Wheels come off Brexit as the Grenadier exits

In this turbo-charged, UnionJacked atmosphere of Brexit, what could be more “British” than a cup of tea? Tea, of course, does not come from British hill sides, an irony many do not seem to grasp.

With the demi se of the original Land Rover Defender, her Majesty’s favorite vehicle according to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, what could be more inspiring than to retro-design a replacement and call it the Grenadier! It evokes images of the songs we sang at school where “some talk of Alexander . . .” but none could compare to the red-coated British Grenadier – think of pith helmets and maps showing the extent of the Empire we had on the classroom walls in primary school in the 1950s.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos has founded a company to build such a car. He was an ardent Brexi tee rand vocal advocate of taking back British control from the dastardly EU.

However, he has shown his True Brit grit by relocating to Monaco as a tax exile. It seems that Brexit has morphed in meaning to stand for Exiting Britain and the new people doing this will be ‘Exbrits’.

Now he has bought a car plant at Hambach in France to build this vehicle and has selected German rather than British engineers to design it. He said that Hambach was “a modern automotive manufacturing facility with a worldclass workforce ”.

One need not continue. HP sauce with the House of Commons picture on the label? Production moved to the Netherlands decades ago. I suppose it could be repatriated. An expat True-ex-brit could step up to the mark.

JOHN EDGAR Langmuir Quadrant, Kilmaurs