WE STILL NEED UKIP.

The forces of fear and protectionism are gathering again.

Those same individuals, organisations, businesses and 'think tanks' that told us all that voting to leave the European Union would result in immediate and uncontrollable catastrophe are regrouping. Faced with the unthinkable, that is, a UK withdrawal from the EU, the Europhiles are beginning to mount a new campaign of terror designed to encourage voters to 'think again'; we're being told that prices will rise, industries will collapse, millions will lose their jobs, the NHS will crumble and so on.

Old fashioned Europhiles like the Liberal democrats (remember them ?) and Kenneth Clarke simply insist that they were right and the rest of us have got it wrong; they want various opportunities to be created for them to be able to vote down whatever the Government tries to implement in pursuit of the 'Will of the People'. They're calling for assorted votes in Parliament before, during and after the exit negotiations in order, so they say, to hold the Government to account or to ensure that the terms are right, or whatever else occurs to them as a slogan to use.

In truth, this is nothing other than the political and business elites trying to reverse the result of June's referendum. Anyone who thought that those who are wedded to the EU would give up the fight never was likely to be proven correct; the big guns will continue to fire their salvos of frightening scenarios and stories until the UK has actually left the Union and, even then, some will start arguing for us to re-join.

Theresa May and her Government, despite its obvious internal divisions, must hold its line and steer us out of the EU as rapidly as possible. They must ignore all the scaremongering and get on with it. Things will never be anything like as bad as the doom-mongers want us to fear, in fact, they'll probably end up far better than even the most optimistic of optimists can conceive. 

What we really need is for Ukip to pull itself together and finish the job it's started.