Earlier this summer, shortly after a milkshake was thrown at him in Newcastle, Nigel Farage was for once half-correct. “For a civilised democracy to work,” he tweeted, “you need the losers’ consent”. He was right about this, though typically Mr Farage also got matters back to front. Remain voters, he complained, had been “radicalised” and his sopping, milkshake-splattered suit was the proof of it. “Normal campaigning is becoming impossible,” he said, and this was all the fault of “politicians not accepting the referendum result”.

Well, up to a point and your mileage may vary on this. Mr Farage sometimes seems to be one of those politicians who cannot accept the Brexit referendum’s result either. Like other devoted Brexiteers, Mr Farage cannot see the woods of