Wind and piss observed

Hysteria mounts as the day of enacting Article 50 dawns --next Wednesday the sky will fall in. 

So I scanned the last pre Article 50 editorial of the Observer with some interest. What would be the last desperate arguments to convince us it was all a mistake?

Here it is. Rather disappointing I thought:

the UK will throw into jeopardy the achievements of 60 years of unparalleled European peace, security and prosperity from which it has greatly benefited

Perhaps the chaos in the Middle East or Libya doesn't count as war? The EU wasn't really provoking Russia in the Ukraine ? Proserpity for the elite means prosperity for the UK?

Most of the rest is classic worse-case scenario or what used to be called Project Fear. Scotland just will declare independence, car businesses will fail, banks will move out, EU citizens will quit the NHS etc. Families will all be worse off. Democracy (sic) has been harmed.

EU negotiating positions are stated as inevitable outcomes -- we will have to pay £50bn:

The figure is disputed. But the principle is not. Britain faces a hugely costly settling of accounts, whatever parti pris barristers may advise [the Observer uses only neutral barristers?] . For good measure, [EU negotiator] Barnier insisted the Irish border conundrum and citizens’ rights must be resolved before other Brexit matters can be discussed.

Above all there is liberal rage and vituperation, mixed with windy metaphors:

the British people, regardless of whether they support Brexit, are being herded off a cliff, duped and misled by the most irresponsible, least trustworthy government in living memory...the peacetime equivalent of the ignominious retreat from Dunkirk. It is a national catastrophe by any measure. It is a historic error. And Theresa May, figuratively waving the cross of St George atop the white cliffs of Dover like a tone-deaf parody of Vera Lynn, will be remembered as the principal author of the debacle. This is not liberation, as Ukip argues, nor even a fresh start. It is a reckless, foolhardy leap into the unknown and the prelude, perhaps, to what the existentialist writer Albert Camus described in La chute – a fall from grace, in every conceivable sense.

To which one can only reply: 'There, there, have a nice cup of tea and switch the telly on. Do your breathing exercises. It'll be alright, you'll see.'