must go through the chaos of a WTO exit and hope there's a UK left when we emerge on the other side.

"A good deal benefits everyone. Let us not forget the EU sells us far more than we sell to them and as with fresh food it is difficult to see where their new markets for perishable products will come from"

You persist with a fundamental misunderstanding of the position, which is equally depressing and unsurprising. There is no such thing as a good deal which benefits both sides, because both sides want different outcomes. A good deal for the UK is where we can continue to trade unhindered with our biggest export market whilst reserving the right to undercut them as we choose.

This deal was not, is not, and can never be on offer.

The UK has asked the EU to treat us as a third country and cannot understand why the EU proposes to treat us as a third country. It is this fundamental contradiction which means that Brexit was always doomed to fail.

We will have no choice but to come to a deal on the EU's terms, and will become their first colony. It's inevitable. For Brexit to work it would rely on the EU sharing our sense of English exceptionalism, and granting us a deal that it wouldn't give anyone else, despite the fact that those very same WTO rules would prohibit such a deal. Some of us could see in 2016 that this was never going to happen, but sadly over a third of the electorate were conned into believing it would, because we're British and the EU would break WTO rules for us.

As a result we're all going to pay the price.

And unless we comply with the EU's demands we too will be subject to sanctions. If we break the Withdrawal Agreement there's a chance that the sanctions won't just be imposed by the EU either.

That's the reality of taking back control, I'm afraid. Brexit is a national humiliation.

Those in the 'Blue Wall' seats who voted to Leave the EU in 2016 because they felt that things couldn't get any worse will be hit first and hardest by Brexit - which is a tragedy.

However the only shaft of light in this gloomy future is that a No Deal departure will give Leavers nowhere to hide, and the full extent of the self inflicted wounds we have chosen to inflict on ourselves will be impossible to deny. Therefore ironically a No Deal departure would be the quickest route back to sanity.

The EU won't have us back - why would they after this? But they will be perfectly content to have a UK trapped in their orbit with no further ability to cause trouble. The EU can then proceed at full speed with plans to further integrate and we'll be pulled along for the ride.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what 'taking back control' looks like in 2021. Project Fear becomes Project Here.

If you believe that Mr Cummings is the answer I'd posit that you don't understand the question.