And this is why I cannot quite get with the programme. Listening to the Prime Minister’s burgeoning list of pledges this week, it was easy to think well done and a long time coming. But what did any of them have to do with Brexit?

OK, so it is not possible for the UK to do its own independent trade deals, or to set up free ports, while a member of the EU. It would also not be possible to introduce genetically modified crops, though if that’s the intention, it might be wise to keep quiet about it because it is not an obvious vote winner.

But there is nothing that stops the Government changing the tax rules so as to provide incentives to invest in capital and research; there has never been anything to stop Britain from developing its own independent satellite navigation system, or its own space programme, should parliament think that going it alone on these phenomenally expensive endeavours a sensible use of resources, and there is nothing that stops Britain introducing higher standards of animal welfare. Do these things by all means, but to conflate them with Brexit is ridiculous.

It may be that Boris is on to an electoral winner with his particular brand of uplifting, inspirational guff. Indeed, I admit to having fallen prey to it myself when some years ago he congratulated and praised me for having cajoled a collection of bankers and business leaders into a jolly japes toboggan race down the mountain after a boozy Davos dinner. An absurd sense of pride ran through me, and for a brief moment, I felt part of team Boris.

It’s a clever technique, which I have observed in a number of outstanding business leaders – the ability to make the lowliest of employees feel special and the centre of attention.

But then again, this is not a country that needs to start believing in itself; it already does. Unless it is to do with the nightmare of delivering a successful Brexit, I don’t see the self doubt Boris speaks of. Britain demands change, for sure; it was ever thus, and after the scandal of the financial crisis, the injustices of which still resonate all these years later, now more than ever. But those urging revolution should be careful what they wish for.