Ostrich anyone?

Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK's top diplomat in Brussels has privately told the government that a Brexit deal could take ten years.

The initial response of No 10 was We do not recognise this advice. This was later amended to We do not recognise this timetable.

What a stupid and arrogant response but it was everything one has come to expect from the ostrich-like No 10 press machine.

I suppose that we should be grateful that they said anything. They could have had him arraigned for treason carted off the Tower and delivered to the axeman. Or he could have simply been sacked. No, that would be far too kind.

In another part of the jungle, the non-appearance of Nicky Morgan on Have I Got News For You following her perfectly justified (if rather unwise) remarks about the PM's leather trousers shows that the No 10 terror machine has nothing to learn from Putin's Russia.

As usual, her absence from the programme gave much more oxygen to the issue than it would ever have had if she had been there.

Let's put our hands over our ears and pretend that anything which does not accord with our view of the world does not need 'to be recognised'.

Come to think of it, we could do the same about the £350m a week that we are meant to be saving when we leave the EU, and the problems of the negotiations, and ...