Students

Overseas students are a big earner for the UK, contributing over £20 billion each year to the UK economy. This is after deducting costs such as housing and health care. Over 100,000 overseas students have applied for places this year. This compares with 559,000 home-grown applicants. However, Brexit is going to put a giant crimp in the business. Universities are already starting to prepare, with many starting up subsidiaries in the EU.

Their fear is that overseas students will cross the UK off their post-Brexit list, due to complex visa requirements, a government set on reducing the numbers of overseas students, and the spectre of rising racism and xenophobia in the UK, exemplified by the "Go home!" snarled at a holidaying family from overseas.

"Excellent," cry the Brexit headbangers. "Send them all home! All these foreigners taking up British places at British universities. Let our own kids have a place!"

If only it were so simple (and if only they weren't so simple). Even if we ignore the economic boost to the local area from spending on food, transport, accommodation and entertainment; even if we ignore the benefits for our trade balance, even then it will be painful to lose them.

Overseas students pay full tuition fees. This means that they are subsidising home-grown students. In effect they are paying down our own students' debt. Furthermore, as they are so keen to come and are so profitable, universities are able to fill lecture theatres, provide an enormous variety of courses, and pay good salaries to attract top-flight academics - thereby attracting even more overseas students. A classic case of a 'virtuous circle'.

As a result, UK universities are among the best in the world. In this year's university rankings the top two worldwide are both British.

An exodus of foreign students will mean fees going up, courses closing, the flight of top-notch academics to richer institutions overseas. Admittedly, government ministers have a answer for the fees issue - forcing students to work in the fields over their summer holidays. The virtuous circle will become a vicious one.

Meanwhile the Chinese are drawing in thousands of students, offering funding, grants and low fees - and excellent teaching, in English as well as in Mandarin.

They understand that it isn't the students that matter, it is who they grow up to be. The UK universities see overseas students as cash cows, Mrs May brands them wannabe immigrants, but the Chinese see them as ambassadors, who will complete their studies and take up powerful positions back home, with fond memories of their time in academic China.

Britain used to boast of its 'soft power', the fact that many of the world's most powerful people were educated in the UK. With the turning inwards of recent years, with Brexit-fuelled xenophobia, with the tabloid-stoked fears over immigrants and refugees, we are now letting go of our privileged position even as we try to cash in on it.

Not that we have much to pawn. Those promised trade deals still haven't been signed, universities are becoming paper-sellers (a third of graduates being awarded a First Class degree?!) who simply want bums on seats (up to 84% of offers are now unconditional - who cares about A-level grades?), our Parliament is held up to mockery (deservedly so).

So we may as well put the cherry on top of Mr Johnson's cake and pull out of the one supra-national organisation where we still have an outsized influence.

This is certainly the time we should be thinking about where we should be going as a nation. Sadly, the Brexit boosters never did get around to that. So here we are.