Blocking a post-Brexit free movement scheme for the young is spiteful – and they will get their revenge

One friend owns four Italian restaurants in central London; another chairs a company that operates a chain of nationwide gastropubs and small hotels.

They make the same complaint, loudly: that they cannot get the staff, and that in the past they were able to employ young folk from the EU, who would willingly work long hours, serve and clean. Not since the referendum. Try as they might, they’ve been unable to find the British equivalent. The result is that their short-staffed service is not as it should be, so they’ve had to close earlier or shut completely on days when previously they would have been open.

It’s a message that is repeated right across the country. From the Highlands to the Lake District to Cornwall, as this tourist season gets underway, there will be places that cannot cope and would rather not open at all on some days than provide a poor experience.