So that’s it, the deed is done and the UK has cut its ties with Europe. Well, almost.

Was it the right thing to do, or will we regret it forever? Time alone will tell and, before I go any further, there’s one thing that I must make clear, when I use the word ’we’.

It means us here in the the Isle of Man and not just them over there in the UK.

Not that it makes any difference, does it? Surely the Isle of Man will just rub along trailing behind Britain as it always did, won’t it?

We all know that ’they’ have just had a general election and at long last ’they’ have a government with a working majority. The time and effort that has been wasted on bickering and bleating was both childish and embarrassing.

But that’s politics, isn’t it? You would never have behaviour like that coming from our politicians in the House of Keys.

But there’s no looking back. The cry should now be ’onwards and upwards’.

Fair enough, I think that we all agree with that.

But what does it mean? One morning will we see Captain Boot at the helm of the Barrule heading out to sea with a cargo of floating signs with messages such as ’Keep Out’, ’No Fishing’ and ’Manx Boats Only’?

Will the fresh meat in the supermarkets be labelled ’Manx Only’?

I shouldn’t think so, but to put it bluntly and say it loud and clear, we just don’t know what will happen.

Will it always be the case that we can still export our top quality scallops and queenies?

There might come the day that we find that someone has built a customs barrier overnight.

I was picking the brains of an MHK the other day. Yes, I know, it didn’t take long, and no, I haven’t heard that one before.

Anyway, as I was saying, we were talking about the Brexit exit and how the island is situated regarding the new arrangements between the EU and Great Britain.

I think that the answer was wait and see.

We have prepared the legislation as far as we can go and now we must make sure that we stay awake. It’s at times such as these that makes me nervous about how fragile our relationship with the big wide world really is.

It’s not just a case of some threatening superpower deciding to take a pop at us over something that they think that we’ve done just to upset them. It’s more likely that we find ourselves suffering from, what the military call, collateral damage.

Take, for example, President Trump.

Now I don’t know if at heart he is a deep thinking, cold and calculating political genius, or a dangerous, self serving loose cannon who is liable to blow his top at the slightest hint of an imagined insult to his brittle ego.

I puzzle over how he could justify the risk to world peace that he had taken by blowing up that Iranian general who had just landed in the next door Iraqi airport.

He must have broken every rule in the book and lit up every diplomatic warning light he could see.

I just can’t believe that he could get away with it. In fact, it was only because of the tragic mistake by the Iranian anti-aircraft battalion commander who, apparently by mistake, shot down a civilian passenger jet and wrong footed his bosses, that everyone backed away from the brink.

Another example of situations being beyond our control lies in the totalitarian state of the Peoples Republic of China.

This bunch of paranoid planners of world domination would appear to be on course to achieve their goal.

America, Russia, Turkey, Iran are being groomed to stir each other into self destruct mode. Terrorism, after all, is a growth industry.

But do you know what? This week’s column was supposed to be to all about climate change.

Never mind, same old, same old.

A decade ago Pullyman - aka Michael Cowin - was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a condition that affects people in different ways. Michael discovered writing and Island Life is featuring some of his musings. Sometimes topical, sometimes nostalgic, read about life as seen through the eyes of Pullyman