According to its website, Thornton Manor, scene of the meeting between Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson is a “luxury wedding venue”. The images of the two leaders taking a walk in the woods around the grounds were certainly consonant with the cautiously optimistic tone of the official briefings, and the reference to future “intense discussions”.

The talks were, at least, not a disaster. There was not the “catastrophic failure of statecraft” that Jeremy Hunt has warned would lead to a no-deal Brexit. Instead, the “broad landing ground” for a deal that Mr Johnson has spoken about is about as smooth and expansive as can be hoped.