Lord Haw-Haw rides again! "Germany calling! Germany calling!"

And in case we're not all cowering in a corner...

... quaking with terror after that jolly opening, the two sub-headings in the Economist article (which, if you really want to feel demoralised, or you're just a committed appeasement-minded surrender-monkey, you can read here) are "Cruising for a bruising" and "Boxed into a corner".

I looked for the phrase "we shall never surrender" - sadly,  in vain. Apparently Britain should immediately renounce its vainglorious dream of once more controlling its borders, repent of its terrible folly, stop being so horribly intransigent, and, basically, throw in the sponge. Perhaps an apologetic note and a bunch of flowers would help.

Another prime example of fifth columnry was a TV news report on the day Mrs. May called her snap general election, in which we were told that the EU was getting jolly exasperated with the British constantly delaying things by holding silly elections (one would almost think democracy isn't popular amongst unelected EU officials). "Oh dear," I thought. "Those poor bureaucrats! How rotten of Britain to keep inconveniencing them!"

But, as always, The Guardian was quick to reveal its heart of oak and fly the flag. The German flag, that is:

As Lord Haw-Haw said in one of his broadcasts: "The people of England will curse themselves for having preferred ruin from Churchill to peace from Hitler." The names have changed, but the sentiment persists.

What I find surprising is not that so many people (many of them courageous, intelligent and patriotic) feel that leaving the EU would be a mistake - it might very well be - but that, now the decision has been taken, they seem so eager to portray the EU as a wonderfully successful, thriving club whose future seems utterly secure and whose prosperous, contented members can't believe their luck in belonging to it. That idea strikes me - and, it seems, most people in Britain - as far more fantastic than the vision peddled by Brexiteers. I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask the Lord Haw-Haw tendency to tone down their rhetoric: whether their assumptions are right or wrong, constantly talking down their own country will do nothing but strengthen the hand - and the resolve - of the inconvenienced bureaucrats on the other side of the negotiating table. If that's their intention, then they are, indeed, fifth columnists.