Elsewhere in the Commons the same day, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, was airily assuring another committee that, however slowly the negotiations might seem to be dragging on, from the way the EU works, everything will inevitably get happily sorted out “at the 59th minute of the 11th hour”.

From stray hints, it did seem Sir Ivan was aware that virtually all the problems he was discussing could have been avoided if only we had joined Norway to remain inside the EEA. But undoubtedly his underlying message throughout was that we have now set our different course and will just have to learn to live with the consequences: however “dire”, “chaotic” and “bloody” they may be.

The BBC's very selective regret

The BBC last week won headlines for its “apology” that an interviewer on Radio Four’s Today programme had failed to challenge a rather reckless claim by Lord Lawson of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) that global temperatures in the past 10 years had “slightly declined”.

The BBC said that the interviewer’s failure to challenge this “false” claim had been in breach of its statutory duty to report with “accuracy and impartiality”. Next morning, Nick Robinson, Today’s interviewer, twice failed to challenge a claim by Ed Davey, the former energy minister, that the cost of electricity from offshore wind farms has recently been cut by “50 per cent”.