Trump and Brexit have made politics more exciting and politicians more excitable. While one Conservative leaver told The Spectator that voting for the Brexit bill had given him his greatest thrill since his wedding night, two very senior politicians — one Labour, one Tory — journeyed homewards together in mourning after what they described as their worst day’s work.

Like nearly all Conservative MPs and a majority of Labour, the two followed their parties’ three-line whip and voted to trigger article 50. Neither could be fairly called a remoaner. In the division lobbies they obeyed the will of the people as expressed in the referendum and they now accept that the UK will leave the EU. “But what sort of an excuse is that,” asked