Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say we are witnessing a new Project Fear. Instead of the shameless propaganda exercise designed by then Chancellor George Osborne during the EU referendum campaign, in which Remainers prophesied Armageddon if we withdrew, this is now being orchestrated in Brussels.

Yesterday, the head of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) used grotesquely inflammatory language to describe Brexit.

Angel Gurria, the Mexican Secretary-General of the notionally independent think-tank, likened the impact to the Blitz — the savage bombing by the German Luftwaffe between September 1940 and May 1941, which destroyed one-third of London and killed 32,000 British citizens.

Realising the offensiveness of his remarks, Gurria added: ‘. . . except fortunately not the Blitz.’ What an outrageous view from the head of an organisation whose mission is ‘to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world’.

Clearly, such scaremongering is spread by EU cheerleaders who think they can grind down the British people and force a second referendum.

Indeed, Juncker and his cronies are cynically trying to exploit what they see as Theresa May’s weak and divided government.

However, even though they must know it in their heart — and Juncker conceded as much last week when he heaped praise on Britain for its role in World War II — these hectoring Eurocrats appear to have forgotten the sheer fortitude of the British people.

Spirit

Faced with annihilation by the Nazis and inspired by Winston Churchill, the British people refused to be intimidated and fought back to win a war of attrition.

Indeed, Juncker, who said on Friday the UK would ‘have to pay’ for talks to advance, has a fight on his hands.

That fight has become even tougher in view of the fact that Mrs May’s hopes of Angela Merkel showing more sympathy to Britain have been dashed. The German leader insists: ‘In is in and out is out.’ Meanwhile, leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries ignore the fact that they will suffer as a result of Britain leaving and that it is in their own interests to ease our departure.

The truth is, the EU needs our money. That is why Juncker & Co are demanding a Brexit divorce bill of 50 billion euros. The EU needs our soldiers and our spies, too.

No wonder those Brussels pygmies are convinced their strongest weapon in their battle to stop Britain leaving their cosy club is by asking for a scandalously punitive sum as the price.

Most reasonably, Mrs May — fully aware of hostility here towards the New Project Fear and the fact the extra money is designed to cover future pension liabilities of Brussels bureaucrats — does not want to go much beyond paying a £20 billion Brexit divorce bill.

For their part, the EU’s Brexit negotiators are convinced they have their British counterparts in a stranglehold because Mrs May is committed to fiscal responsibility and wants to eliminate the budget deficit by 2025. An inflated divorce bill would break those intentions to smithereens.

Defiance

Thus Brussels is counting on the Government failing to achieve an acceptable Brexit deal and then having to present this bad deal to Parliament. Brussels would hope that, faced with an unsatisfactory deal, MPs would reject it — therefore sabotaging Brexit.

The next move in this cynical gameplan would be for a humbled UK Government to go back to the British people with a second referendum — which would vote Remain.

And so, just as happened with the Danes, French, Irish and Dutch, the unelected Brussels machine would have destroyed the democratic wishes of millions of people.

This is why, rather than be blackmailed into submission — in the words of Brussels’ OECD lickspittles — Britain’s negotiating team needs to show the kind of defiance as exemplified in the Blitz.

If ever there was a time for the country to reignite that spirit and come together behind the Government and this country’s precious democratic institutions, it is now.