My travels of late have personified the old joke about buses and policemen: you wait ages for one and then two come along at the same time.

And so this sitrep comes to you from the brief Niemandsland between an Army trip to France and a holiday in Turkey – just long enough to empty one bag and fill another.

I have had more stamps in my passport in the past two days than I have had in two years. ‘Stamps in passports?’ you ask. ‘Oui,’ I reply. They’re back!

The brief journey through the Channel Tunnel, my first to the EU since you-know-what, was delayed by the laborious process of putting faces to names through the minibus window at a Kentish tollbooth.

It was once a seamless operation, with nary an official glance at the little maroon picture book and consuming only the time it has taken you to open up the Advertiser and read these bon mots.

If this is what happens to tourists, I can only imagine the snags Brexit has put in the way of business.

On the other side of the Channel, the shops were full of people and things to buy. Bars and restaurants were open all hours, thronged and properly staffed.

People spoke my language, their own and any number of others. The currency is the same as it is in Germany, Belgium and, dare I say, Ireland.

I was merely visiting for a few days to see for myself the battlefields I had read so much about. To travel to France for work or to study, or indeed buy property to live in, are memorable notions now of fantasy. Or should I say nightmare.

As I transited the tunnel in comfort, I could not help but think about the terrified, ragged souls on the waters above, huddled masses trying to reach this country. And if they survived, how they faced a trip to Rwanda instead.

I scoff when I remember how people voted for Brexit thinking it would stem the tide of migrants. Instead, record numbers now make the journey, while our pubs and restaurants close and crops rot in the fields through a lack of European workers.

And the architects of this shambles, Cameron and Johnson, have both exited, stage far right, to their plump city portfolios and lucrative lecture tours, while the rest of us count the increasing cost.

My view has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with common sense. Brexit is an unmitigated and unwarranted disaster.