America has delivered a cold Christmas to Bombardier's Northern Irish workforce but fear not: We've got Liam Fox!

As expected the US Commerce Department has confirmed punitive tariffs on the company's C series jets, parts of which are made in the province

Doomed in America: Bombardier's C-Series jet (AFP/Getty)

Talking about the “special relationship” the UK supposedly has with the US in front of workers at Bombardier’s factory in Northern Ireland is, I would imagine, a recipe for rapid hospitalisation right now.

This morning, the US Commerce Department, having investigated the financing of the Canadian company’s C series jet, has confirmed its view that the plane was in receipt of subsidies from the Canadian and UK Governments.

As such, it has imposed a tariff of 292 per cent on sales to US carriers. That is a few percentage points less than its original proposal, but really, we’re splitting hairs here.

With the cost having trebled, the C Series is set to remain in the hanger, and US carriers who had ordered it will look elsewhere, probably in the direction of the US based Boeing, which made the initial complaint.

There’s still the lesser known US International Trade Commission to get through, the final verdict of which is expected next year. But given these agencies have taken their lead from the tone at the top, that’s a formality.

More than 1,000 workers in the province will now be wondering whether they’ll be able to afford Christmas this time next year, with Theresa May’s frantic phone calls to the Oval Office having achieved precisely nothing. Ditto the pow wows with Robert “Woody” Wood Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets currently serving as America’s Ambassador to the Court of St James, as they like to put it.

Now you know why Pippa Malmgren, the American advising the UK on trade, has said that Mr Trump is “hostile” to it and why the “big and exciting” deal the Pres has spoken of gets only fantasists excited

It is just about possible to see this as doing the UK as a whole a favour, at least if you’re of the view that Brexit is about the stupidest thing this country has done since... Actually it's hard to come up with something to compare it with.

Yes this is just one specific instance, involving Canada as well as the UK, and no we’re not yet out of the EU.

But it still helps to nail a number of myths peddled by the Leave side. It shows that America cannot be relied upon to stick by Britain in its hour of need, and certainly not if so doing conflicts with the interests of American corporations. It clearly demonstrates that international trade is not simple. It is complicated and messy and governed by naked self interest. And it makes it quite clear that the British view of free trade will not suddenly be universally adopted if negotiators would just spend a few minutes listening to Boris Johnson and his friends waffling on about it.

Is this in time for the Government to respond to shifting public opinion as regards Brexit, and the evidence of recent polling?

No, probably not. This is just one deal, after all. And it’s about Canada too. And it's happened with us still in the EU. And we have Liam Stumbledore Fox with his magic wand in the Department for International Trade.

With a dynamic and skilful negotiator like him on our side things will soon look very different.

All hail Britannia!

Oh, by the way, Philip Hammond, would you mind chucking some of the £3bn held back to cover us against Brexit going wrong in the direction for the Democratic Unionist Party to help compensate if those jobs go? That way we can all keep our offices for a couple of years longer. Thanks awfully.