What's coming is more than change. Britain was knocking frantically at the door of the EEC to get in when it joined, because being outside a trading bloc of that size was disastrous for its economy.

Now it's leaving that trading bloc, and will have tariffs on its exports; if the pound suffers, its imports will be more expensive too.

I have some sympathy with the English idea that the EU is bossy and not always good for all members - for example, membership of the EU has turned the rich Irish fishing waters into a shared wasteland - but flouncing out in a huff seems a crazy reaction.

As for France - if Macron gains the presidency, he's going to be making every move to a background of criticism from anti-EU nationalists. If he goes ahead with his lunatic plan to sack 120,000 civil servants, I would personally think he will doom France's place in the EU, and possibly the EU itself.

He plans to weaken unions and strengthen employers' legal right to sack, etc; a rictus response, rather than what he should be doing - making an all-out push to turn France into an exporting country.

I was astonished, when in Paris a couple of months back, to look at the shelves on the supermarket Monoprix (nicely priced by electronic name- and price-tags on the shelf so they could be changed with a click of a remote control). Virtually all of the products were made in France, and of excellent quality. Virtually none were available in Ireland - which is a country extremely keen in importing good food products. I went back home and looked at my local Lidl and Aldi shelves; they are creditably high in Irish products, but I'd love to see those good French products there too - most of them wouldn't compete with Irish manufacture.

Why doesn't France export its world-renowned food? Surely that would be the saving of its economy?