Our chancellor, Mr Hammond, is putting aside £3 billion over the next two years to pay for Brexit preparations. This is despite the poor state of the economy and the falling tax yield. So where has he found the money?
Cleverly he has taken it out of budgets devoted to... preparing for Brexit!
The Department of International Trade is giving up £0.2 billion - just when they need to be negotiating all those trade deals. Still - being positive - the chief Brexiteers say that these will be easy to sort out.
The Foreign Office is giving up £1.6 billion - just when we will need to put embassies in all EU countries. Of course, the majority of that could well be saved by keeping our foreign secretary, Mr Johnson, safely at home and well away from anything sensitive.
HM Revenue and Customs is donating £0.6 billion - just when we are going to have to beef up our borders.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs loses £0.2 billion - just when farmers are demanding that the EU subsidies they will lose are replaced by UK subsidies.
Mr Hammond is still half a billion short, but no doubt the Russians would be happy to make up the rest. After all, they have already put a lot of money into supporting Leave, so it would make sense to help us get on with it.
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