Is this really true? It is asserted that the 17.5m who voted to leave did so with a particular vision of the UK’s future in mind but that is simply not the case. I argued for Brexit but would be content if we rejoined the European Free Trade Association (Efta) which we helped found in 1960 and belonged to before entering the Common Market in 1973. This, indeed, is what would have happened if the UK had voted Out in the 1975 referendum.

Re-joining Efta would fulfil the referendum decision, which was to leave the EU, while retaining access to the single market. There are consequences of doing this, of course. Arguably, we would have to accept free movement within the European Economic Area, though this would apply only to workers and not all citizens of the EU.

In any case, this could even be a halfway house; after a few years, if we thought the arrangement too restrictive, we could move on. For now, however, it is the most sensible and easiest way of dealing with the first stages of what will be a lengthy process. It would achieve what many who voted to stay in 1975 thought they were getting – membership of a Common Market while remaining an independent nation outside the EU’s political and judicial institutions.