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Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, warns the EU institutions and other member states against trying to punish Britain for the referendum outcome and alienating the UK before it has left the EU. “Some MEPs may feel uncomfortable that a Brit chairs the single market committee in the European parliament [Conservative Vicky Ford] and some member states may find it annoying that a Brit runs DG Grow,” a reference to Lowri Evans, the most senior civil servant at the commission’s business department.

How credible a negotiating strategy is this? Not very, says John Springford of the Centre for European Reform. “Mr Davis does not understand the economics. Some 45 per cent of UK exports go to the EU and, on average, about 8 per cent of the exports of each member state go to the UK. So there is far more at risk for Britain in conducting a hard ball trade strategy with the EU.”

His first trip is likely to be to Brussels next Monday for an EU meeting and that won't be easy, according to Ian Bond of analyst group the Centre for European Reform. "Given the number of countries and foreign leaders that he has insulted in recent months, I think that's going to be quite a difficult meeting."

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank focused on improving EU governance, said it is in the UK's interests to delay giving its European neighbours formal notification. More time would allow the UK to better gauge its adversaries' interests and develop a negotiating strategy. "But delay too long and you could lose their goodwill, and if you lose their goodwill you won't get a good deal," he said.

"Exporters need to continue to invest to remain competitive. If Brexit leads to an investment freeze, the fall in the pound might not be enough to boost exports," Christian Odendahl and John Springford at the Centre for European Reform, a research institute in London, wrote this week.

Christian Odendahl, the chief economist of the Centre for European Reform, argues that various factors - like low price elasticity and 21st century supply chain dynamics - subdue the benefits of a falling pound. He believes that any rebalancing of the economy will likely be the result of falling incomes and dampened consumption. This is like Long John Silver rebalancing his gait by cutting off his other leg.

But Christian Odendahl and John Springford of the Centre for European Reform said this was likely to "backfire". "The stimulative effect of such tax cuts in the short run is weak, as with monetary policy. Companies will be unlikely to invest their extra earnings while they face uncertainty" they said.