Voters had taken “the advice of people they were used to following”, said Roy Jenkins, explaining the massive two-to-one Yes majority in the first Europe referendum of 1975. Not now. In 2016, the people were told to vote Remain. They refused. In 2017, they were told to give Theresa May a thumping election majority. No, again.

Now they are deserting both major parties. In the European elections, Labour and the Conservatives together gleaned just a quarter of the vote. A recent national opinion poll showed, for the first time in British history, neither Tories nor Labour in the top two. The Peterborough by-election saw a 43 per cent swing from the two major parties to the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats. Brexit identity now trumps party identity; around 80 per cent identify with a political party, compared to 94 per cent who identify as either Leave or Remain.

Labour is celebrating its Peterborough “triumph”, despite scraping home with 31 per cent of the vote, the lowest in any by-election victory. It shouldn’t. According to wizard psephologist John Curtice, this performance mirrors its position in national opinion polls, a princely 23 per cent – abysmal for a party nine years in opposition, confronting a government whose successes are, one might say, not immediately apparent.