There is a misunderstanding about Arron Banks’s claim that Brendan Cox has chosen “to massively politicise” the murder last summer of his wife Jo Cox.

It is to believe that Banks believes it himself. He will know perfectly well that Cox has done no such thing (indeed, the latter has been scrupulous in not linking it to the Leave campaign).

So why did Banks tweet it, then? Simple. To gain more followers. If you tweet enough troll tweets you will gain more troll followers – there are quite a few out there. Once you have more troll followers you can try to get them into your troll political movement and build it up as a troll force in Parliament before having a crack at forming a troll government.

Our readers will have heard of virtue signalling. Banks’s tweet gives us a chance to introduce them to its opposite number – vice signalling. He wants to build up a profile as a walking, talking, living vice signal.

That he knows the tweet in question is rubbish, and that Cox and his children won’t be having the happiest of Christmases, is of no account. Hey, that’s politics!