Different but still the same.

My new driving licence has arrived. While it has the addition of the Union Jack - see extra - it still has the EU flag.

But everything has changed and the 1 year, 2 year, 4 year transition - whatever length it turns out to be - will slowly erode the links we had built up with Europe.

Final no-deal Brexit apart, I do not necessarily believe the long term outcome will be bad for the UK, if that entity exists in 25/30 years time. I believe it will not be as good as if we had stayed in but the challenges we are likely to have to face in the interim will not be easy and could have been avoided.

The statement by Michael Gove that Ministers will now be accountable will not stop the blame for difficulties being placed on the EU because of it’s negotiating stance.

But if accountability is a key issue, there is an even bigger challenge for the UK Government in being accountable to the people and Parliaments/ Assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So far that does not augur well. The next few years will be a test bed of that relationship and maturity. And more immediately how fisheries is dealt with will be a litmus test.

The past few weeks have been artificially quiet as what was inevitable came about. The debate will now liven again.

But for the moment only a deep deep feeling of sadness for me that we could not as a UK nation be strong enough to play a part in a wider more international forum on the grounds that we could not control everything and that compromise was difficult. Yes, the EU model needs to change - it is by no means perfect - but we have now sloughed off the opportunity to effect change from within.