Duffer bluffer Boris and dark arts Dom continue to play chicken. They want to cover up the thought that the UK is in a worse position now than when the referendum took place. We’ve negotiated nothing. We’ve a worthless agreement. We've given heaps away.

The EU are process-bound and unbending and the clock now runs against any last-minute ideas.

As former US treasury secretary Larry Summers put it, he does not believe that a “desperate” UK would manage to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with Washington, through lack of priority and lack of leverage.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith thinks it's Larry Summers doing domestic point-scoring, but anyone who has negotiated anything will recognise the truth in Summer's words.

Ironically, Gove has also been let out to speak, sloshing more mawkish syrup in the process. “Whatever happens, while we remain ready and willing to negotiate, the EU must appreciate that we’re leaving on 31 October, deal or no deal.”

Of course Gove is only rehashing Cummings' statements, but it's another illustration that the clock has nearly run down.

The EU know that Britain:

• doesn’t have a plan
• has no leverage
• has spun down the clock.

It's pure recklessness, and many of the moves that have already taken place will see the UK worse off.

Weakened currency. Weakened banking sector. Weakened industrial supply chain. Weakened agricultural supply lines. Weakened confidence in retail. Job layoffs. Equity shorts by fat cats betting against the economy. Fragmentation of the Union. Bullying the civil service.

The moneyed right doesn’t care. They have placed their stakes on their loaded wheel, moved their interests offshore and are waiting for tax-haven cash to drop.

The trade deals with US are something of a red herring. Let's look at the money involved. The EU is over 4 times as large as the US as a UK export economy.

More to the point, the US and anyone else with suitable currency holdings can buy British at heavily discounted prices, because of the currency shift.

Boris and his clowns are relying on voter fatigue now to get Brexit ‘across the line’. Baffle everyone and they’ll plead for an end to it.

At what price?