Something strange has happened to Britain’s liberal establishment. The outcome of last year’s referendum rattled and confused many of its most eminent members. Donald Trump’s victory last November has added to their dismay and many now find it difficult not to despair about their lost consensus.

Unfortunately, this is making it hard for parts of the elite to see the good that exists in Britain’s society and economy. All too often, nihilism, defeatism and even bitterness is the new prism through which they see the world. Most mornings last week, those who tuned into the BBC’s Today Programme would have been forgiven for thinking that the UK was on the brink of ruin.

There are of course many genuine problems. The housing shortage is an example – another is the latest crisis in the NHS. The home-ownership rate is at a 30 year low while a report by the Royal College of Physicians has revealed that patients are being asked to volunteer to sleep in corridors to free up beds in crowded wards. But most of the real problems are to be found either in the public sector or those parts of the private sector crippled by taxes and regulation, such as housing. The rest of the private sector is actually roaring ahead, inventing ever better goods, services, medicines and technologies.