This article in the Daily Telegraph from Dr Alf demonstrates above all else the naive approach of May, her lacklustre cabinet, and her sleepy officials to business and economic reality.

The actions of the Irish Government and their chosen vehicle the Dublin Financial District are a normal response indicating that they are aggressively seeking new business.

Corporation tax leakage through the Dublin Financial District from UK companies already exceeds the foreign exchange we earn from the entire Single Market so the correct response from the UK was to lower corporation tax, increase incentives for wealthy inward investors, increase writing down allowances on plant and machinery to stimulate exports and to sell citizenship bonds and infrastructure bonds.

Passporting rights could have been secured by creating nearshore Almo solutions using the military fort system which we built before World War 2 before Operation SeaLion which Hitler never went through with.

These forts lie in international waters and the UK Government could have emulated the American ISP and software companies who built server farms on them 20 years ago to retain passporting rights for the City.

Of course with May, Hammond, Johnson and Fox, plus Davis and Rudd, Javid and Patel we get either, discord and the thinking skills of a collection of lobotomized Armadillos, so the Irish Government can hardly be blamed for what it is now doing.

This slow-witted behaviour extends to trade in that we should be increasing the size of the export sales force fourfold now whilst equipping them with instant translator devices already available from America since the middle of last year.

This and subsidised foreign language websites is something we can do NOW, trade deals can come later or if we must strike them Sealand and the military fort system can become a new “country” which can then strike deals in its own right.

As a country we are simply too slow for the 21st century in practically everything we do at Government and public sector level.

My late father whilst in his home town near Brescia in northern Italy on a visit to see his cousins during 2000 had occasion to visit a small local wine bar where he encountered what we might call “A man of respect”(A junior Mafiosi). The conversation turned to the ease of “doing business” in different European countries as this man became more loose tongued. Germany was cited as extremely difficult but the UK was rated as very easy because “The police over there are half asleep”. This little anecdote represents the way our institutions operate and under May who is naturally slow to decide anything and telescopes her intentions whilst dithering one can see why other Governments in this case the Irish Government, are quick to take advantage of the policy vacuums she creates through indecision.

May and her henchpersons need to be replaced with telegenic street fighters and hard-headed realists who can act and think quickly whilst getting it right at the same time.

John Gelmini