Remainers want a glitch in Brexit negotiations so they can claim they were right all along

Well, what a bunch of Charlies, eh? What a convocation of world-class, chateau-bottled, ocean-going numpties. Have you ever seen so much egg splattered so gloriously over so many faces? They were so sure of themselves, these self-satisfied 'experts' who strained every sinew to outdo each other in the direness of their warnings about what would happen if we voted for Brexit.

The economy would go into meltdown. There would have to be an emergency budget of unprecedented ferocity. Unemployment would soar. Foreign investment would dry up. Britain might stumble into war. And everywhere there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

These weren't just the vapourings of a few overexcited Remainiacs. These were the supposedly informed and responsible opinions of our entire political and business establishment.

It was David Cameron – remember him? – who tried to terrify us with the mention of war. It was the Treasury that came up with the threat of an economically illiterate emergency budget.

It was the overwhelming majority of academic economists who predicted a recession, while President Obama stirred the pot with a cack-handed warning of trade penalties if voters made the 'wrong' decision.

That's not to mention the scaremongering efforts of MPs, peers, the CBI, the TUC, the BBC and the Financial Times. Sadly, the Luton Girls' Choir no longer exists, or no doubt it would have been roped in too.

And now we can see how wrong they all were. Not just wrong, but abysmally, hopelessly, catastrophically wrong,

Let's begin with Monday's (5 September 2016) excellent news that Britain's vital services sector surged far more strongly in August than anyone expected. Meanwhile, new car sales boomed in the month, up by more than 3% year on year. The pattern is absolutely consistent. Consumer confidence is up. Retail sales are up. The shares market has recovered. Manufacturing performed strong in August too, according to Malkit/CIPS figures. In fact, Britain's industrial output grew at is fastest rate in 17 years in April to June – a trend that seems to be continuing,

Of course, these are early days. There's plenty that could go wrong, and some things undoubtedly will. Even on the most optimistic assumptions, disentangling ourselves from the EU is bound to be a long, arduous and sometimes-painful business. And that's what worries me about so many of our 'experts'.

You'd think that by now they might be at least a little embarrassed if not awash in remorse over the abject failure of all their lofty prognostications. But have we heard a single mea culpa from any of them? Hardly. In fact I'm beginning to suspect that some are just aching for the first major glitch in the Brexit negotiations, so they can claim to have been right all along.

Look at their reactions to the stream of encouraging economic news. The recovery in the service sector? Probably a dead cat bounce. Better manufacturing figures? Just a blip caused by the devalued pound. Growing public optimism? Just wait until the realities of Brexit sink in.

Some of these distinguished people obviously find it hard to believe that voters could possibly have rejected their advice. Tony Blair muses about the possibility of a second referendum.

Lord Gus O'Donnell, former head of the civil service, suggests that Brexit might not be inevitable, given the possibility that the EU might reform itself so radically that we'd be happy to remain. His Lordship seems blissfully unaware that the mood in Brussels today is for more Europe, more bureaucracy and much much less democracy.

Meanwhile some members of the House of Lords talk of blocking any Brexit legislation. Lawyers are challenging the government's right to begin negotiations without first getting Parliamentary permission. Even Barack Obama insists on sticking his oar in. Again.

Yes, having made an ass of himself with his threat that a Britain outside the EU would be 'at the back of the queue' on a trade deal, the President has done it again, using the G20 summit in China to claim that Britain was wrong to vote the way it did and warning that we would still be left behind while America pressed on with its trade pact with the EU.

It's a wonder that Theresa May didn't burst out laughing as she listened to this nonsense. The truth is that the TTIP negotiations between the US and the EU are dead in the water, as both German and French government ministers have confirmed. Obama's words were the mark of a lame-duck president indulging in a fit of pique.

And pique, I fear, is what lies behind so much of the reaction to the Brexit vote. Whole platoons of the great and the good bitterly resent the outcome. They've been shown up. They're angry. So angry, indeed, that they can't or won't see the truth of what's happening in the real world.

And what really worries me is that those of them in the Treasury – the very people who peddled that dodgy budget dossier – are likely to play a key part in the Brexit negotiations. The numpties are still in the driving seat. Scary, or what?